We'll start by answering the question—yes, you can over-email your customers. And if any of you reading are signed up to a company email and receive multiple email notifications per day, you'll know how annoying it can be.

According to recent data, the average company sends 40 emails per day (to different people). That didn't include automated emails and advertisements. On average, a person receives 121 business-related emails daily! 

The question is, how much is 'over-emailing and what do email marketing best practices say about it? Read on to find out more.

How Much is 'Over-Emailing'?

There's no magic number.

Excessive emailing varies from one customer to another. For some of you, one email is enough to get the blood boiling. And it's annoying because if you're subscribed to an emailing list, it isn't always the easiest to unsubscribe. Companies want to keep you there, so they won't make it easy.

However, if you are sending emails every day or multiple times a day, you are most likely crossing the boundary. Customers do need useful information, but not updates that are clogging their inboxes.

Studies indicate that one to two marketing emails per week is ideal. Any more will increase the unsubscribe rates. Now, if your audience consists of people in need of daily updates, like news alerts or stock market reports, then that's a different case. But in most cases, the more the business does, the better.

If you tend to email people out of the blue and then go silent for weeks, that will feel a bit chaotic.

What Do Customers Think?

Customers are clear about one thing: they hate irrelevant emails, and they’re not shy about getting them to stop. In recent years, digital hygiene has become a key concept in their daily lives. They want to control their digital footprint, and, to that end, they do things like find out how to stop spam emails – even if you, as a company, don’t feel like you’re sending spam.

60% always unsubscribe due to excessive emails, but the reason does not just stop at frequency—content plays a major role too. If the emails appear to be automated, marketing, or devoid of useful content, the audience will ignore them.

Another point of irritation? An abundance of sales pitches. Consumers desire something different. Constantly trying to sell will never bear fruit. Marketing educational content, offering industry analysis, and providing tailored suggestions are much more helpful.

Another contradiction is a complete disregard for feedback. If there is less engagement and more complaints, that is an indicator of something to change. Pay attention to open rates, click rates, and unsubscribes. Some 49% of customers think companies are overdoing it.

How to Send a Good Email

A good email should always begin with the recipient's considerations.

It is brief, relevant, and well-structured, making it easy to read. Long and cluttered emails? Trash. Clickbait might improve short-term open rates but damages long-term credibility and makes subject line selection straightforward and appealing.

Call customers using their 1st name, and divide your audience, making the content what they care to see. Unless you target a routine email to an entire email database, expect engagement to be very low.

So does timing. Based on user behavior and prior engagements, knowing the right time to send an email can drastically increase the chances of users engaging with the email.

Other Ways of Sharing Business Information With Customers

Your audience can be reached in more than one way. Here are the other ways you should be spreading information:

• Social Media
• Blog Posts & Newsletters
• SMS & Push Notifications
• Community Forums & Webinars

Email fatigue is real and makes customers frustrated - overdoing emails isn't the way to fix it, smarter emailing is the real solution. Follow email frequency guidelines. Email marketing is effective if done right but shouldn't be the sole method used.