In today’s digital world, email marketing remains one of the most effective tools for businesses. But with the rise in automated campaigns, many companies face a common problem: sending too many emails too often.
Over time, this can lead to a phenomenon known as “Emotional Unsubscription.”
Recipients may not officially unsubscribe, but they stop engaging with the emails, choosing to delete them without even opening them.
While this might not seem like an immediate problem, it can have serious long-term consequences.
In this post, we’ll explore how adjusting email frequency can improve engagement, protect deliverability, and boost revenue.
The Problem: Over-Emailing and Emotional Unsubscription
When businesses send too many emails, recipients can become overwhelmed and disengaged.
This disengagement may not involve clicking the unsubscribe button, but instead, recipients may start ignoring the emails or just deleting them.
This behavior is called being “Emotionally Unsubscribed.”
While the recipient might still be on your mailing list, they aren’t engaging, and that can spell trouble. Email service providers like Gmail or Outlook take note of this behavior. When a large number of emails are consistently ignored or deleted without being opened, these providers may start filtering your emails into the spam folder or prevent them from reaching the recipient altogether.
This can hurt your sender reputation, especially if you’re using a dedicated sender IP. Once damaged, recovering your reputation and email deliverability can be an uphill battle.
Note: you can see your current sender score at: https://senderscore.org/
Beyond deliverability, emotional unsubscription has a direct impact on your bottom line. When recipients disengage, you’re missing opportunities to promote products, services, or special offers.
Fewer opens and clicks translate to fewer conversions, meaning less revenue over time. Plus, the cost of maintaining an email list full of inactive subscribers can drain resources, as businesses continue investing in campaigns that yield little return.
The key to maintaining profitability? – Finding the right balance between email frequency and relevance to keep your audience engaged.
The Solution: Let Recipients Control Email Frequency
To address these issues, businesses can take several steps to ensure that email frequency aligns with recipient preferences and behavior. Here are a few potential solutions to consider:
1. Allow Recipients to Adjust Email Frequency Directly
One of the most user-friendly solutions is to allow recipients to adjust how often they receive emails right from the email itself.
A simple section in the footer of the email could present users with three clear options: “Much less,” “Less,” or “More.” This gives recipients control without making them jump through hoops or navigate complex menus. Plus, it shows that your business respects their inbox.
2. Offer a Manage Preferences Page
Another solution is to direct users to a Manage Preferences or “My Page” where they can fine-tune their email frequency settings.
Here, you could provide more detailed options, such as a slider or selector that allows users to choose how often they want to receive emails—whether that’s daily, weekly, or monthly. This approach gives users more control and makes sure they’re only receiving content when it’s relevant to them.
3. Leverage AI to Automate Frequency Adjustments
The most advanced and proactive approach involves using AI and Machine Learning to automatically adjust email frequency based on user behavior and engagement patterns.
By analyzing factors such as email opens, clicks, website visits, and past purchase history, AI can proactively determine how frequently each recipient should receive emails. This way, you’re only sending emails when the data shows the recipient is most likely to engage. Incorporating additional insights, such as social media interactions and previous customer support cases, can further refine these predictions for more personalized and relevant outreach.
The Benefits of Adjusting Email Frequency
By implementing these solutions, your business can experience several important benefits:
– Trust: Giving recipients control over their email frequency builds trust. It shows that your business respects their time and inbox space.
– Increased Engagement: By reducing the risk of email fatigue, you can increase open and click-through rates. When recipients feel that your emails are relevant and spaced out appropriately, they’re more likely to engage.
– Improved Deliverability: Reducing the frequency of ignored or deleted emails helps maintain your sender score, reducing the risk of being filtered by email service providers.
– Higher Revenue: With more engaged subscribers, your email campaigns can drive higher conversion rates, resulting in increased revenue from promotions, product launches, and special offers.
Conclusion: Striking the Right Balance
Adjusting your email frequency isn’t just about reducing the number of emails you send. It’s about finding a balance that ensures your audience remains engaged and interested without overwhelming them.
By offering direct control, utilizing preferences pages, and even leveraging AI for smarter email frequency management, you can foster long-term relationships with your subscribers while protecting your deliverability and driving revenue growth.
Remember, when it comes to email marketing, quality and relevance matter far more than quantity. By focusing on what your subscribers really want and need, you’ll not only reduce the risk of emotional unsubscription but also create a more valuable and sustainable email marketing strategy for your business.
