How Often Should You Email Your List? (The Real Answer)

"How often should I email my list?"

I've been asked this question probably a hundred times. And the answer nobody wants to hear is: it depends. But if people are unsubscribing, you need an email preference center before you figure out frequency. And check your email marketing benchmarks to see how your frequency compares.

Not a cop-out. It actually, genuinely depends.

But I can tell you exactly what it depends on. And give you a framework to figure it out for yourself. Which is more useful than me saying "send weekly" and having that be completely wrong for your business.

And track the impact with email campaign performance metrics.

The Question You Should Actually Be Asking

"How often should I email?" is the wrong question.

The right question is: "How much value can I consistently deliver?"

If you can provide genuinely useful content every day, email daily. If you only have something worth saying once a month, email monthly.

The frequency should match your capacity to be interesting. Not some arbitrary best practice you read somewhere.

Here's the thing nobody talks about. A daily email that's actually good will outperform a weekly email that's mid. And a weekly email that's actually good will outperform a daily email that's filler.

Quality over frequency. Every time.

The Numbers (Since You're Going to Ask Anyway)

Fine. Some benchmarks based on what we've seen work across different types of businesses.

These are starting points. Not rules.

Some brands email multiple times per day and their audience loves it. Others email monthly and that works perfectly.

The Signals That You're Emailing Too Much

Your list will tell you when you've crossed the line. Here's what to watch.

Unsubscribe rate creeping up. Baseline should be under 0.5% per email. If you're seeing 1%+ and it's getting worse, you're either emailing too much or your content quality dropped. Probably both.

Open rates declining over time. Not talking about one bad email. I mean a trend. If your open rates were 30% three months ago and now they're 22%, something changed. Often that something is fatigue.

Complaint (spam) rate increasing. This should be under 0.1%. If people are marking you as spam instead of just unsubscribing, you've really pushed it. They're mad.

Reply quality dropping. If you used to get thoughtful replies and now you get nothing, or just people asking to be removed, that's a sign.

The Signals That You Could Email More

This is the mistake more people make, honestly. Under-emailing.

High open rates that stay consistent. If you're sending monthly and getting 45% opens, your audience wants to hear from you more. They're engaged. Give them more.

People replying asking for more. Obvious one. If subscribers literally ask when your next email is coming, you can probably increase frequency.

You're leaving money on the table. Every email is a chance to sell. If you email once a month and your open and click rates are strong, you're missing opportunities.

Your competitors email more and their list stays engaged. If someone else in your space emails 3x per week and people seem to like it, that's useful data.

The Frequency Ramp Strategy

Here's what I recommend instead of just picking a number and hoping.

Start conservative. Then gradually increase until you see negative signals.

Month 1: Email weekly. Track open rates, unsubscribes, complaints.

Month 2: Bump to 2x per week. Same metrics. Compare to month 1.

Month 3: Try 3x per week. Same drill.

At some point you'll hit a threshold where metrics start declining. That's your ceiling. Back off one notch and stay there.

This approach takes longer but you end up with actual data instead of guessing.

Content Types Affect Frequency

Not all emails are created equal.

Value emails (tips, education, entertainment) can be sent more often. People don't mind getting actually useful stuff.

Promotional emails have a lower threshold. You can't pitch something every day without burning people out.

Transactional emails (order confirmations, shipping updates) don't count toward frequency. People expect these.

The ratio matters. If 80% of your emails are useful and 20% are promotional, you can email more than if you're pitching something every single time.

Some newsletters literally never pitch anything and email daily. Works fine because every email is pure value.

The Segmentation Play

Here's a hot take: uniform frequency for your entire list is lazy.

Your most engaged subscribers can handle more emails. They open everything. They click. They buy.

Your least engaged subscribers should probably get fewer emails. They're already halfway out the door.

Most platforms let you segment by engagement. Create:

• VIP segment: Opens 80%+ of emails. Send them everything.
• Engaged segment: Opens 40-80%. Regular frequency.
• Cooling off segment: Opens under 40%. Reduce frequency by half.

Same content. Different frequency per segment.

This keeps your engaged subscribers happy without burning out the people on the fence.

Why Daily Emails Work (When They Work)

Some of the most successful email marketers in the world email daily. Morning Brew. The Hustle. Tons of creators.

It works because:

Habit formation. When you email at the same time every day, you become part of someone's routine. They expect you.

Top of mind. Hard to forget about someone who's in your inbox every morning.

More content means more chances to resonate. Not every email will hit. But if you email 30 times a month, more of them will land than if you email 4 times.

But daily only works if you have enough to say. A daily email with nothing useful becomes spam, fast.

Why Weekly Works (When It Works)

Weekly gives you time to create actually good content.

You can spend 3 hours on one email that really delivers value versus cranking out 7 emails that are just okay.

Weekly also works better for businesses where the buying cycle is longer. B2B, high-ticket, services. These audiences don't need daily touchpoints.

And weekly is forgiving. Miss a week and nobody notices. Miss a day when you've trained people to expect daily and it feels weird.

The Worst Mistake: Inconsistency

Whatever frequency you pick, stick to it.

Emailing 5 times one week, then nothing for two weeks, then 8 times the next week is worse than just about any consistent schedule.

Inconsistency trains your audience that you're unreliable. They stop expecting your emails. Open rates tank. Engagement disappears.

If you can only consistently produce one email per week, do that. Don't burn out trying to email daily for a month and then ghost your list for six weeks.

Boring and consistent beats exciting and erratic.

The Test You Should Run

Want to actually know your optimal frequency instead of guessing?

Split your list in half. Send one group your current frequency. Send the other group double that frequency for 6-8 weeks.

Track:

• Open rates for both groups
• Click rates for both groups
• Unsubscribe rates for both groups
• Revenue per email for both groups (if applicable)

Now you have data. Real data from your actual audience. Not some blog post telling you what to do.

The answer might surprise you. I've seen lists where doubling frequency increased both engagement and revenue. And I've seen lists where it killed everything.

Only way to know is to test.

My Actual Recommendation

If you're just starting out or you've been inconsistent: email weekly.

It's manageable. It's consistent. It's enough to stay relevant without being overwhelming.

Once you've proven you can do weekly for three months straight, consider increasing if the signals support it.

The people who fail at email marketing usually fail because they stop sending, not because they send too much.

Get consistent first. Optimize frequency later.