A generous slice of your email marketing strategy should include data-driven insights on how many sales emails to send in a day. While some have cracked the code and found their optimal number, many businesses need more clarity. Audiences and spam filters are becoming more discerning while compliance regulations continue to tighten.
We’re here to help you navigate these challenges. We’ll give you actionable insights to strike the ideal balance between sending too few and too many sales emails.
We’ll also explore the growing number of tech innovations that can streamline various aspects of your email outreach.
First, let’s talk numbers.
How many sales emails can you technically send per day?
To answer the title question of this article, we first need to understand the maximum number of emails you can send in a day. This is determined by email service providers (ESPs), and each one sets its own cap.
Here’s an overview of leading ESP’s email-sending limits for a 24-hour period:
Email service provider (ESPs) | Daily email-sending limit |
Microsoft Outlook (free) | 300 |
Microsoft Outlook 365 | 10000 |
Gmail (standard account) | 500 |
Gmail (Google Workspace) | 2000 |
iCloud Mail | 1000 messages |
Mailchimp (free) | 500 |
Mailchimp (paid plans) | Varies according to contact count |
HubSpot (free) | 500 |
HubSpot (paid) | 5000 |
Zoho (free) | 150 |
Zoho (paid) | Tiers range from 250–2,000 |
GoDaddy | 250 (can be increased to 500 at an additional charge) |
Yahoo! Mail Plus | 500 |
Rackspace | 10000 |
Yandex | 500 |
Hushmail | 2000 |
Proton Mail (free) | 150 |
Proton Mail (paid) | Varies according to account reputation |
Mailgun (free) | 100 |
Mailgun (paid) | No daily limits, but monthly limits vary across plans |
Bluehost | 150 (per hour) |
DreamHost | 100 (per hour) |
HostGator | 500 (per hour) |
Disclaimer: While sending this many in a day is possible, avoid hitting these limits at all costs. We’ll tell you why in a minute.
How many sales emails should you actually send per day?
It’s impossible to prescribe a definitive number that will work best for all businesses and their unique sales strategies. But we can offer general guidelines and advice on finding your perfect fit.
The most important consideration is how long you’ve had your email account. Let’s compare the numbers for newer accounts vs those with established sender reputations.
Starting out
If you’re using a new sender account, gear up for a slower and more cautious start.
Aim for 10–50 daily emails for the first couple of months.
Why so few?
Now’s the time to lay the foundations for a reputation as a trustworthy sender. This involves researching and understanding your prospects, personalizing your emails, and monitoring key metrics.
This manual and intensive approach means you may be limited to creating around 10–20 high-quality emails a day if you’re a one-person team.
For example, a CRM SaaS company targeting SMBs might start by focusing on a niche audience, like fitness centers. The ideal emails use the recipient’s name, title, and business name. They can also refer to recent industry developments, such as the impact of the growing number of Ozempic users on gym membership rates.
Scaling up and continued success
The good news is this humble target is temporary, so don’t feel discouraged that you aren’t casting a wide enough net.
Going into your fourth month, grow your effort to around 100 emails a day.
If you’re taking the time to warm up your account effectively, you can further increase this to 150–200 daily sales emails after a month or two. You’ll then be able to jump to 300 emails with adequate resource allocation and a dedicated team.
However, keep in mind that although you’re making progress in terms of quantity, this shouldn’t come at the expense of email quality. It’s vital to continue personalizing your content, assessing analytics, and refining your strategy.
For instance, an up-and-coming fintech company sending 150 daily emails to CEOs in one region decides to expand to other areas. It continually tweaks subject lines and content based on performance data for maximum impact.
After that, it’s realistic to hit several hundred emails per day if you have low bounce rates, positive response rates, and few spam reports over the long term.
By the time your domain enters its second year of activity, it’s feasible to send 500 sales emails per day.
Why finding the right number matters
With so many gray areas, figuring out how many emails to send on a daily basis involves caution, trial and error — and, ultimately — a lot of hard work. But is it all worth it?
Yes, finding that Goldilocks middle ground is crucial. While you no doubt want to maximize your outreach by sending enough bulk emails, you don’t want to waste precious resources on emails that never get read, opened, or even delivered.
Here’s how finding the right balance can benefit your business:
Protecting your sender reputation
Your email sender reputation is akin to your credit score or digital street cred. Sending too many emails too soon from one account is a major red flag to ESPs. You, in turn, get flagged, and emails get filtered into spam folders, where sales email dreams go to die.
Improving customer experience
Bombarding potential customers’ inboxes is the equivalent of a pesky and pushy digital salesperson. Rather than encouraging them to reflexively hit “delete,” show that you value their time and inbox real estate. Happy recipients are likelier to become happy customers, and satisfied customers tend to stick around longer.
Driving engagement
On a similar note, by sending emails at opportune times with value-adding, personalized, and relevant content, you can expect increased engagement with better open rates and more replies — all of which can boost conversation rates.
Optimizing ROI
Every campaign you devise, and every email that fits into that campaign uses company time, money, and human resources. Make sure your investments pay off by focusing your efforts. Sending well-thought-out emails to a carefully considered email list will generate more leads and sales than a “spray and pray” approach.
Enhancing testing and data insights
Email outreach campaigns are excellent for A/B testing and provide targeted data on customer preferences, engagement patterns, and potential opportunities. With fewer variables, you can change subject lines, try different timings, and refine your messaging. When analyzed, interpreted, and acted upon, these insights will feed directly into the success of your existing and future email marketing campaigns.
Factors affecting how many daily emails you should send
A multitude of variables can influence your company’s ideal email volume. Here are some of the biggest movers and shakers:
- Your sender reputation: As we’ve discussed, establishing yourself as a credible email sender is your first-class ticket to landing in inboxes, not spam folders.
- Industry standards: The type of industry you’re in can drastically shape audience expectations and acceptable email etiquette.
Frequent and widescale email communication is better suited to certain sectors, while others require a more measured and tailored approach. We highly recommend doing your homework on industry benchmarks.
Here are some specific industry examples to illustrate:
Industry | Broad comparison of daily email volumes | Email challenges |
Private healthcare | Lower | Privacy concerns, regulatory compliance, building trust |
B2B SaaS | Lower to moderate | Reaching decision-makers, longer sales cycles, establishing authority |
Travel and tourism | Moderate | Seasonal demand, appealing to varied preferences, competitive offers |
B2C eCommerce | Higher | Seasonal variations, high competition, spam filters |
Your engagement levels
Higher engagement levels with solid open and reply rates often give you more wiggle room when it comes to email volume. Sadly, the opposite is also true. It’s time to reassess your strategy if you notice poor engagement and high unsubscribe rates.
Quality of your email list
Don’t overlook the need for a squeaky-clean email list. Sending emails to your intended recipients decreases bounce rates and bolsters your reputation. Maybe you found a CEO’s email address on Facebook. How certain are you that it’s the right one?
Email verification tools help to prevent outdated, inaccurate, and irrelevant contacts. They do the tedious investigative work, so you don’t have to.
At ContactInfo, we’re on a mission to help connect businesses with the best contact data provider tools, which we’ll explore further in just a bit.
Ways to optimize the impact of your email outreach
While email numbers are a top consideration, you can ramp up your chances of success by incorporating the following complementary strategies:
1. Segment your email lists
This involves dividing your email list according to audience characteristics (such as age, gender, location, etc.) and behavior (purhcase history and web activity). Segmentation lets you tailor your content to recipients’ needs, interests, and preferences.
2. Time your emails well
A well-conceived email can still fall flat if you send it at the wrong time. Ensure you send them during business hours, factoring in timezone differences. While recent studies suggest that mid-week (Tuesday to Thursday) is the most effective, it’s always best to experiment with different times and analyze which emails perform best.
3. Nail the subject line
This is your first – and sometimes only – opportunity to generate interest and intrigue. Focus on clarity, conciseness, and curiosity. Avoid clickbait and ‘spammy’ words and phrases, as well as cliches.
Here are a few examples:
- “Ultimate”
- “Guaranteed”
- “Today only!”
- “Unbeatable deals!”
- “Act now!”
- “Deal of a lifetime!”
Instead, be authentic and specific. People respond better to subject lines like “Boost sales by 20% this festive season” than “Make money fast with our game-changing solutions.”
4. Prioritize personalization
Personalization takes time and effort, but without it, you can expect open and engagement rates to suffer. In fact, research shows that 71% of consumers expect personalized interactions from businesses. Individualizing emails goes beyond using the recipient’s name. Take this opportunity to address their particular pain points, reference past interactions, or highlight shared connections.
5. Combine quality content with compelling copy
The content of your emails should be relevant and helpful to potential customers, but this alone isn’t enough. Channel your inner copywriter (or enlist the help of one) to tell a story, connect, and drive action. Your first paragraph and closing CTA are especially important.
6. Test, monitor, and refine
Track performance metrics as you make changes.
Metrics to copy and paste and take note of:
- Subject lines
- Email length
- Structure and layout
- Tone of voice
- Visuals and videos.
7. Stay compliant
Complying with regulations is a non-negotiable legal requirement. Failing to meet regulations can lead to hefty fines and penalties while damaging your sender and business reputation. GDPR in Europe and CAN-SPAM in the US dictate how often you can contact prospects and require clear opt-out options in every email.
Best tools for efficient sales email outreach
A successful email campaign involves jumping through many hoops. Fortunately, you have access to an extensive range of software and services that can do much of the jumping for you.
Here are some of our top picks to speed up, simplify, and strengthen every aspect of your email outreach.
Email marketing platforms
- These platforms support campaign management and automation.
- HubSpot, Mailchimp, Klaviyo, and Campaigner are some of the best solutions.
- They help with everything from crafting emails to tracking performance.
Email warming services
- Warming services gradually increase your email volume to avoid landing in your ESP’s bad books.
- Lemwarm, Warmup Inbox, and MailReach are excellent options for businesses with new accounts.
Sales enablement tools
- Software like Salesloft and Outreach streamline your sales process to improve email efficiency.
- They assist with managing customer interactions and giving insight into prospect behavior.
Email verification tools
- You might know how to find contact information from a name alone. Make sure the email address is correct using tools like Wiza, which help you validate the contact information of quality leads.
- Wiza’s verification tool is simple, fast, and 97% accurate. It’s also completely free, and you don’t need to create an account to use it.
The rising influence of AI on email marketing
On the topic of technology, artificial intelligence is changing what’s possible in the sales industry. In a 2023 study, 51% of email marketers reported that AI-driven strategies were more effective than traditional email marketing approaches.
These are just a few AI use cases:
- Personalization at scale: You no longer have to personalize messages on your own. AI can create highly targeted messages for large audiences without sacrificing quality.
- Writing assistance: There are also tools for generating subject lines and compelling email body copy. What’s more, they’re great for improving the clarity of your writing while catching sneaky typos.
- Automated follow-ups: Ditch the manual effort using AI software that uses follow-up sequences based on recipient behavior.
- Predictive analytics: AI can also analyze past behavior and interactions to predict which prospects are most likely to engage and the best times to send emails.
Emails should end in sales, not spam folders
The question of “How many sales emails per day is best for my business?” doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all answer, but finding the right balance is critical. Sending the optimal number of emails ensures you connect with prospects effectively without overwhelming them or triggering spam filters.
The key takeaway? Focus on quality over quantity.
- Start by testing your email cadence and tracking performance metrics such as open rates, responses, and unsubscribes.
- Use these insights to refine your approach. Combine this with tools that help personalize your emails and monitor deliverability to ensure your outreach remains impactful.
- With a strategic and measured approach, you can maximize results and build meaningful connections with your audience.
Commonly asked questions
What is the recommended daily limit for sending sales emails without harming your sender reputation?
For new accounts, start slow with 10–50 emails per day to build trust with email service providers (ESPs). As your sender reputation improves, you can gradually scale up to 100–200 daily emails within the first six months, eventually reaching 500 per day for established accounts. Avoid hitting ESP-imposed daily limits, as this can trigger spam filters and damage your reputation.
How can businesses determine the ideal number of sales emails to send based on their audience and industry?
Consider factors such as your email sender reputation, industry standards, and engagement rates. For example, B2B SaaS companies may require a more measured approach than B2C eCommerce businesses, which often send higher volumes. Monitor metrics like open rates, bounce rates, and spam reports to find the sweet spot for your specific audience and goals.
What tools and strategies can help optimize email outreach for better engagement and compliance?
Use segmentation to target specific audience groups and personalize messages based on recipient data. AI tools can assist with automation, email personalization, and analytics to improve outreach efficiency. Additionally, leverage email verification tools to ensure accurate contacts, and stay compliant with regulations like GDPR and CAN-SPAM by including clear opt-out options.
