The Importance of Limiting the Number of Emails and Text Messages

By Prisma Campaigns
November 20, 2024

Digital marketing relies heavily on automation tools to streamline processes and personalize interactions. However, setting limits on outbound communication (emails, text messages, and push notifications) is essential to maintain audience trust and improve campaign engagement. Let's discuss some practical examples of how to do this effectively.

Why Set Limits?

1. Preventing Fatigue and Unsubscribes: Bombarding people with too many messages can lead to email fatigue. Overwhelmed recipients are more likely to unsubscribe or mark communications as spam.
2. Enhancing Engagement: Controlled communication ensures recipients receive relevant, timely messages rather than a flood of information.
3. Maintaining Compliance: Regulations like GDPR and CAN-SPAM mandate responsible communication practices.

How to Manage Limits Manually

If your marketing automation platform does not manage these limits automatically, you can still do it manually by following these steps:

1. Analyze Open and Unsubscribe Rates: Identify the ideal frequency of communication for your audience (e.g., one per day, two per week, six per month) based on your existing open rates and unsubscribe rates.
2. Identify Exceptions: Determine any cohorts that should receive more or fewer messages. Identify communications that should bypass the limit, such as fraud warnings.
3. List Planned Communications: Compile all your planned outbound communications and compare them to your set limits. It’s very likely they will exceed the limit.
4. Define Priorities: Establish priorities for your messages. For instance, if there are ten emails to send but only eight can fit into a month, decide which ones should go first.

Repeat this process regularly as you plan your outbound communications.

If your credit union is only running seasonal campaigns, this manual process is manageable. However, as data becomes more accessible and campaigns become more targeted and perpetual, managing these limits manually becomes very time-consuming and imprecise.

For example, using their data to create micro-segments, our most sophisticated clients run between 40 and 70 targeted campaigns simultaneously. Some members will qualify for a few campaigns, while others may qualify for most. Managing this manually is virtually impossible.

That’s why they have opted for a marketing automation platform that can manage this automatically based on policies you define.

How to Automate Communication Limits

Automating communication limits can streamline this process significantly. Here’s how you can achieve this with a platform like Prisma Campaigns:

1. Define Frequency Limits: Set caps on the number of emails, SMS messages, or push notifications per day, week, or month.
2. Segment Your Audience: Customize communication limits for different segments of your audience. For example, high-value members or those with higher engagement rates, might receive more frequent communications compared to new subscribers or less active users.
3. Differentiate by Channel: Apply different limits for various communication channels. For example, you may allow more frequent emails but limit SMS messages to once a week, as data shows people prefer time-sensitive or personal messages via text.
4. Create an Exclusion List: Indicate whether you have any messages you want to exclude from the limit so they always go out. Typically, this applies to critical categories like transactional, regulatory, fraud warnings, and collections, and sometimes maintenance notices and branch closures as well.
5. Prioritize: The platform will use custom rules to decide which messages get sent. For example, if someone qualifies for both a seasonal product offer and an educational message and they can only receive one more message this month, the category that is higher on your list will be prioritized. Onboarding and seasonal campaigns are typically high on lists. Categories like CDs, HELOCs, and checking accounts move up and down according to your strategy and market environment.
6. Monitor and Adjust: Regularly review and adjust the limits based on engagement rates, unsubscribes, and feedback.
7. Compliance Check: Ensure that your limits align with legal requirements such as GDPR, CAN-SPAM, or other relevant regulations.

Practical Examples and Use Cases

1. Onboarding Users: Limit onboarding emails to four in the first month, focusing on critical milestones like online banking login, e-statements, and the first payment.
2. Seasonal Promotions: Cap promotional messages, especially during the holiday season.
3. Multiple Product Offers: Set monthly limits on product updates.
4. Managing Simultaneous Campaigns: Prioritize messages to avoid fatigue.

Conclusion

While creating campaigns and sending messages has become much easier through marketing automation, keeping your audience engaged and avoiding unsubscribes remains a challenge.

Setting communication limits is vital for effective marketing automation. It helps maintain positive audience relationships, enhance engagement, and ensure compliance. By thoughtfully managing limits, you can optimize your marketing efforts and stay top-of-mind without overwhelming your audience.

Additionally, adopting an omnichannel strategy and exploring alternative channels – such as online banking banners, social media, CCTV ads, ATM, and IVR messages – can reduce your reliance on outbound marketing. This approach ensures greater message visibility without creating audience fatigue.

If you’re ready to see how Prisma Campaigns can manage your communication limits in an automated manner and handle multiple channels from a single platform, contact us or schedule a demo.

About Prisma Campaigns

Prisma Campaigns is a marketing automation platform specifically designed to help credit unions develop deep and empathic relationships with their members through personalized marketing campaigns. It uses a connected, data-centric approach to communicate with members on all your digital channels - email, SMS, online banking and mobile app. Prisma Campaigns’ open platform integrates with your existing banking technology and is ready to grow and expand with your credit union.

Prisma is trusted by 25 credit unions to enhance their member experience and increase conversion rates.