How often to send email marketing and when

We’re constantly asked two questions about email marketing: “How often should I send email marketing?” and “When is the best time to send an email?”

Unfortunately there’s no one-size-fits-all for either question. What works for one Shopify store isn’t necessarily the solution for another.  

Yet there are best practices when it comes to figuring out the right email marketing cadence and timing for your business. We’ve found that self-reflection and experimentation make for a great roadmap and email marketing strategy.  
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Four factors for considering email frequency

The first step toward answering the question “how often should I send email newsletters?” is to thoughtfully consider four factors. Take these into account:

1. Consistency

You're gung-ho about kicking off your email marketing program. You decide two messages per week is the right amount.

Wait one minute. Is it logistically possible based on your workload? Might that burn you out? And do you even have enough email marketing content to keep up with that schedule? (More on content in just a moment.)

Consistency is vital to the success of any email marketing program. It doesn’t bode well for your brand if subscribers receive a flurry of emails, and then hear nothing from you for a while.

(Plus, it can harm your email deliverability. Seriously.)

It’s OK if you can only manage sending email newsletters once or twice a month, as long as it’s consistent.  

2. Speed

Like it or not, we live in a fast-paced world that demands a lot from ecommerce businesses. If you’ve got a marketing lead on staff who can whip out fantastic, conversion-geared emails in minimal time, then great.

But it’s likely you’re strapped for resources, or a low skill level means that building out a message takes a while. Pumping out more than one message per week — if that — is not the best use of time. Not to mention, unrealistic expectations may trample motivation over time and ultimately squash consistency.

So, honestly assess how quickly you can build an email marketing message. Ideally, you want to create an email newsletter in 45 minutes or less.

3. Content

You need stuff to put in your messages. Since emails are a visual medium, imagery will guide your content development.

Do you have product shots on hand that will support your goals, as well as lifestyle images showing your products in use? Or are you in the position of creating as you go along?

Our tip: strive for efficiencies where possible. Dedicate time to produce and gather a big batch of visual elements. Quick access to a stock of photos and image elements will help you stay on top of your production process.

Along with visuals, what about content ideas in general? Think about how you can tie your products into seasonal and holiday happenings. Our 2023 Email Marketing Planning Guide is a great start.  
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Need more ideas? Our course is packed with tips for 15 email newsletters to add variety to the rotation.

4. Cost

If you have a plan with Seguno's email marketing platform, then you’re paying a flat rate based on subscriber count and your monthly costs won’t vary.

But there may be other costs attached to your email marketing program. Do you pay an agency or freelance graphic designer to create your emails? Are you shelling out money for an app that supports your email marketing message?  

If you use an email service provider other than Seguno, your plan’s pricing structure might fluctuate based on the number of emails sent, too.
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OK, but how often should I send email marketing material?

Contemplating consistency, speed, content and cost should produce a rough idea of what is feasible.

With that in mind, we recommend settling on one of three options:

• Send email weekly
• Send email bi-weekly
• Send email monthly (kind of … we’ll explain later)

Let’s take a look at three hypothetical examples to understand how each option might make sense.

1. Sending marketing emails once per week

Shirley and her shop are the ideal scenario and illustrate email marketing’s power.

First, she schedules two to four photo shoots per year. At any given time there is a stash of content that’s ready to go.  

The shop includes a variety of products, which are featured in weekly emails. Shirley works hard on growing her email list and is rewarded with an actively engaged audience. Click rates — the number of clicks to the website divided by the number of subscribers that were delivered the message — regularly hover around 3 to 4%.

Good email engagement leads to a strong return on investment. Email marketing produces 20% of her shop’s revenue and is the top-performing channel.

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2. Sending marketing emails bi-weekly

Bobby has several high-converting channels outside of email marketing. He spends a lot of time crafting paid Google and Instagram ads to market his limited number of products.

We’ll classify his email audience as semi-engaged. They don’t make as many purchases per email compared to other channels.

Because of his limited product line, Bobby has less to say than someone like Shirley. An every-other-week email suits him just fine.
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3. Sending marketing emails monthly

Chrissy has even fewer products to sell than Bobby. She’s relatively new to ecommerce and has a smallish list of subscribers. She doesn’t feel like she has a whole lot to promote, so one email newsletter per month is her initial email frequency strategy.

She creates just one marketing email, but gets bang for her buck by sending it once more to those subscribers who didn’t open it the first time.  

This is remailing, and Seguno makes it easy. Change your subject line (lean on best practices for higher open rates) and choose the date to resend. We suggest 14 days from the original.

That’s all it takes to appear a little more frequently in some inboxes. It’s a smidge of work in exchange for building consistency, which builds trust. People buy from brands they trust.
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Common email marketing frequency mistakes

Every brand is different. Each shop has its own capabilities and limitations. Still, we don’t typically endorse the following three email send time tactics:

1. Sending marketing emails multiple times a week  

Big-box stores tend to do this. Smaller brands may feel the need to imitate.

A word to the wise: keep an eye on your engagement and unsubscribed rates if you follow this approach. We’ve seen plenty of shops whose rates slip when sending a few times a week.  

If you insist on emailing at such a high rate, you'll inevitably experience more unsubscribes. That means you’ll need to devote energy to growing your email list.  

2. Spamming your audience

Sending multiple marketing emails per week is one potential route to damaging your email marketing program. 

Spamming your audience — we’re talking daily or multiple times a day — with repetitive or irrelevant email messages will wreak havoc. 

Excessive email activity is counterproductive for a few reasons: 

1. You’ll quickly rack up unsubscribes and drive email recipients to hit the spam button, which hurts your email sender reputation and potentially blocks your messages from getting through to anyone. 
2. You injure your brand’s reputation. Those who don’t unsubscribe will start tuning you out by deleting your emails without opening them. You risk annoying your subscribers and, worse, eroding trust.

3. Sending email marketing newsletters when the mood strikes

Small Shopify owners have a lot going on. We get that email marketing is sometimes shoved aside for other priorities.  

If you fall into this category of inconsistent email sending — no rhyme or reason to your email marketing schedule — it’s time for a gut check.

Email is reliable. You’re utilizing your own data and are in full control, not beholden to the whims of a third party. For these reasons and more, Shopify recognizes that email is one of the most cost-effective and highest converting channels available.  

It’s worth it to carve out the time.  

So when is it best to send an email?

Our advice is to put yourself in the shoes of your target audience. You can probably make assumptions about their email routines.

Experiment with some different days and times based on those assumptions. Study which combinations have better engagement and those that don’t. Make adjustments and keep testing.  

Our second-best suggestion is to test times that have successfully worked for us. All revolve around the standard weekly schedule of the “working stiffs”:

• Early morning. Hands down, this is No. 1. A lot of people habitually check their emails before the work grind begins. Schedule delivery between 6 and 8 a.m., or as late as 9. These folks are probably not bouncing much into their personal accounts once mid-morning hits.
• ‍Lunch. A mid-day work break provides ample time for scrolling through email messages.
• Mid-afternoon. By this, we mean the traditional end-of-workday for the 9-5 set. Checking personal messages might be the last thing they do before logging off.
• Later evening. Evening hours are consumed by off-line engagements for many, whether it’s preparing and eating dinner or tending to family obligations. Yet a lot of people are multi-tasking, picking up their phones within the mix. Reach these busy-bodies between 6 and 9 p.m.

One extra note about early-morning emails. We’ve been asked if sending a message late the night before — say 10 p.m. — is just as good as grabbing attention with a 7 a.m. delivery. You can try. But know that you’re going to be further down in the inbox queue.  

As for day of the week? We see Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays performing well overall.

That’s not to say other days don’t have their merits. Think of an alcoholic drink delivery service. Our guess is that they’re killing it on Fridays and Saturdays.      
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The bottom line on how often to send marketing emails

If you remember just one thing from our advice, let it be the concept of consistency.

It’s common sense, really. Shopify brands that send regularly are more likely to drive revenue from email marketing than those that don’t. Two to four emails per month is the goal.

Start by sending marketing emails every other week. Depend on remailing if designing two emails per month is too much. 

You’ll find that the jump to once-a-week email production isn’t so tough once you get going. The occasional extra email around big ecommerce events like Black Friday and Valentine’s Day won’t be intimidating, either.  

Here’s one more tip for those needing ideas to get the juices flowing: download our 2023 Email Marketing Planning Guide to map out a quarter year’s worth of messages.