About a year ago, I wrote a post asking the question: How often should you email your subscribers? It’s a question that almost every company involved in email marketing asks themselves on a regular basis. In that post and after discussions with other marketers I respect, the general consensus was that anything more often than every 4 or 5 days will likely be seen as an annoyance and as spam.

In fact, there was a study done by DoubleClick that found 49% of consumers say spam is “email from a company I have done business with but that comes too often.” So, just because someone subscribes to your list doesn’t mean they won’t think you’re a spammer.

The reason I’m bringing this up is because my inbox has been going crazy the past couple of weeks. Why? Because Mother’s Day is just around the corner. We all know that billions of dollars are spent by consumers each Mothers Day. So, it makes sense that companies are frantically trying to outdo one another so they can get their grubby little hands on my hard-earned dollars, but things have gone way too far.

Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus, and From You Flowers are 3 email lists that I’m on because I bought various gifts for my girlfriend and my mom several months ago. The first 2 companies already email way too often as it is, regardless if there’s a holiday coming up or not. Not a day goes by that I don’t get an email from at least one of them…usually both. The only reasons I haven’t unsubscribed yet are because I always just delete the message without opening it and I’m also interested in email marketing, so it’s fun to see how some companies approach it.

But now that Mother’s Day is almost here all 3 companies have stepped up the frequency of their emails. I agree that it’s a good tactic to do this when you have a time-sensitive message, but there’s a thin line between urging me to get my mom something nice and pestering me every hour with another “last minute sale” that I need to take advantage of before it’s too late.

That’s the danger of emailing too often. What motivation does someone have to take action if they know you’re going to be emailing them with another offer (usually a better offer) the next day? It’s like the story of the boy who cried wolf. Sooner or later, people just stop paying attention to you when you’re constantly screaming at them.

By the way, I didn’t make a Mother’s Day purchase from any of these companies. Instead, I’m taking my mom out to dinner, and I’m making a donation to her favorite charity under her name.

One of the trickiest parts of running an email marketing campaign is determining the frequency of your mailings. If you mail your subscribers too much, you run the risk of becoming an annoyance, leading to low open rates and high unsubscribe rates. On the flipside, if you don’t email them often enough, there’s a chance of your relationship with your subscribers slowly fading away.

How often is too often?

In a 2005 survey conducted by DoubleClick, 49% of respondents said that spam is “email from a company I have done business with but that comes too frequently.” In other words, if you email your list too often, you won’t just be annoying them, they’ll see you as someone spamming them. And once someone sees you as a spammer, that’s a hard bell to unring.

While there are no set rules for what is considered too often, most experts agree you shouldn’t contact your list more than once every 4 or 5 days. This is about one email each business week. You can avoid the need to send emails too often by planning ahead. For example, if you have your huge annual sale coming up at the end of September, start mentioning it now in your emails once a week leading up to the event. This way, by the time the event arrives, your customers are well aware of it, meaning you don’t have to barrage them with emails to let them know.

How little is too little?

Now that we’ve established anything more than 2 times a week is probably pushing it, let’s take a look at it from the other side. How little is too little?

Again, there are no hard and fast rules for this, but my recommendation is no less than once a month, and even that is probably pushing it. Remember, you’re building relationships with your subscribers through email marketing. So, if you don’t ever contact them, it’s going to be pretty hard to establish the relationship you need for them to trust you and to take the action you desire. A lack of contact can lead to inactivity—an email marketers worst enemy.

Finding the sweet spot

So, what can you do to make certain you’re emailing your subscribers at the right frequency? Here are a couple of tips to consider:

•    Pay attention to your stats—If you’re running an email marketing campaign, you should always be monitoring its performance through analytics. A couple of things you should pay attention to are unsubscribe rates and open rates. As you tweak the frequency of your email messages, pay attention to any fluctuation in the stats. The key is to find the perfect balance of low unsubscribe rates, high open rates, and high conversion rates from your readers.

•    Ask for preference upon signup—Another easy way to determine the right frequency for your readers is to simply ask them upon signup how often they’d prefer to hear from you. You can have check boxes with “1-2 times a week,” “Once every 2 weeks,” and “Once a month.” This will eliminate confusion and avoid ticking off your subscribers.

How often do you send out emails to your subscribers?