The Cadence Question Is Actually a Segmentation Question
Most ecommerce founders ask me how many emails they should send each month. The question assumes every contact on your list should receive the exact same volume of mail. That is a mistake.
When planning your schedule, sending cadence is not about the total number of campaigns you build. It is entirely about the segments you send those campaigns to. If you treat a customer who purchased yesterday the same as someone who has ignored your emails for eight months, your deliverability will take a beating.
You do not need a single content calendar for your entire account. You need distinct sending schedules mapped directly to specific tiers of audience engagement.
Protecting Your Deliverability Tab
Every time you hit send in Klaviyo, mailbox providers evaluate your domain based on customer response. They watch your open rates, click rates, bounce rates, spam complaints, and unsubscribe rates. To keep your deliverability in the good or excellent band, positive interactions must far outweigh negative ones.
If you blast unengaged profiles multiple times per week, you guarantee low open rates and high spam complaints. Your emails will quickly stop landing in the primary inbox and head straight for spam.
High frequency requires high engagement. In my books, you earn the right to send more mail to a subscriber only when they consistently open and click what you send.
The 60-30-10 Content Split
To keep an engaged audience interested across a heavy monthly schedule, your messaging mix needs variety. Pitching a sale in every single email will burn out your list within weeks.
For a standard monthly calendar of roughly 14 campaigns, I recommend sticking to this ratio:
60% Educational content: How-tos, brand stories, tips, and value-add material that solves a problem for the reader.
30% Product-focused content: Spotlights on specific items, feature breakdowns, social proof, and user reviews.
10% Sales-focused content: Direct promotional offers, limited-time discounts, and clear calls to purchase.
This balance gives subscribers a reason to keep opening your messages without feeling constantly sold to.
Sending 14 to 15 Emails a Month to Engaged Segments
Here is the rule of thumb I use: an engaged audience (profiles that have opened or clicked an email within the last 90 days) can comfortably receive around 14 to 15 emails per month. That works out to roughly one email every two to three days.
Because these subscribers actively interact with your brand, sending every few days will not cause major deliverability issues. They receive the full breadth of your calendar, including all educational pieces, product highlights, and sales announcements.
If someone is interacting with your brand weekly, they want to hear from you. Keep them warm with regular, high-value sends.
Restricting Sends for Unengaged Profiles
While your engaged tier gets 14 emails a month, your wider database should receive far less. Sending educational content to unengaged subscribers is a waste of domain reputation.
For unengaged profiles or full-list sends, restrict your volume to roughly 1 to 3 emails per month. These sends should be reserved exclusively for major company announcements, massive seasonal product launches, or site-wide sales.
By limiting broad sends to your highest-converting messages, you give unengaged users an occasional opportunity to re-engage without dragging down your daily sender reputation.
Final Thoughts
Stop trying to find a single monthly send count for your whole list. Give your 90-day engaged segment 14 to 15 mixed-content emails a month, and restrict full-list sends to 1 to 3 high-impact promotional moments. Manage cadence by audience behaviour and your deliverability will take care of itself.
Need Help Dialling In Your Campaign Strategy?
We help ecommerce brands map high-performing content calendars and fix deliverability issues inside Klaviyo. Learn more about our approach on our email campaigns service page.
