Email Evolution - Frequency of Mails

Years ago, email was use sporadically and only when necessary. However, as it began to evolve things changed and with the email evolution the number of emails individuals received skyrocketed. In fact, it has been proven that people lose interest in emails sent to them based solely on the frequency they receive them.

Amazingly, the problem is that one company may be the culprit of sending multiple emails to an individual. For example, an airline might send discounted ticket emails from the marketing division, bookings from the customer service division, another email based on frequent flyer miles from the loyalty department, and so on and so forth. While the actual divisions may not be going overboard and sending too many emails the actual company is and the people receiving the emails are associating the idea of "spam" with the particular company.

This works against the company and is the last thing they want to do. However, having multiple divisions within a company can make the entire process to confusing to keep track. In fact, the number of times an individual is contacted by the same company could be a couple times per day, which is conserved too much by most email users and the company may be unaware of the image they are providing of their company.

When a customer receives so many emails they get burned out. The problem with this is that when there are truly important emails the individual is likely to simply delete them rather than open and read them. Why? Because so many previous emails were nothing but touches points without any basis. So, important emails may easily be lost in the mix of so many other emails.

Because of this it is really important for companies and even email marketers to evaluate how often they should contact their customers and how often is considered too often. Coming up with a good number and a good plan is important because it means the customers receive fewer emails and the companies are able to keep their customers interested in their products and/or services.

As an email marketer it is vitally important to understand how email has evolved and what the recipients are expecting from their email inbox. If you send too many emails you will turn people away, if you send unsolicited emails you will annoy people, and if you don't send enough emails you will not capitalize on the unique opportunities presented through email marketing. As a result, it is important to study how email has evolved over the years to better understand how we arrived where we currently are. It's also important to evaluate where email will be in the future and what changes should be expected.