Deliverability Letter F

Frequency Capping

Limiting the number of emails sent to a recipient within a specific time period to prevent overwhelming them.

Frequency capping is the practice of limiting the number of emails sent to individual recipients within a specific time period to prevent overwhelming them and damaging your sender reputation. This strategy helps maintain positive relationships with prospects while ensuring your messages remain welcomed rather than becoming a source of annoyance. For cold email campaigns, frequency capping is particularly important because recipients haven’t explicitly requested your communications, making them more sensitive to message volume.

The optimal frequency cap varies based on your industry, relationship with recipients, and the value provided in each email. Cold email sequences typically benefit from caps of 1-2 emails per week during active outreach phases, with longer intervals between sequence cycles. Established customers or engaged prospects might tolerate higher frequencies, while completely cold prospects require more conservative approaches. Consider the cumulative effect of emails from different campaigns – a prospect might receive cold outreach emails, newsletter content, and event invitations from your organization, requiring coordination across all communication streams.

Implementing frequency capping requires systematic tracking and coordination across email campaigns. Use email marketing platforms that provide frequency capping controls and global recipient management. Create suppression lists that account for all email communication types to prevent over-messaging. Monitor unsubscribe rates and engagement metrics to identify signs that frequency is too high. Implement preference centers where recipients can control communication frequency and types. Consider behavioral triggers that might warrant adjusting frequency – highly engaged prospects might welcome more frequent communication while unresponsive recipients should receive less. Remember that quality often trumps quantity in email marketing – sending fewer, higher-value emails typically produces better results than frequent, low-value communications.

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