The Messaging Times

I can’t remember how many email offers I subscribed to during the last two years. I do know that I don’t read most of them today, even if I haven’t unsubscribed from them officially. The reality is that more and more people are reaching email fatigue and frustration because of the increased demands on their time and attention.

But what causes email fatigue and frustration? Three primary factors relate to content, frequency and technology.

Stale and Valueless Content

Over time, email recipients become desensitized to recurring 10% discounts and new articles saying the same things over and over again. Are you really saying something new or worthwhile? Does your email offer some real value that is worthy of your recipients’ attention week after week? Eventually, people will tire of clever marketing, creative HTML designs and good copywriting if it isn’t backed up by some actual value.

Email campaigns tend to have a distinctive pattern over time. Patterns can be good, because they help to build brand recognition and trust over time. But recurring message patterns can also dilute the interest and perceived value of your brand. Do you trust the store that has a perpetual “Clearance” sign in the window?

Frequency overload or underload

If I hear from you too often, I feel that you’re demanding too much of my time. If I don’t hear from you enough, I might forget about you in between emails. Finding the right frequency balance is critical in email marketing; and the right balance depends upon your content.

Until recently, email marketers sent their messages on daily, weekly or monthly delivery schedules – in line with traditional broadsheet publication cycles. Several years ago, companies like Amazon illustrated how email could be used effectively when delivered in response to customer actions and behaviors rather than by a predetermined publication schedule. Behavior-driven or transaction-driven email has helped to change the frequency paradigm for many email marketers.

Flylady.com turned email frequency benchmarks upside down as early as 1999 by serving up home organization tips and reminders to recipients in the volume of 500+ each month. My wife subscribed for a while, until the frequency became too exhausting for both our inbox and her commitment level. She unsubscribed after two months.

Take a look at your own email campaigns – whether they be newsletters, promotions or updates. How often would you like to receive them? More often than not, content determines frequency.

Complicated Technology

Technology, in and of itself, doesn’t magically make things more efficient. Efficiency requires some human thought behind the machine. It involves removing unnecessary steps. Making things more complicated than they need to be is a good way to lose email recipients – and business.

If your opt-in, opt-out, click or conversion processes require more than two clicks or burden recipients with the need to navigate through numerous pages, you may cause your recipients enough fatigue and frustration to abandon the process – and the “Report as Spam” button only requires one click.

Systems are designed by people, and those systems can be designed to be easy or hard for users. The choice is yours.

There are always conversations (1, 2) around the email marketing water cooler about email frequency. Very interesting stuff. Sometimes, I give marketers a hard time for over-analyzing things. Other times, I find myself looking for metrics and being very glad that one of them took the time to measure whatever it is that I was looking for.

Until recently, email marketers sent their messages on weekly or monthly delivery schedules – in line with traditional broadsheet publication cycles. A few years ago, companies like Amazon started showing us how email could be used effectively when messages are sent in response to customer actions and behaviors rather than on a predetermined publication schedule. Buy a book, get an email with a recommendation for another. Visit a product page, get a promotional email for that product. Behavior-triggered email is used more and more today in an attempt to make emails more timely and relevant to the recipient. This strategy is helping to change the frequency paradigm for many email marketers – particularly larger email marketers with the resources available to implement and manage robust behavioral campaigns.

Today, some email marketers are even using psychographic overlays and heat-mapping to optimize their strategy. Some of us might think that this is going a bit too far. Welcome to the new world of marketing.

Flylady.com turned email upside down as early as 1999 by serving up home organization tips and reminders to recipients in the volume of 500+ each month. My wife subscribed for a while, until the volume became too burdensome for both our inbox and her commitment threshold and she eventually unsubscribed. She still knows people who look forward to receiving messages from flylady every few minutes of the day.

The emergence of websites like Twitter and Jaiku have prompted discussions and debates around the Internet about our desire (or lack thereof) for a continuous connection (frequency) to the conversations taking place in those online communities which interest us (relevance). It seems that more and more people feel the need to be continuously connected to multiple streams of communication: SMS, blogs, RSS readers, twitter/jaiku, etc.

So what about email as a continuous conversation platform? I suppose that it already is for the personal communication that we enjoy with family and friends. Whether people want to be in touch so regularly with a commercial emailer depends, I guess, on the value of each message that is sent. A joke of the day, puzzle of the day or tip of the day have all been used successfully in the past to keep recipients engaged with publishers on a daily basis. I think that it really comes down to common sense. Take a look at your own email offers – whether they be newsletters, promotions or updates. How often would you like to receive them if you were on your own recipient list? More often than not, content determines frequency.