When considering implementing expiration dates in your email campaigns, a legitimate question may arise: what timeframes?
To answer this question, it’s important to consider several factors, including the type of email content, the campaign objective, and recipient expectations. Indeed, the optimal expiration period can vary considerably depending on these elements. In this document, we examine the different aspects to take into account when determining the most appropriate expiration time for your emails.
It’s important to keep in mind that even if you set an expiration date in your emails, the recipient remains in control of deleting (or archiving) the emails they receive. The email service will never delete an email without their consent. The expiration date you set is therefore a suggestion you make to your recipient.
Nevertheless, depending on the implementations by email clients, if the recipient has previously approved it, the deletion or archiving of the email could be automatic. It is therefore necessary that this is correctly configured and well thought out.
Based on which event should the expiration date be calculated?
The calculation of the expiration date clearly depends on the content of your email. By analyzing the different scenarios in the table further down in this document, we can define several types of events:
- The email sending date: This is the simplest case, the expiration date is defined based on the email sending date. For example, 30 days after sending.
- The validity date (offer, confirmation link…): In this case, it’s not the sending time but the validity or expiration of the message itself. For example, 7 days after the end of a private sale.
- The date of an event (appointment, conference…): Here, it’s a future event that will determine the email’s expiration. For example, 5 days after the date of a medical appointment.
It’s possible that in your context you have other elements that determine expiration timeframes.
What are the reasons why you would want to set a longer or shorter expiration date?
Even though the table at the end of the article offers some suggestions and examples for defining the duration before your email expires, it’s interesting to consider the elements you should keep in mind to define this duration.
- The content becomes outdated very quickly: Regularly, and this is especially true for marketing and advertising messages, the content of an email can become obsolete very quickly. But this can also be the case for alert messages, appointment reminders…
- Security issues: Some emails might need to be deleted very quickly for security reasons. The most classic case is the lost password email.
- Need to access information: Conversely, it’s possible that some information has a much longer validity period. Think, for example, of a paid newsletter that would be sent every quarter. Your client needs time to consult it and be able to return to it if it’s not available in online archives. In this example, you might also consider not setting an expiration date at all.
Generally, a good way to estimate the lifespan of an email is to look at the distribution of opens and/or clicks over the days following the sending of an email. For commercial communications, typically 90% of events are generated within 48 hours.
By analyzing these statistics, you should be able to determine which messages deserve to stay longer or shorter in recipients’ email boxes.
In which cases is it preferable not to configure an expiration date for your emails?
While it’s possible to define an expiration date for many types of emails, for some emails, it’s better not to define one at all.
We can define two main reasons for not setting an expiration date:
- Legal reasons: For legal reasons, the recipient has an interest in keeping the information and documents that have been sent to them by email. This is the case for confirmations of electronic contract signatures, updates to terms of sale, purchase confirmations…
- Need to keep evidence: In some cases, the recipient may legitimately want to keep emails in order to be able to find them later. Even if it’s not legally required. For example, keeping a delivery confirmation.
If you see others, don’t hesitate to let us know so we can improve this article.
Examples of email typologies
This table is given as an example. You are obviously in control of the expiration dates you wish to set in your emails depending on the context in which you find yourself. This table should only be taken as a basis for you to define your own rules.
Keep in mind that the recipient will remain in control of any deletion or archiving of their emails anyway.
The “Initial Event” column defines the event from which the expiration date should be calculated. The “Timeframe” column defines the time elapsed between this event and the defined expiration date.
| EMAIL TYPE | CATEGORY | INITIAL EVENT | TIMEFRAME |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return to stock | ALERTS | Sending date | Between 3 and 7 days |
| Terms and Conditions Updates | ALERTS | DO NOT SET AN EXPIRATION DATE | DO NOT SET AN EXPIRATION DATE |
| Confirmation of appointment | APPOINTMENT | Appointment date | 5 days |
| Reminder appointment date | APPOINTMENT | Appointment date | 5 days |
| Monthly newsletter | CONTENT | Sending date | Between 30 and 90 days |
| News of the brand | CONTENT | Sending date | 7 days |
| Happy birthday | LIFECYCLE | End of offer validity | 7 days |
| Product renewal (with offer) | LIFECYCLE | End of offer validity | 30 days |
| Retention / anti-churn / sun setting | LOYALTY | Sending date | Between 15 and 30 days |
| Welcome | LOYALTY | Sending date | Between 30 and 90 days |
| Use of points | LOYALTY | End of offer validity | 30 days |
| Earn / rewards / coupons | LOYALTY | End of validity | 30 days |
| Loyalty Card Activation | LOYALTY | End of validity | 30 days |
| Relational cycle | LOYALTY | Sending date | Between 30 and 90 days |
| One-time call for donations | MARKETING | Sending date | Between 30 and 90 days |
| Petitions (call for signature) | MARKETING | Sending date | Between 30 and 90 days |
| Offer of the month | MARKETING | End of offer validity | 7 days |
| Offer/ Private sales | MARKETING | End of offer validity | 7 days |
| Product spotlight | MARKETING | Sending date | Between 30 and 90 days |
| Abandoned cart | SERVICES / TRANSACTIONAL | Sending date | Between 7 and 15 days |
| Add to wish list | SERVICES / TRANSACTIONAL | Sending date | Between 7 and 15 days |
| Order confirmation | SERVICES / TRANSACTIONAL | DO NOT SET AN EXPIRATION DATE | DO NOT SET AN EXPIRATION DATE |
| Subscription confirmation | SERVICES / TRANSACTIONAL | Sending date | Between 30 and 90 days |
| Account creation confirmation | SERVICES / TRANSACTIONAL | DO NOT SET AN EXPIRATION DATE | DO NOT SET AN EXPIRATION DATE |
| Double optin | SERVICES / TRANSACTIONAL | Sending date | 5 days |
| Order tracking | SERVICES / TRANSACTIONAL | DO NOT SET AN EXPIRATION DATE | DO NOT SET AN EXPIRATION DATE |
| Delivery tracking | SERVICES / TRANSACTIONAL | DO NOT SET AN EXPIRATION DATE | DO NOT SET AN EXPIRATION DATE |
| Invoices | SERVICES / TRANSACTIONAL | DO NOT SET AN EXPIRATION DATE | DO NOT SET AN EXPIRATION DATE |
| Password reset | SERVICES / TRANSACTIONAL | Sending date | 2 days |
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