How Frequently You Should Email Your List
Getting started with email marketing can be a daunting
process, and one of the most frequently asked questions
is how often you should email your list. While there is
no one correct answer to this question, there are a number
of factors that should be considered when coming up with
a schedule for emails. Sending too frequently will reduce
your subscriber base by annoying customers and causing more
to drop themselves from the list. Alternately, sending too
infrequently will decrease the likelihood that subscribers
open your email because they will not be used to it coming
into their inbox.
Its impossible to create a list schedule that is optimum
for every list, so I'll discuss the different styles of
list you may want to use. First up is a weekly updating
email list, going out at a set time every week. These lists
work great to advertise special sales, the way weekly mailers
currently advertise sales for Best Buy or Giant. It can
also be used for a site whos primary content is writing,
advertising articles of note for the week. Weekly emails
are a great way to advertise, but they work well only when
they go out at the same time every week, meaning you need
to have a weeks worth of content ready at the same time
every week. While this is easier for less involved emails
or larger companies, others may opt for a biweekly or monthly
mailing if time is a constraint.
Both biweekly and monthly mailings serve the average mailing
list user the best. You have more time to come up with content,
and your primary goal is simply to remind customers you
are there, which will naturally result in some repeat sales.
These emails can contain some of the above mentioned tactics,
but work better for a smaller site due to less effort being
required for marketing. Again, you should always send your
emails on the same schedule, be it every other tuesday,
or on the first of every month. This reliable schedule helps
you, and improves the response rate on your emails.
Emailing more than once a week or less than monthly starts
to become tricky territory. Daily emails from news websites
are acceptable, but even these may be excessive. You really
have to have a reason if you are going to be sending out
your email that often. Short of a pressing need for this
frequency, stick to weekly emails. As for less than monthly,
the problem with sending out emails this infrequently is
that your customers will not even realize they are still
on your email list. There are a few situations where such
a style is useful, but even these cases could benefit from
more frequent emails. One such example is that your company
produces a piece of software, you offer visitors the ability
to sign up, and let them know when you put out new product
versions. While it is useful to offer such a service, you
could easily send out emails on a monthly basis talking
about what you currently offer, and whats in the pipeline
for future release. You can opt for the former, but the
latter keeps your brand in customers' inboxes more often,
and therefore is better advertising.
In the end, your advertising is entirely up to you, but
by focusing on keeping to a regular schedule and providing
the best content possible, you can get the absolute most
out of your online advertising efforts. It is also worth
experimenting with different send times, to see whether
there are higher open rates and click-thru rates for mailings
going out at different times. The advantage of online advertising
is that each individual mailing isn't costing you a substantial
amount of advertising money, allowing you to experiment
and determine what works best!
