How many follow up touch points is too many follow up touch points? When are we just getting annoying?
A good general rule is: As long as you’re still getting enough response to justify the investment of resources in the touch point, keep going.
But how do you know?
You have to pay attention to the response rate you get from each communication. Open rate matters, and per the INFORMZ 2017 Association Email Benchmarking Report, you should be looking for an open rate of around 35%. But click rate – that is, did people at least attempt to take your call to action? – and unsubscribe rate – that is, are you pestering people so much they’re fleeing? – matter more.
Benchmarking matters, and benchmarking within our industry is far more meaningful than just general benchmarking (not least of which because associations generally do better, so if you benchmark against commercial marketing emails, you may end up thinking you’re doing better than you actually are). But what matters most is benchmarking against yourself. If your own internal open and click rates are going down, or your unsubscribe rate is going up, it’s time to take a fresh look at what you’re doing.
That all being said, people are inundated with email, so it’s equally important – if not more so – to communicate using a variety of platforms.