What is email fatigue?
Email fatigue is where a subscriber is tired of receiving emails from you, and therefore starts to disengage from the content that you send. This can be by simply ignoring the emails, leaving them unopened, deleting the emails without opening, marking the email has ‘Junk’ or even unsubscribing from the mailing list.
Email fatigue can be caused by the sheer number of emails sent by you to an individual subscriber, or by the content you send not being relevant. If a subscriber receives two or three emails in a row that are not relevant, they won’t engage with the next email, even if it is packed with relevant content.
Whilst some email fatigue is to be expected – afterall, not all your subscribers will have the same response to your emails – it’s important not to let this get out of control. Else you run the risk of it having a huge impact on your future marketing campaigns, and ultimately, the bottom line.
How could it impact your email campaigns?
If your emails are not being read by your subscribers, not only is it an inefficient use of your time to be creating the emails, but your message is not reaching its intended recipient.
If lots of subscribers mark your emails as ‘Junk’ it can cause email providers to view your emails with suspicion. This could lead to the providers sending future emails directly to the Junk mailbox.
Consequently, there will be less eyes seeing your emails at all – even those not suffering from email fatigue – which is sure to have a detrimental impact on your revenue.
All is not lost, though – it’s possibly to put strategies in place to avoid and counteract the effects of email fatigue.
How to avoid email fatigue
The first step, and one we recommend with all marketing campaigns, is data analysis. By tracking open and click through rates, unsubscribes and undelivered email levels, you can monitor the level of email fatigue. It can also be useful to segment your subscriber lists based on the frequency of opens. Those who open and engage with every email you send are less likely to suffer from fatigue than those with more sporadic open rates.
An effective way of ensuring you don’t fatigue your subscribers is to simply ask them for their preferences. A short Preferences form can be set up asking subscribers how often they’d like to be contacted and what type of content they’d like to receive. You can then tailor your email marketing strategy to give the subscribers what they want, and how often they want it. It also serves to make the subscribers (your customers/clients) feel listened to.
Personalising emails – both in the data embedded in the email, such as their first name, and the content you’re sending can help avoid email fatigue. If the subscriber feels they are being treated as an individual, not as part of a mass-mailout, they may be more likely to engage. Emails can be personalised to the subscriber’s place in the customer journey too – for example a week after the customer has received an order from you, you can email to give them tips on product usage, or ask for a review.
As you can see, email fatigue can be detrimental to businesses wishing to market to their subscribers. However, with care, steps can be taken to minimise the disruption to your strategy.