Long-term email cadence test: does sending fewer emails negatively impact revenue generation? 

I come from a background in email marketing for subscription services, and the attitude regarding email cadence was always "more is more." Our subscribers would get at least one email daily, and during specific promotions would receive up to five emails daily.

 EMAIL OVERLOAD! 

As you can imagine, our unsubscribe rate was increasing, and I was concerned about our customer experience.

I approach my marketing strategies from a "people first" approach. I wanted to see if we could send fewer emails and maintain our current revenue goals while improving customer satisfaction and decreasing unsubscribe rates. 

I created a long-form A/B test.

• I split our subscriber file in half and sent half the regular programming of constant emails.
• For the other half (group B), I reduced the emails sent by 33% and strategized the best days and times to hit their inbox.
• I decided on this reduced cadence by examining our email data and identifying the peak engagement dates. I also based sends around any upcoming promotion closes or important events.
• The emails group B received were identical to those group A received; they just received fewer.

This split test lasted six months.

I selected this duration because I wanted to ensure the results were consistent across any promotion type.

At the end of the split test, group B's engagement had increased significantly.

• Their open rates had increased by 57% compared to group A's (Consistently in the 35% OR range vs. 20% OR).
• The unsubscribe rate decreased by 11%.

The most remarkable part of the test, though, was that revenue for the six-month period was EXACTLY THE SAME between the two segments.

The fear had been a reduction in cadence would negatively impact revenue. This test proved that was not the case.

With fewer emails needing to be written, set up, and scheduled, our marketing team had more time to focus on long-term projects, campaigns, and other tests.

The cost-benefit to the marketing budget was impressive, and the sustained revenue grew over the following months of the cadence shift.

This shows that when you put customer experience at the forefront of your marketing strategies, the benefits to your business are tangible.

Work with Valle Creative Consulting to ensure you aren't leaving money on the table WHILE improving your customer experience.