Do a search on productivity and the blog posts and articles that are returned will undoubtedly mention something about limiting email time.

Now do a search under email marketing and you’ll see mentions of finding the ideal number of emails for your audience. Too many and you’ll start getting a drop in your open rate, a higher number of unsubscribes and possible reports of spam. Too few, and you risk members not getting the information.

A member of the Chamber of Commerce Professionals Group on Facebook asked:

We were having a discussion at our staff meeting this morning about the amount of emails being sent to members from our office.  How does your chamber prevent membership staff, programs and events staff and other chamber staff from sending multiple emails throughout the week, causing overlap and overload to your members?  Any recommendations?

Getting Chamber Email Under Control

 

There are a few solutions that can be implemented to lessen the amounts of emails coming from the chamber. What you use will depend on your staff size and the personalities involved:

Implementing a communications calendar

Create a communications calendar for staff to add outgoing emails to the member base. You’ll have emails you send on a regular basis and one offs. Once you have them all listed, you’ll be able to get a better view of what can be combined.

Selecting a central system of email delivery

Whether it’s a database or an electronic mail service like Mail Chimp, seeing what’s been sent out can help you beat member email fatigue. Software will show you what’s been scheduled and by whom.

Designating a single emailer

Creating a single person who is in charge of email traffic will also stop the over communication from the chamber. While much of the emailing your chamber does is probably pre-set through some sort of delivery system, having one person in charge of it will allow him/her to recognize the log jams and cut down on emails to members.

Creating fixed emails

This may make the marketing person unhappy but another way to deal with the email traffic is by implementing 2 emails every week – one for chamber news, one for events. This means events no longer get individual emails unless they are the only events happening that week.

Letting your members decide

If you can categorize the kinds of emails you send out, you can give your members the opportunity to opt-out for a particular kind. For instance, opting out for event notifications.

However you decide to handle email fatigue among your chamber members, the key is communication – between you and your staff and you and the members. Having a team that’s all on the same page about electronic communications will lessen the burden on your members.

Don’t forget to include members in the decision, either by asking them or by watching the open rates on your emails and adjusting accordingly.

Just as one man’s junk, is another man’s treasure; too many emails is in the eye of the inbox owner. Make sure you include them as you’re debating how much is too much.

Guest post by Christina Green

Image via Flickr by Pascual Lopez