Blog Email Marketing and SMS

Myth 21: Never send the same message twice

Imagen Myth 21: Never send the same message t

One of the objectives of email marketing is to keep the contacts in your database informed, either with news from the sector or your own news. This seems to suggest that you should always send different newsletters and content to keep subscribers from unsubscribing, but in reality, it is a myth that you cannot repeat the message. In fact, it is sometimes convenient to do so and it would be bad practice not to do so.

Why send the same message twice

Although each communication is different and should be assessed individually, in general, there are several reasons why it is a good idea to re-send a campaign to the same subscribers:

To maintain a good reputation: if a serious mistake has been made in the message, it is better to try to mitigate the consequences with a mailing that corrects it. In this case, it will not be 100% the same content because the appropriate changes will be made, but the essence will be maintained.
Increase the effectiveness of the message: preparing a campaign is an investment that is easier to recover if it is sent twice instead of just once. If the individual data has not been as expected, it is possible to try to make them go up by using the same information a second time.
Save time: As long as the message is still valid, it is much quicker to resend a previous campaign than to prepare a new one. However, sometimes it is important to review the content carefully because minor adjustments may be needed to make it more current.

Obviously, not all communications deserve to be sent twice, for example it is unthinkable to do so with promotions that have already expired or with transactional messages because it would give an image of sloppiness in the email marketing strategy.

When to send the same message twice

Recycling content is a very common practice in marketing, for example by emailing information that has also been published on social media. Including the recycling of communications in the planning is possible depending on the type of message, but there are two reasons for doing so:

When user action is necessary: it is clear that we always want them to open and interact with what we send them, but sometimes it is essential that they do so, for example to renew the service or confirm a face-to-face appointment. In these cases, it is more than justified to insist and resend the same message because we know that if they had seen it, they would have reacted in some way.
When we have to correct something in the communication: the user also expects companies to be aware of their mistakes and to face up to the fact that they have made a mistake. If an offer is sent with the wrong expiry date, contact method or price, it is almost obligatory to resend the correct version as quickly as possible so that as few users as possible are affected.

In these cases, use the same channel to repeat the communication because it will be easier to use the data obtained from the first mailing to prepare the second one.

How to send the same message several times

From any email manager you can forward a message. There is a clearly visible button for this, but in a professional email marketing platform this possibility is not available. What you can do is to duplicate a campaign and then use the editor to make some adjustments to the new message so that it is not literally the same:

Modify the subject line: if the reason for sending the message is to fix an error, it is advisable to indicate this in the inbox. You can also use an attention-grabbing phrase such as ‘In case you missed it’ to make it obvious that it is a second message just like the previous one.
Add an explanation just below the header: this can be a single line of text framed to make it stand out, but it should be clearly visible as soon as the email is opened so that the impact is not lost if the user does not scroll.
Change as necessary: depending on the type of campaign, it is possible to send the same message, but it is also advisable to make small changes to text, photos or links to correct errors or try to improve the new campaign.

After making these modifications, it is then necessary to choose to whom to resend the message. There are several criteria according to the data that can be extracted from the first message in order to segment the second message:

Who received it: sending it again to the same recipients is a way of reinforcing the message, but it is not always advisable to do this with all communications because you can end up being too insistent. The alternative is to send it to the rest of the list, i.e. those who did not receive it, but check the reasons why you did not include them in the first place.
Who hasn't opened it: this way you only insist only on those who may have missed the campaign, without bothering those who did see it. However, this data may not be 100% reliable, so it should also be used sparingly.
Who did not click: retargeting only those who did not interact with your campaign is the least aggressive way for users to repeat the same message and the most efficient for you. Although this segmentation may give you a low number of recipients, you will get useful data to improve list engagement.

With these considerations in mind, sending the same communication is a good way to save time on content, but it is still necessary to choose who you want to target.

When to stop sending the same message

It is possible to send the same thing twice, but what about a third time? Nothing prevents you from doing so, but it is not recommended because it could be annoying for some users. If after three times someone does not respond, it is better to look for another means of communication because the email is no longer useful. It may eventually lead to a bounce back or unsubscribe, so you could use this information to clean this address from the list.

Repeating more times would only be justified if the segmentation changed so much that no one received more than two impacts. This would be possible with a large list, but with small lists it is easier to take advantage of the design or structure and change the contents so that the result is a new mailing.

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