Platform · Contact frequency
Contact frequency management: creating relevance for optimal KPIs
The optimal mix of contact frequency and relevance – managed across all channels. The PBM Campaign Platform counts every contact across all campaigns and channels and enforces your rules before anything is sent.
- Day 2: Churn prevention Email
- Day 8: Churn prevention Email reminder
- Day 12: Churn prevention Letter
- Day 16: Autumn newsletter moved from Sunday to Monday
- Day 19: Heat pump tariff postponed
- Day 24: Heat pump tariff postponed to 14 Oct
The problem
When does customer communication turn into contact fatigue?
When every campaign makes sense on its own – but nobody sees the total. The product team plans the renewal, sales the cross-selling, marketing the newsletter. For the customer, it all arrives in the same week.
Contact fatigue describes the state in which customers increasingly ignore, unsubscribe from or find annoying the messages of a sender because they arrive too often or are not relevant enough.
- Messages are overlooked – including the important one.
- Customers unsubscribe or object. Then the channel is lost for good.
- The personal adviser comes across as a mass sender.
One month in Jonas Weber’s inbox · Example
Basics
What is contact frequency management?
Contact frequency management is the control of how often and at what intervals an individual customer receives advertising and information – across all campaigns and channels. Unlike a sending limit in a single email tool, it counts every contact, whether email, letter or SMS.
In the PBM Campaign Platform, it takes effect at one point: immediately before sending. There, the platform checks every planned contact against your rules.
Rules
Which rules can you define?
Five adjustable settings, all configurable. You set the values – the platform does not impose any fixed limits.
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Upper limit
No more than a defined number of contacts per customer within a period – across all campaigns and channels.
Example: 4 contacts in 30 days.
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Minimum interval
There are at least as many days between two contacts as you specify.
Example: 3 days.
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Quiet times
Nothing is sent on these days.
Example: on Sundays and public holidays.
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Exceptions
You can exempt service and transactional messages, such as a contract confirmation, from the limits.
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Re-entry block
A blocking period per journey prevents the same customer from going through the same sequence again too soon.
If a rule applies, the contact is postponed – not deleted and not forgotten.
Contact rules · installation-wide
- Max. contacts per customer
- 4 in 30 days (all channels)
- Minimum interval
- 3 days
- Quiet times
- Sun + public holidays
- Exceptions
- Transactional/service messages
Prioritisation
Which campaign takes priority if several want to address the same customer?
The one with higher priority. You rank your campaigns. If a customer is in two campaigns, the more important one runs. The other pauses for this customer until the more important one ends.
Ranking (example)
- Churn prevention
- Heat pump tariff
- Autumn newsletter
Drag the entries or use the arrows to change the ranking.
1 · Churn prevention running
2 · Heat pump tariff paused
3 · Autumn newsletter postponed
Campaign prioritisation
- 1 Churn preventionhigh
- 2 Heat pump tariffis postponed
- 3 Autumn newsletter
Above all rules
What takes precedence over all rules?
Withdrawal. If a customer withdraws their consent or objects to advertising, the PBM Campaign Platform immediately stops all running journeys – across all campaigns. No priority and no exception can override this.
The compliance gate checks upper limits, minimum intervals and consents together before every send. The result is traceable: sent, redirected to letter, postponed or stopped.
- Frequency limit reached → postponed 523
- Withdrawal → stopped 41
This gate cannot be deactivated.
Example · Stadtwerke Musterstadt
What does this look like for an individual customer?
Example: Jonas Weber, 34, is a customer of Stadtwerke Musterstadt. His electricity tariff ends in six weeks. In October, three campaigns want to reach him. The rule is: no more than 4 contacts in 30 days, at least 3 days apart, no contact on Sundays.
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Churn prevention has priority 1. It sends an email, a reminder and a letter.
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The heat pump tariff has priority 2. It pauses while churn prevention is running.
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The newsletter falls on a Sunday – it goes out on Monday.
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Once churn prevention ends, the heat pump tariff starts. Its first contact would be the fifth in 30 days. It is postponed to 14 October.
Jonas Weber receives four contacts in 30 days instead of seven – and the most important message first.
Use case: churn prevention Contact frequency for municipal utilities
Rule4 in 30 days (all channels) · minimum interval 3 days
Jonas Weber · example
30 days
- Churn preventionEmail
- Churn preventionEmail reminder
- Churn preventionLetter
- Autumn newsletterEmail · moved from Sunday to Monday
- Heat pump tariffpostponed to 14 Oct
Tariff ends in 6 weeks
Law · As of: September 2026
Is contact frequency also a legal issue?
Where does contact frequency management help you?
Relevance comes from two halves: the right contact frequency – and relevant content. The second half is called personalisation.
Frequently asked questions about contact frequency management
What is the difference between frequency capping and contact frequency management?
Frequency capping usually means a single upper limit, often only for one channel or for ads. Contact frequency management is broader: it combines upper limits, minimum intervals, quiet periods and the prioritisation of competing campaigns – across all of a customer’s campaigns and channels.
Do the upper limits apply to all channels together?
Yes. The PBM Campaign Platform counts contacts across channels. An email, a letter and an SMS all count towards the same upper limit, regardless of which campaign they come from.
What happens to a message that would exceed the upper limit?
It is postponed, not deleted. The platform schedules the contact for the next point in time at which all rules are met. In the compliance gate, you can trace for every contact whether it was sent, redirected, postponed or stopped.
Are service and transactional messages also limited?
You decide. Service and transactional messages, such as a contract confirmation, can be configured as exceptions to the upper limits. This ensures that necessary information gets through even if a customer has had many advertising contacts.
Who sets the limits?
You do. Upper limits, minimum intervals and quiet periods are configurable; the PBM Campaign Platform does not impose fixed values. It works with fixed, traceable rules instead of a forecast that nobody can explain.
What happens when a customer withdraws their consent?
Withdrawal takes precedence over all other rules. The platform immediately stops all of the customer’s running journeys, across all campaigns, and blocks re-entry until consent is given again.