Summary
The question of whether email marketers should decrease email volume on major holidays is a nuanced one, with various factors influencing the optimal strategy. While some might assume lower engagement during festive periods, data often shows the opposite, especially for B2C commerce. However, this increased volume comes with its own set of deliverability challenges.
Key findings
- Increased volume: Major holidays, particularly around shopping events like Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, are often record-setting days for email volume. Many brands significantly increase their sending frequency.
- Consumer behavior: Consumers generally anticipate and often welcome a higher volume of emails during holiday sales events. This expectation can lead to sustained engagement despite the increased noise in the inbox.
- Sector differences: While B2C (business-to-consumer) marketers typically ramp up sending, B2B (business-to-business) marketers might find it more effective to decrease or maintain normal volume, as their audience may be less active during holidays.
- Deliverability risks: Sudden or drastic increases in email volume can negatively impact sender reputation and deliverability, potentially leading to messages landing in spam folders or even blocklists.
- Strategic adjustments: Rather than a blanket decrease, marketers often adjust their strategy, focusing on highly engaged segments or shifting send times.
Key considerations
- Audience relevance: Consider your specific audience and their holiday habits. A B2C e-commerce brand will likely have a different optimal strategy than a B2B SaaS company.
- Gradual increases: If you plan to increase volume, do so gradually to avoid shocking ISPs and triggering spam filters. A controlled increase, perhaps up to 20-25% per campaign, is often recommended as part of managing email sending volume.
- Engagement monitoring: Closely monitor your engagement metrics (open rates, click-through rates) during holiday periods. A drop in engagement might signal email fatigue or that your messages are not reaching the inbox.
- Content quality: With increased volume, the quality and relevance of your content become even more critical to stand out and maintain subscriber interest.
- Geographical factors: Holidays can vary significantly across countries. A strategy effective in one region might not apply universally.
What email marketers say
Email marketers often find themselves in a challenging position during major holidays. While there's an intuitive sense that people might be less engaged with emails on days like Thanksgiving or Christmas, the reality for many B2C sectors, especially retail, is a significant surge in sending volume driven by holiday promotions. Marketers report a strong emphasis on increasing volume to capture sales, even if it means navigating a more crowded inbox.
Key opinions
- Record-setting days: Many marketers acknowledge that days around major shopping holidays like Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday are historically some of the highest email volume days of the year.
- More is more: Despite initial assumptions, the prevailing strategy for many B2C marketers is to increase sending volume, sometimes significantly, during the holiday period.
- Early start: Holiday promotions and associated email campaigns often commence days, if not weeks, before the actual holiday, extending the period of high sending volume.
- B2B vs. B2C: There's a general consensus that B2C marketing (especially e-commerce) should ramp up, while B2B might consider decreasing volume or maintaining normal levels, as consumer holidays are not their prime engagement period.
Key considerations
- Industry nuance: Marketers need to consider their specific industry and business model when deciding on holiday email volume. Non-commerce B2C industries might also consider toning down volume on major holidays.
- Engagement competition: During peak holiday seasons, inboxes are highly competitive. Marketers need compelling offers and messaging to stand out and drive engagement.
- Deliverability focus: With higher volume, maintaining good deliverability becomes even more critical. Marketers should ensure their sender reputation is solid and manage their sending frequency carefully.
Marketer view
Email marketer from Email Geeks notes that days like Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday are typically record-setting for most Email Service Providers (ESPs). This indicates a strong trend towards increased sending during these periods, rather than a decrease. Many marketers are indeed sending more.
Marketer view
Email marketer from Email Geeks explains that from a retail perspective, Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions often begin days earlier. This means brands are sending at least one email per day for a solid week leading up to and during these key shopping events, signifying a sustained period of high email volume.
What the experts say
Email deliverability experts often caution against drastic changes in sending volume, even during periods of high demand like major holidays. While they acknowledge the commercial necessity of increased sending for many businesses, their emphasis is on a strategic and cautious approach. The core message is that maintaining sender reputation and avoiding blocklists should always take precedence over simply maximizing volume.
Key opinions
- Engagement remains key: Even with increased volume, maintaining high engagement is crucial. Low engagement during a volume spike can lead to reputation damage and inbox placement issues.
- Gradual scaling: Experts advise against sudden, significant increases in email volume. Gradual scaling of sending volumes is safer for your sender reputation.
- Segmented sending: Sending to highly engaged segments first, or even splitting sends to engaged users, can help mitigate risks associated with high volume.
- Monitoring is vital: Close monitoring of deliverability metrics (bounce rates, spam complaints, inbox placement) is essential during peak sending times to quickly address any issues.
Key considerations
- IP warming relevance: While holidays see high volume, the underlying principles of IP warming still apply. If you're increasing volume on new IPs, plan well in advance.
- Inbox provider changes: Be aware that some ISPs, like Gmail, might adjust their algorithms or apply stricter filtering during high-traffic periods, potentially affecting deliverability. Understanding how Gmail handles holidays is important.
- Blacklist risks: Higher volume with questionable list quality or poor engagement can quickly lead to being listed on a blocklist or blacklist, which is much harder to recover from. (Regular blocklist monitoring is key.)
- Subscriber experience: Even if technically deliverable, excessive sending can lead to subscriber fatigue and unsubscribes. Balancing promotional opportunities with a positive user experience is critical.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks states that Thanksgiving is a single day that sets new records for most ESPs every year. This highlights the reality of significantly increased email traffic during holidays, suggesting marketers typically increase rather than decrease volume.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks believes that B2C sends increase on Thanksgiving, while B2B sends should ideally decrease. This offers a critical distinction, emphasizing that context (B2C vs. B2B) dictates the appropriate email volume strategy during holidays.
What the documentation says
Official documentation from major mailbox providers and industry best practices guides often highlight the importance of consistent sending patterns and positive engagement signals, especially when email volume fluctuates. While they don't explicitly state whether to decrease volume on holidays, their guidelines implicitly suggest that any significant change in sending behavior or content should be managed carefully to maintain sender reputation and ensure continued inbox placement.
Key findings
- Sender reputation stability: ISPs value consistent sending behavior. Sudden, uncharacteristic spikes in volume, even for holidays, can trigger increased scrutiny.
- Engagement as a core metric: Mailbox providers heavily weigh subscriber engagement (opens, clicks, replies) when determining inbox placement. Low engagement, regardless of volume, negatively impacts reputation.
- Filtering mechanisms: Automated systems are designed to detect spam and protect users from unwanted mail. Unusual sending patterns or high complaint rates during volume increases can trigger these filters.
- IP warming principles: The fundamental principles of gradually increasing volume (IP warming) apply to all sending, including seasonal surges, to build trust with ISPs over time.
Key considerations
- Segment quality: Documentation often advises segmenting lists and sending only to highly engaged recipients, especially when volume is high, to maintain positive engagement signals.
- Monitoring tools: Using tools like Google Postmaster Tools is crucial for monitoring deliverability performance, especially during high-volume periods, to identify and address issues promptly. An in-depth guide to Google Postmaster Tools V2 can provide more information.
- Complaint rates: Mailbox providers closely track complaint rates. Even with increased volume, maintaining low complaint rates is essential to avoid reputation damage and deliverability issues.
- Authentication: Proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) becomes even more critical during high-volume periods to ensure legitimate emails are recognized and not blocked. For example, understanding DMARC, SPF, and DKIM is a foundational step.
Technical article
Google Postmaster Tools documentation indicates that sudden changes in email volume can impact domain and IP reputation. They advise maintaining a consistent sending pattern and gradual volume increases to ensure optimal deliverability, even during seasonal spikes.
Technical article
Microsoft Postmaster Guidelines emphasize the importance of high user engagement. They state that even if email volume increases, a sustained low engagement rate will negatively affect inbox placement, stressing that quality of sends matters more than quantity alone.
Related resources
15 resources
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