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Should you increase email frequency?

I subscribe to email lists for many of the top converting sites, just to keep an eye on what they’re up to. And I’ve noticed an increasing trend towards more frequent email communications.

For instance, this is what I’ve gotten lately from ProFlowers:

frequent-email-proflowers-small.png

And Office Depot:

frequent-email-office-depot-small.png

And Victoria’s Secret:

frequent-email-victorias-secret-small.png

Now apart from the fact that ProFlowers calls me “Timothy” – something I only used to hear from the priests at my high school and my dear Irish mother – this is a heavy increase from a year ago. MediaPost backs up my observation, noting an overall increase in email frequency across the industry.

The questions I have are:

  1. Is this a good thing? Are these retailers seeing a boost in conversion from the increased frequency?
  2. Is this a defensive tactic? Are retailers just trying to steal share from competitors in a down economy?
  3. Are these retailers risking customer attrition due to “spammy” behavior?

Obviously, these are some pretty smart folks. I assume they’re testing to see what works best. If you’re increasing your frequency, don’t forget to do the same.

What do you think? Are you testing frequency of communication? And how’s it working out for you? Tell us in the comments.

Hat tip: The more alert among you may notice the “ad-swipe-file” label attached to my Gmail messages. See Linda Bustos’ email swipe file post and do the same for your business.


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Tim Peter is the founder and president of Tim Peter & Associates. You can learn more about our company's strategy and digital marketing consulting services here or about Tim here.

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