How to Tackle the Pitfalls of Email List Fatigue

With the number of email users predicted to grow to 4.1 billion by 2021, it has become imperative for businesses to include it as an unprecedented marketing tool. In fact, amidst all the digital marketing strategies, email marketing is the most successful with a median ROI of 122%. Yes, the returns are quite high and every marketer wants to leverage it. As a result, a lot of emails are sent to the subscribers. But does it help? Not really!

To begin with, ‘more is better’ doesn’t work everywhere. In fact, in case of email marketing it leads to list fatigue. Wondering what it is? It is the reduction in the open, click and conversion rates from subscribers once actively engaged with your brand. Additionally, a few even unsubscribe from the list. According to a survey done by Mediapost, 74% of Americans are overwhelmed and bored with the frequency of promotional emails they receive. In short, sending too frequent and irrelevant contents to your customers can annoy them. This, in turn, might lead them to unsubscribe, delete or report your emails as spam.

Therefore, it’s better to counter the pitfalls of email list fatigue before it hurts your company’s reputation and sales figure. Here’s how you can do it.

1.      Keep a close look at analytics:

It is important to keep a check on the frequency of emails you send. Do you know 45% of businesses have no marketing strategy regarding the number of emails they send? So, don’t be the one among them. Get hold of your email analytics with the help of an email service provider. This would give you insights into the response of your subscribers and help you re-evaluate your email marketing strategy accordingly.

2.      Let subscribers take the control:

When your customers are in the driver’s seat, the chances of email list fatigue become less. Hence, apart from giving them the option of opting in and opting out of the email subscriptions, go a step ahead and let them customize their preferences. This would help them decide the kind of content they wish to receive and the frequency of receiving it. Further, it would also help you understand the consumer behaviour better.

3.      Take help of A/B testing:

A/B testing includes sending different variations of your email campaign to a small set of subscribers. It helps you understand which of your email campaign is garnering more click through and open rates. Once you have collected the data, you can use it for predicting the behavior of your larger set of subscribers and enhance your customer engagement.

4.      Go the segmentation way:

Email segmentation is all about sending the right content to the right subscriber at the right time. So, segmenting your email list into groups like geographic location, gender, age, past purchase etc. can help you send relevant and hyper-personalized messages that would interest your customers and increase their engagement.

5.      Try re-engaging:

You can get your fatigued subscribers back by trying to re-engage them. Just make sure you have the appropriate data about these subscribers and a strategy to bring them back. You can start by sending them emails with dynamic content and creative subject lines. However, no matter what you do, there are certain subscribers who won’t come back. If this happens, try cleaning up your email list. Remember, a smaller engaged list is better than a bigger disengaged list.

Final Thoughts

To sum up, the right approach combined with relevant and engaging content is all you need to stay ahead in the field of email marketing. The effects of email list fatigue are huge, but with the above-mentioned steps you can easily counter it. So, give it a go.

We would love to understand how you address the challenge of list fatigue. Share your experience in the comments below.