• by editor , David Baker , July 10, 2006

Are you sending your customers, prospects, partners or employees too much e-mail? If your inbox looks anything like mine, the sheer quantity of e-mail we get each day is out of control.

The volume problem is made worse by the rising number of e-mail accounts people have these days and the fact that they often manage the onslaught by filtering incoming e-mail. All told, you have the makings of a complex and expensive problem to develop, foster and retain relationships through digital channels.

Because many organizations are now unable to manage e-mail programs well, manage testing properly and/or have realistic "touchpoint" views of their databases, we have to ask the million- dollar question: How much e-mail is too much?

I've grappled with this topic for a while, especially in the trigger-happy retail and entertainment spaces. While we may say we don't want to numb our customers by sending out too much e-mail, we are in fact doing just that with a combination of increased frequency and increased promotion. In the old days, a promotion or sale event was designed to be something that would draw attention. Today the word "sale" is so overused that it has as much value to a business as an "open" sign. The problem with using urgency tactics in e-mail combined with promotional tactics is that you are essentially increasing your cost of sale with each promotion. Your job as a marketer is to time the product and offer to be meaningful to the consumer.

We've worked hard in the last few years to help our clients develop their digital voice, not commoditize it through digital channels. But as a client once said, "E-mail is like our drug fix. We must have it or we won't feel good, and the more the better."

I once took on a client that had just come off a good year of growth through the e-mail channel. As a matter a fact, it was one of the most successful channels in their business. The leadership team put really lofty sales goals on this retailer without truly understanding what was the value or even responsiveness of their business. With no real acquisition program in place, they expected a 25 percent growth over the previous year, with no budget increase to accommodate this growth-- a strategy I didn't quite understand.

We were brought in to help them grow business through the e-mail channel through best practices, testing, strategy and a better e-mail system. We designed new templates for them, and tested everything we could, including offers, subject lines, dynamic content, segmentation, and timing.

We found little things that made an impact, and one such strategy was increasing the frequency of the e-mails. We tried a tactic I've used in the past to test the reach of a new database. It is traditionally reserved for dormant or lapsed members of a database to test response, or for programs with events that are based on critical timing. It worked one week, so the client felt they should do it again... and again and again. Against our advice, the client continues to use this tactic. They now send e-mails three times a week on average--not new creative, the same e-mail with new subject lines.

Now you might be thinking that will cost them over time, but it works for them; their sales are increasing. In the short term, this might seem right. However, my prime concern about using this strategy during the slow season is that it has a tendency to numb the audience and, even if done very creatively, can increase your churn. When peak season hits, the company may have difficulty generating the buzz or response they need because their e-mail database is fatigued.

We all know that increasing the frequency of e-mail is not generally a best practice, and will have long-term effects on sales. But was all our strategy--best practices, database and segmentation work, along with deliverability--just overkill for this client? In thinking about it, I was reminded of a crazy statistic. A child will nag his parents to buy something an average of nine times before the parents finally agree to buy the item. In many instances, we as direct marketers feel like children nagging our parents to buy something for them. We constantly tell our clients about what is right and the long-term implications of their decisions. How many times do we have to remind them before they realize the impacts of these decisions? Only time will tell.