How Many Emails Should a Business Send Per Month?

Here's how to know how many emails you should send per week or per month, depending on your email list, your goals and the various metrics you should track.

By Ben Kazinik

Edited by Natalie Stenge

Updated November 5, 2024.

How Many Emails Should a Business Send Per Month? main image

Your email frequency depends on your email list and the goals of your email marketing program. There’s no set number that you should shoot for. Usually, brands start with one email per week and then set up automation to target specific segments (cart abandonment, returning customers, welcome email series, etc.).
You should continue to steadily increase the frequency of your promotional email campaigns as long as you see an increase in revenue and don't see a significant drop-off in engagement.
Once you reach a level where you start getting spam complaints and too many unsubscribed then you know you’ve hit the limit. Increase your frequency down a bit and carry on.
The size of your email listThe amount of emails that you should send also depends on the size of your email list. If you have less than 2,000 subscribers then you should send 1-2 emails per week. If you are an eCommerce company with more than 10,000 subscribers you can increase the email frequency, especially if you are targeting different segments of your audience.
The unsubscribe rateAnother important factor is the unsubscribe rate. If you start seeing your unsubscribe rate going up then it may be a sign that you should decrease your email frequency. An unsubscribe rate of 0.5% or below is good, when it starts increasing above that threshold then it’s time to take a serious look at it.
The engagement rate (clicks and opens)Remember - just because you get a spike in unsubscribes does not mean that you’ve sent too many emails. People unsubscribe for a variety of reasons. It could be that you just got an influx of leads and they were of lower quality and didn’t want to engage with your brand.
Look at the engagement rate of the emails (the opens and clicks) and if that engagement is falling off then that could be another sign to rethink your frequency.
Email frequency for promotionsConsumers expect more emails during the holiday season and it’s not unusual for a brand to send 4-5 emails in a span of 7-10 days during a specific holiday. Test different frequencies and see what your audience responds to the best.