Plan three or four useful emails for a sale, send reminders only to people who have not bought, and stop when the sale ends. Every extra send costs some subscribers you would have emailed in December.

Five days, five emails

Today is Cyber Monday. Since Thursday, many store lists have had a preview, a Black Friday announcement, a Saturday reminder, a Sunday last chance and this morning's Cyber Monday email.

Some will get an extension email tomorrow as well.

Each send brings in orders, so the next one always looks worthwhile. What it costs does not appear in the sales report.

For a store, the email list is the one channel it owns outright. Search rankings move and ad prices climb in December, but the list costs almost nothing to reach, until people leave it.

What each extra email costs

The first never shows up in the weekend's figures. Under CASL an unsubscribe has to be honoured within ten business days, and that person is then gone for December and for every sale after it.

Why daily sends look like they work

Every email has orders beside it in the report, so every email appears to have paid its way.

Many of those orders would have come anyway, from people who saw the first email and bought when they were ready. The report credits whichever email they happened to click.

Meanwhile the people who left do not appear anywhere. A list built over years can be spent in one long weekend.

What subscribers signed up for

Someone who joined for a monthly newsletter agreed to hear from you, not to hear from you every morning.

CASL consent allows the messages but says nothing about how many. Whether people stay depends on whether the emails match what they expected when they signed up, and five in five days rarely does.

A plan of three or four

Decide the emails before the sale, not during it. For most stores three or four are plenty.

A preview a day or two ahead, saying what is on sale and when. One on the first morning.

One on the last day, to people who have not bought. Perhaps one useful extra, such as delivery dates before the holidays.

Each should give a reason to open beyond the word sale: what is included, how long it runs, when orders must be in.

Subject lines can do the same work: what, how much, until when. A subject that only says last chance reads like every other email in the Promotions tab that morning.

Reminders only for people still deciding

The reminder is the email most worth narrowing. Leave out anyone who has already bought; they need a receipt and delivery dates, not more pressure.

Many email services can connect to the store and exclude buyers automatically. Where they cannot, export the sale's customers that morning and remove them from the send.

Groups with different interests deserve different emails. Trade and retail customers, or parents and adult learners, are rarely deciding about the same thing.

A worked example

A ski school at a local mountain sells lesson packages for children and adults, and its email list holds families from past seasons.

Last year it emailed the whole list every day from Black Friday to Cyber Monday, then sent an extension on the Tuesday.

Families who registered their children on the Friday received four more emails urging them to register. Some replied to ask whether they had been charged twice; others unsubscribed, and were gone before the spring camp announcement.

Every email went to everyone, whatever they had already done, so the reminders landed hardest on the families who had already paid.

This year there were three emails: a preview on Thursday, the launch on Friday, and today's reminder, sent only to families who had not registered, using a list exported from the registration system this morning.

Adult lessons got a separate email. There is no extension, and the sale page says it ends at midnight tonight. Families who registered received a confirmation with what to bring, and nothing more about the sale.

The export takes ten minutes, and it is the step that keeps a reminder from reaching people who have already paid.

Stopping when the sale stops

An extension email tells subscribers that last chance did not mean last chance, and they remember it at the next sale.

End when you said you would. Tomorrow, go back to the usual rhythm, and make the next email useful rather than another offer: delivery dates, holiday hours, a gift guide.

Fewer emails, not none

Some people unsubscribe in December because they want fewer emails, not none. Offer them that choice.

A link to receive only the occasional important email until January keeps them on the list. Many email services can set this up with a separate group.

Numbers worth watching

For each send, look at unsubscribes and spam complaints beside the orders, and compare them with an ordinary month's email.

If the third email lost more subscribers than the first, that loss is part of what the third email cost, and it belongs in the same report as its sales.

In January, compare December's sales from the list with last December's. If the long weekend pulled December's orders forward rather than adding to them, it shows there.

The counter-case

Some stores are built on frequent email, such as a deal-of-the-day shop whose customers signed up for exactly that. Daily sends during a sale suit them.

A very small list of regulars who know the owner may also take more email in good humour.

For most stores, though, a few planned emails, reminders sent only to people still deciding, and a firm stop serve the list better than an email every morning.

Before the next sale

  1. Count the emails sent since Thursday.
  2. Note unsubscribes and complaints for each.
  3. Plan three or four emails next time.
  4. Exclude buyers from every reminder.
  5. Split groups with different interests.
  6. Offer a fewer emails option.
  7. Stop when the sale ends.

Step four is the one customers notice. Nothing reads as carelessly as a reminder to buy something they bought two days ago.

Counting what looks good rather than what readers value is the same problem as in articles split across ten pages.

Frequently asked questions

How many sale emails is too many?

For most stores, more than three or four for one sale. A preview, the launch and a last-day reminder to people who have not bought usually cover it.

What does an extra email cost?

Unsubscribes from people who would have bought later, spam complaints that affect delivery to the whole list, and customers who already bought being chased again.

Why do daily emails seem to work?

Each one shows orders in the report, but many of those buyers would have bought from an earlier email. The people who unsubscribed do not appear anywhere.

Who should get the reminder email?

Only people who have not bought yet. Exclude buyers automatically through the store connection, or export the sale's customers that morning and remove them.

Should we extend the sale by email?

No. An extension tells subscribers that last chance did not mean it, and they remember. End when you said you would and return to your usual rhythm.

How fast must unsubscribes be processed?

Under CASL, within ten business days. After that, commercial email to them stops unless they consent again, so each unsubscribe removes someone from every future sale.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Five sale emails since Thursday?

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