Mastering Email Campaigns: Insights and Best Practices for Entrepreneurs

Originally appeared in our LinkedIn Newsletter: Spoken Like An Entrepreneur https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/finding-sweet-spot-ideal-number-emails-automation-lakenya-kopf-ssnve/

When time permits, I attempt to pop into the ever-growing number of Facebook Groups I have joined to be a “contributing member.” This normally entails answering questions relevant to my industry or celebrating the achievements of fellow group members.

Every once in a while, a question is asked where my should-be “short” answer turns into an impromptu consulting session. When those moments happen, a little neon sign pops up over my computer that blinks “Newsletter!”

So, here we are! This week, someone asked a question about the correct number of emails to send in a welcome/nurturing sequence. Hello – right up my alley! I will incorporate what I said here while expanding on the overall concept, just a tad.

As the digital world continually expands, the capabilities of reaching the general masses are far and wide. With that being said, the memorable outage of Facebook and Instagram reminded business owners that mastering the art of email automation is key to maintaining engagement and nurturing relationships with your clients. You do not own your social media account. If Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok were wiped from the face of the earth tomorrow (which may be more real than hypothetical for TikTok), would you still be able to reach your audience?

You own your email list (and as a friendly passive reminder – make sure you download a .csv file of that list as a routine backup – just in case – even if you do it monthly or quarterly). Whether you use your own personal email, a CRM, or an Email Marketing system – that list is yours – no matter what happens to a third-party company. With that being said, it is important to understand that there is a fine line between being informative and being intrusive when it comes to emailing your audience. Trust me when I say – it can make all the difference in your marketing strategy.

So, in this “relatively” quick read, I want to share with you the insights I’ve gathered on the ideal number of emails for different types of automation sequences. Whether it’s a warm welcome or a product delivery, each point of contact is a new opportunity to reinforce your value without overwhelming your audience. The key to success lies in a balanced approach that respects the reader’s time and attention. From welcome emails to nurturing campaigns, you’ll learn the optimal number of sends, the importance of timing, and strategies to keep your subscribers engaged and eager for more.

Please note – every audience is different! I can only speak from the experience I have had/seen with my own clients and how they have shifted their frequency based on unsubscribes and feedback.

Before I dive in, here are two things to note that were huge complaints to one particular client that I had to mitigate:

1) For the most part, people have moved away from the Gain, Logic, Fear email tactic, but for one client, she received an earful on the Fear email. My advice – turn the fear email into a nurturing one, addressing the person’s pain point. Don’t make it attacking, demeaning, insulting, judgmental, or laced with ridicule! I tried my best to tell her it was a bad idea before she included it, but like most of my clients will attest to, while I will never remain quiet about my opinion if it is in the best interest of your business, I will respect your desired actions and implement accordingly.

2) Do not sell right off the bat! I have seen far too many complaints where the exact comment is “I don’t even know you, and you are already trying to sell to me!” There is a HUGE difference between an indoctrination/welcome email sequence, a product delivery email automation, and a nurturing campaign. This is what I elaborate on below.

So the first piece of advice I always tell my clients is to keep any email automation (other than the nurturing sequence) to no more than 5 emails, and that is IF the first two emails are product delivery and follow-up.

Indoctrination Automation

If you are just doing a standard indoctrination email (a standard welcome email sequence – possibly connected to a newsletter opt-in without any type of delivery) – 3 to 4 emails are fine (at least 3 days apart). These should not be aggressive sales emails. The point of these is to introduce who you are, how you can address their pain points (i.e., why they should care who you are), and free resources you can offer. You can soft-sell low-hanging fruit in the last email in the sequence, but these are not for direct (aggressive) selling.

Product Delivery Automation

If you are doing a product delivery (freebie or purchase) – again, 5 emails. The first one is the delivery (immediate delivery), the second is the follow-up (24 hours later). Emails after that should have a wait duration of 3 days in between. The third is introducing yourself and why they should care. The fourth focuses on a soft sale of a low-hanging fruit product (if a free resource is the reason they are in the sequence) or a reasonably priced upsell (if they purchased a low-hanging fruit). Depending on your CRM, you would do a goal split at this point to determine the fifth email. If they make a purchase from the fourth email (and depending on how your product is set up with upsells and downsells), you can decide if a high-ticket item is offered in the fifth email or if it stops at four. If a purchase/action is not taken in the fourth email, you can then use the fifth email to offer more resources or a different downsell. In either case, they would transfer to a nurturing campaign.

Nurturing Automation

A nurturing campaign can be as long as you like since the point is to keep the lead warm. Frequency is up to you as you know how responsive your audience is. For some without a newsletter, they prefer to still keep communication to a 3-day rotation, while others stretch it to 5 days. If you have a weekly newsletter, you may decide not to have a nurturing campaign, as you want each message to be freshly curated. I still recommend setting one up to supplement your weekly newsletter, especially if you send it on the same day each week (meaning the nurturing campaign would be timed to send between your newsletter: Newsletter goes out on Sunday, nurturing campaign sends weekly on Wednesdays). I only recommend a 7 to 10 day wait in between if you are sending the newsletter monthly.

Minimizing Drop-offs and Unsubscribes

As far as drop-offs and unsubscribes, I see the biggest uptick if emails are sent too frequently or if there is a large amount of time between communications. As for a certain number, four seems to be the magical number, and again – it depends on what is being said/offered. Any more than that (especially if they are sales-strong or redundant), and I see a huge drop in open rates and an increase in unsubscribes.

With that being said, you are going to have unsubscribes – no matter what. Some people are gateway subscribers. They simply want that freebie, and that is it; they don’t care who you are and have no desire to find out. Others may just be subscribing because you are healthy competition, and they want to see what you are doing. I have had clients literally take someone’s email sequence, copy it into a Google doc, change a few things, and make it their own. No judgment – just fact.

Unsubscribes and drop-offs are not the end of the world. In fact, they make life easier when it comes to keeping an email list clean and optimized. As long as your unsubscribe rate remains below Google’s red flag, you are fine. If you do not know this, it is 0.3% or 3 unsubscribes for every 1000 emails sent. Google changed this from 0.1% in February 2024.

Which brings me to the last item, how are unsubscribe rates calculated?Straight from the horse’s mouth: The formula for calculating your unsubscribe rate is to divide the number of unsubscribed users by the number of emails delivered. Then, multiply that number by 100 to get a percentage.

So if you have an email list of 2000 people, only 6 people can unsubscribe before you hit that 0.3% mark; BUT, (and this is SUPER important), the unsubscribes have to be consistent for a stretch of time.

From SocketLabs (and this is referencing the unsubscribe rates in Google Postmaster):

Google only displays this data in increments of +/- 0.1%. This value will be rounded down and reported at 0.0% for most good senders.

Some good senders may see spikes in this data, but we’ve often found they’ve correlated to send volume decreases. Since complaints are asynchronous events, if you send a large campaign (100k+) on a Tuesday, but only send a few hundred messages on Wednesday, a handful of complaints from Tuesday’s campaign that are initiated by users on Wednesday could drive your User Report Spam Rate to be confusingly high on Wednesday. For consistent large-volume senders, this metric should remain fairly consistent.

How I explained this to a client:

The best thing I can tell you is to treat Postmaster and daily spam rates like you would treat a weight scale. Most fitness gurus, nutritionists, and dietitians will tell you DON’T weigh yourself every day, or you will lose your mind! The same thing with Postmaster and Spam rate reports. You are going to have spikes. There is absolutely nothing you can do about it. Remember, it doesn’t matter when you send it; it matters when THEY unsubscribe. I, personally, don’t read emails from my private accounts until the weekend, so if I have received 5-7 emails from, let’s say – Best Buy, I may unsubscribe from them on Saturday because that is a bit much. AND (I wouldn’t, but to drive the point home), I may click unsubscribe on all 7 emails. As I pasted from the gurus in the industry, prolonged high rates are Google’s main concern. There are literally 3 billion Google Workspace Users – like driving 5 miles over the speed limit; (I assume) they don’t care about the little guy. They want the person driving 20 over for recklessness and endangerment (the person sending spam emails day after day with high spikes for multiple days in a row).

Hopefully, this was helpful! If it was confusing, ignore all the unsubscribe information and just stick with the email automation recommendations. As long as you don’t print it off, shred it, and use it as cage lining for your guinea pigs – I will consider it a win!