How often should retailers be sending out emails?

Finding the right balance for email frequency is crucial for retailers, but some get it badly wrong and run the risk of annoying customers by sending far too many promotional emails.

Having already put me off the purchase with way too much cross selling during the checkout process, VistaPrint has now compounded the problem by sending my 10 emails in the space of 11 days.

Emailing checkout dropouts

The first email I received was titled 'Oops! Did you forget?' and was sent three days after I abandoned the checkout process. This is something all retailers should be doing, as customers may simply need a reminder to prompt them to go back and complete their purchase.

The email also included a 25% discount if I ordered that day, which is a good way to entice customers back to the checkout. Also, clicking the link on the email sent me straight to my shopping basket ready, to complete the purchase. Both good ideas, though it could be argued that waiting three days to send the email is too long.

In last year's Email Marketing Industry Census, we found that 69% of companies were not emailing customers who abandoned shopping baskets, a missed opportunity, so VistaPrint should be congratulated for this at least.

Subscribing

I didn't actually remember signing up for emails in the first place, though I did submit my email as part of the registration process. Looking back at the site again, I can see that I had subscribed by default, as I hadn't unchecked this box which tells VistaPrint that I'm interested in receiving special offers. Even if I refuse here, the question is posed twice more in the process:

This is not the best way to get email subscribers, and VistaPrint risks having their emails labelled as spam by customers who don't remember giving permission.

Email frequency

For me, ten emails in eleven days is too many, and this frequency simply encourages customers to ignore emails or hit the spam button. Also, they were all variations of the same offer. For example,  I was told I had 24 hours left to save 100% and get free delivery, then received the same offer 48 hours later.

Deciding how many emails you should send is not an exact science, and retailers need to be smart about this, monitoring customer response, unsubscribe rates and other factors to find the right balance for each customer, or simply ask customers this question when they sign up in the first place.

Also, emails should be sent often enough so that customers don't forget they signed up in the first place. Perhaps 2 or 3 emails a month, or once a week is acceptable, but 5 or 6 a week is definitely too many. This level of frequency will almost certainly lead to high unsubscribe rates, or having your emails reported as spam, which can have an effect on your sender reputation with ISPs.

Unsubscribing

After so many emails, I decided to unsubscribe. Apart from the tiny unsubscribe link in the email, the unsubscribe process was easy enough, and contained some useful features. 

First I am directed to this page which, as well as offering me the unsubscribe link, gives me the option of reducing the frequency of emails.

This is a good idea, but should really have been offered when I signed up, as this may have avoided the need to unsubscribe in the first place. It also suggests that VistaPrint knows it may be sending too many emails out.

After selecting the middle option, I am asked why I chose to stop the emails and what the company can do better in future, as well as offering a 25% off voucher to shop again at the site. 

This is a good idea, but VistaPrint should be using this feedback to tailor their email campaigns more effectively in future, unless only a few customers object to the frequency of emails.