Limits exist in most natural and artificial processes. We can only stay awake so long before our biological system shuts down. When sleep deprived our mental alertness, physical ability and even immune system suffers. When we drive too fast, we can get a speeding ticket, damage our engine or even hurt or kill ourselves or others. Even our emotions have limits. We can run out of patience, fall out of love and only laugh so much before milk comes out of our nose.
Email marketers face limits every day. You can only send so many messages to someone before they become fatigued (or annoyed.) Your mail server can only process so many emails each minute or hour or day. If you try to go beyond these limits, there will be consequences too. Your recipients will eventually unsubscribe or report your messages as spam. Your mail server will suspend your access for a period of time and your reputation as a sender will suffer, affecting your long term goals.
Fortunately, there are mechanisms in place that make it easy to stay within natural and artificial limits. Our bodies naturally adapt to our need for rest and gas pedals, brakes and cruise control help us to regulate our speed on the road.
Likewise, email marketing software allows you to stagger delivery of your campaigns in line with your mail server capacity and automatically process unsubscribe requests and bounces before your sender reputation suffers.
Limits are in place for a reason. Being as effective as possible within those limits is the key to long term success.
