How do you find each subscriber’s ideal cadence?

There are two ways to find a subscriber's ideal email frequency: ask them, or watch what they do and adjust. Both work. The best approach combines both.

Ask directly. A preference center is the most reliable method. Give subscribers real options: daily digest, weekly roundup, monthly highlights, or important updates only. The catch is you have to actually honor what they select, which means building your sending logic around these tiers.

Infer from behavior. Someone who clicks in every send can handle more email without disengaging. Someone who opens one in ten is telling you to ease off. You can build frequency tiers directly from engagement data without ever asking. If someone's click rate is high, they stay in the higher-frequency tier. If it drops and stays low for 60+ days, move them to a lower frequency group.

Test systematically. Split a segment and send at different frequencies for 8-12 weeks. Compare engagement rates (clicks, not just opens), complaint rates, and unsubscribe rates between cohorts. Your most engaged subscribers might surprise you. Plenty of senders find that even their best subscribers don't actually want daily emails.

The implementation side:

• Frequency caps: Set a rule in your ESP that limits sends per subscriber per week, regardless of how many campaigns you're running. "No more than 3 emails per week to this segment" is a useful safety net.
• Digest consolidation: Combine multiple messages into one email for lower-frequency subscribers, rather than sending separate sends and hoping they manage their inbox.
• Priority filtering: For infrequent subscribers, only send your best content. For high-frequency subscribers, send everything. This way you're not withholding value from low-frequency subscribers, you're just being selective.

The goal isn't a single universal cadence. It's a system that adjusts to each subscriber based on what they've told you or shown you. For more on how engagement-based segmentation affects deliverability, that's the related read that shows why cadence and reputation are connected.