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If you’ve ever looked at your campaign metrics and wondered, “Are we emailing too much?”; you’re not alone.

Finding the right email frequency is one of the hardest balancing acts in lifecycle marketing. Too often, it’s based on instinct, “best practices,” or competitor behavior — not data.

Today’s email walks you through a 5-step process to uncover your optimal email cadence using real audience signals (not guesswork).

Here’s what’s inside:

• The three metrics that reveal if you’re over- or under-sending

• A step-by-step cadence optimization plan

• A quick 15-minute audit you can run today

• Fresh lifecycle quick hits to explore this week

Finding your perfect email cadence without the guesswork

Deep Dive

Picture this: you’ve been sending your newsletter twice weekly for months, but engagement keeps dipping. You worry you’re emailing too often, yet scaling back might cost you revenue.

Meanwhile, your competitors seem to be everywhere: some sending daily, others monthly. Who’s right?

I faced the same dilemma running a product newsletter. Our 3x-per-week schedule felt wrong but I had no system to test alternatives.

Once I applied a data-driven approach, everything changed. Engagement rose by 19%, unsubscribes dropped, and revenue per email increased - even though we sent fewer campaigns.

Let’s unpack how to find your cadence with confidence.

Why email frequency feels like guesswork

Most of us choose send cadence based on:

• What feels “reasonable”

• What others in our industry do

• What tools default to

• What leadership prefers

But none of these reflect what your audience actually wants.

That’s how we end up over-sending (causing fatigue) or under-sending (leaving revenue untapped).

The three signals that reveal your optimal cadence

1. Engagement trajectory over time

Don’t just track open or click rates, look at how engagement changes the more you send.

• Healthy pattern: Engagement stays steady or improves

• Over-saturation: Engagement drops with each additional email

• Under-communication: High engagement despite low send frequency

If your engagement consistently declines with each extra weekly email, you’re probably over-communicating.

2. Unsubscribe patterns

Timing says everything:

• Frequency fatigue: Unsubscribes spike right after sends

• Content fatigue: Unsubs happen regardless of timing (content issue)

• Under-engagement: Low unsubs and low engagement (audience ignoring, not leaving)

When I mapped ours, unsubscribes peaked on Fridays; our third weekly send. That was the signal we’d crossed the threshold.

3. Revenue patterns by send frequency

Measure revenue per subscriber, not just total revenue.

• Sweet spot: Increases with more sends until it plateaus

• Diminishing returns: Falls with each extra send

• Untapped potential: Steady or growing = safe to increase

Your leadership might say, “Send more, it makes more.” True! but only some users are driving that gain. The rest might be tuning out.

Test frequency increases on small, active segments first.

Your step-by-step cadence optimization plan

Step 1: Establish your baseline

Document your current state:

• Avg. open and click rates

• Unsubscribe rate

• Revenue per email sent

• Engagement by send sequence (first vs. second vs. third email)

This gives you a reference point before testing changes.

Step 2: Survey your audience

Ask 10–15% of your engaged subscribers:

• How often would you like to hear from us?

• Do we email too often, too little, or just right?

• What type of content would you prefer more or less of?

Keep it to 3-4 questions. You’ll get clarity fast.

Step 3: Test frequency segments

Split your audience into groups:

• Control (current frequency)

• Group A (+1 send/week or +4/month)

• Group B (–1 send/week or –4/month)

Run it for 4–6 weeks. I do agree, that testing frequency isn’t straightforward. And depending on the ESP you use, might be too complicated or impossible.

The other option is to do a pre-post analysis, rather than an A/B test.

Step 4: Measure more than clicks

Track:

• Revenue per subscriber

• Unsubscribe rate

• Spam complaints

• Long-term engagement

In my test, higher frequency slightly lowered open rates, but total revenue grew. That’s success.

Beyond frequency: Cadence patterns that matter

Your send rhythm also matters as much as volume:

• Consistency: Regular days/times build anticipation

• Context: B2B content performs differently on weekends

• Sequence: How your messages build across the week

Quick cadence audit

1. Check your last 4 weeks: How many sends per week on average?

2. Look for engagement drop-off by email number.

3. Check unsubscribe timing.

4. Calculate revenue per email and per subscriber.

5. Ask your most engaged users what they prefer.

This simple check often reveals if you’re over- or under-sending without needing a full test.

Email cadence isn’t about sending more or less; it’s about sending right.

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