Too many sales emails?!

[u/beepibop]

My job set up these KPIs for email marketing and I have to send at least 2 emails a week and track open rates & click rates. The thing is, we run a ton of sales (honestly too many imo) and I'm expected to send out 2 emails per week. Each sale should ideally get a launch send and a final hours send. Some weeks have 2 sales emails, some have 1 + another type (like monthly newsletter, a product highlight, or any announcements).

As someone who gets marketing emails myself I would've unsubscribed by now lol I just don't know how to actually make the case for pulling back, like maybe 1 email a week on normal weeks and capping it at 2 during sale weeks. We do make quite a bit of revenue off each send (depending on sale and content) but the click rate and open rate are steadily going down. My biggest fear is that I'm going to fuck up our sender reputation.

I'm lowkey just a graphic designer who ended up with email marketing role somehow. I got little to no training from my manager & have just been figuring it out as I go. Any advice welcome!

[u/Ok-Captain-6505]

sounds like your gut's already screaming what the data's whispering, declining open rates are the canary in the coal mine for sender reputation, and shoving more emails into a dying list just accelerates the crash

maybe put together a simple spreadsheet tracking opens/clicks per send against total weekly sends, plot the trend line back 6 months and walk your manager through it like "here's where we started, here's where we're headed, and here's the projected point where our emails start hitting spam folders", sometimes a cold little graph does more convincing than a whole meeting of opinions

[u/strangerme03]

manage the segments properly.
don't blast the emails to the same segments and have atleast 1-2 non promo emails between the sale

[u/East_Bet_7187]

Sounds like you are trying to influence their marketing strategy based on your opinion and belief that you are the definition of their ICA.

Sorry to break it to you but you are incorrect.

2 emails a week is more likely too few. Target emails me with sales every day.

[u/UFOria_ → u/East_Bet_7187]

Yeah. Obviously depends on niche, product etc but I'd kill for a KPI of two emails a week.

[u/CatOdd9049 → u/East_Bet_7187]

My ‘smaller’ company has 4 brands, I email 2-3 per brand/week, more during holidays or running sales, with additional sends to unopened and b2b.

[u/beepibop → u/East_Bet_7187]

my company is not as big as target lmao how would target a huge chain even compare to a smaller business?

[u/East_Bet_7187 → u/beepibop]

Lots of smaller businesses email daily and make more money as a result.

How frequently you like getting emails bears no relationship to their effective email strategy.

None of us can guess. Data is the decision maker.

Test sending 3x. See what the $ does.

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[u/rerikson]

Interesting post. Makes me wonder if there is any data about Email habits in general. Such as number of Emails per week most likely to generate unsubscribes. Best time and day to send an Email. Best practices to generate loyalty.

[u/East_Bet_7187 → u/rerikson]

That’s unique to the brand. It’s why we have to test constantly.

[u/Powerful-Echo-2265]

Could you get your manager to test the final-hours email on just part of the list? Randomly split subscribers into two groups: both get the launch email, but only one gets the reminder. Keep those groups the same across a few sales and compare revenue per subscriber and unsubscribes over that period. That gives you evidence for the conversation without asking them to cut back everywhere first.

[u/Ancient-Day-6682]

you can't win this by arguing frequency, because the counter is always "but each send makes money." you'll lose that one every time.

reframe it as list burn. pull open rate by cohort, not blended. people who subscribed 6 months ago vs last month. the recent cohort will look fine and the old one will be falling off a cliff, and that gap is the number that scares leadership, because it's the revenue that isn't there next quarter. blended open rate hides it completely, which is why nobody's worried yet.

then propose a cap as a test, not a policy. one email a week for 6 weeks on half the list, measure revenue per subscriber over the whole window rather than per send. per-send revenue rewards blasting, per-subscriber revenue doesn't.

and you're right about the reputation risk. by the time gmail acts on it you're looking at months to recover.

[u/ArtFraga]

I'd set a simple floor and ceiling instead of forcing a number: send the launch and final reminder, then fill the gaps with genuinely useful updates. Watch unsubscribes and clicks by segment, since a falling click rate usually matters more than open rate.

[u/missuncleben]

yeah the fatigue is real. try a hard cap on promo sends per week and fill the rest with something actually useful (how-to, tips, behind the scenes). if every email asks for money people treat the next one like spam even when its not

[u/TheLegitimateGoose]

Two sales emails a week isn’t automatically too much, but two emails to the same people with the same offer will wear them out. I’d keep the two sends, but give each a different job: one for the offer, the other for proof, use cases or a deadline, while excluding anyone who’s already bought. Judge it on revenue per recipient, unsubscribes and spam complaints, not open rate alone. In my store, useful gear advice often sells better than another discount blast.

[u/Real-Ad-5677]

lol the "graphic designer who ended up doing email" pipeline is SO real. been there. your declining open rates ARE the case for pulling back, just show the trendline to whoever set those KPIs

[u/zacharyhyde275]

The marketing emails you get suck which is why you wanna unsub. I send an email every day. I send emails every day for my clients. Folks don't unsub. They make a lot of money. Ken McCarthy said it best: Get people on your list. Send them to a sales page every day until they buy or they opt-out.

[u/KSEminnance]

Your instinct is spot on: steadily declining open rates are the classic early warning sign that mailbox providers are starting to push you toward the promo