Email Relevancy and Frequency
Competition... The driving force... Resulting in the need for companies to one-up each other on an almost daily basis. Several companies are revamping, or ramping up, their email marketing strategies. Though the customer is supposed to be the winner, this new deluge of email makes us all losers in the end. Customers are getting tired of all the messages, even though they asked for them.
The problem is the dueling concepts of relevancy and frequency. Simply put, revelancy does not fit in the old RFM (recency, frequency, monetary) model. Does it matter how often you contact your clients if you don't say anything interesting? Even if you do have something interesting to say, when is enough enough? The more you talk about irrelevant things, the more people you'll alienate and your unsubscribe rate will prove it.
How could such a thing happen? Imagine this scenario. You manage an email list and send out a weekly newsletter. List members are also sent regular expiration notices as an account is coming due. Now, you have a special weekend promotion that you want to notify your list members about, so that campaign is mailed too. The next thing you know you've inundated the recipient with relevant, requested information and they are tired of hearing from you.
This example highlights an overall industry problem. The abundance of professional e-mails isn't technically spam but is annoying. You have become the dinner guest at a party who has one interesting story to tell but thinks the guests want to hear it repeatedly.
So what can you do? Consolidate your offers, promotions, and announcements (and understand the differences between them) into fewer email messages. Consolidate all account activity into one update. Don't send a bunch of micro-campaigns that will step on each other's toes. Otherwise, your recipients can become frustrated and unsubscribe from all your messages.
By keeping these tips in mind, your email can remain fresh and exciting each time it arrives in a list member's inbox.