One of the most common questions that get asked in relation to email marketing is ‘How often should I be emailing my subscribers?’ The answer is…well there isn’t really a definitive one that can apply to every type of business.
One basic principle that does apply though, is you must email your subscribers regularly enough that they don’t forget they subscribed to your email list in the first place. You must have received emails out of the blue and wondered who they are from. On closer inspection, you remember it was for a free report you opted in for a year ago, and other than sending you the report, the list owner has never once emailed until now.
This is the worst possible way to operate and the fast track route to getting your emails marked as spam. Too many of those complaints and your email autoresponder service is going to close your account.
In terms of frequency, there are businesses that send emails to their subscribers every single day. Before we go any further please note, these are not sales or promotional emails every day. Sending out offer after offer on a daily basis is yet another way to get your autoresponder account closed.
Another point about daily emails is not to make them too long. They are not suited to long articles even though the content might be very useful. Instead a daily email should a be quick tip, or small snippets of advice. You can send offers and promotions possibly once a week or so and longer emails only occasionally.
Twice a week is a very common sending strategy used by a lot of email marketers. Using this frequency, you can mix up the sort of emails you send each time. Some will contain content or advice, the next might have general news, the one after a promotional offer. As you are not constantly sending out the same sort of email, subscribers won’t get bored and will be more open to the promotional ones when they are sent.
Sending a weekly email is probably the most common frequency used by businesses. It is frequent enough to keep you in the minds of your subscribers without them feeling you are bombarding them. A weekly email is perfect for sending a newsletter which may contain a combination of advice, company news and promotional offers.
The most popular newsletters will have subscribers eagerly anticipating it on the day that they normally get sent to the point where the marketer starts receiving emails if it doesn’t arrive in inboxes at the normal time. All of this is good as it shows you have built a good relationship and a loyal following amongst your subscribers.
A monthly newsletter tends to get used more by larger corporations than it does by smaller businesses or marketers. The fact that these corporations are more likely to have a very strong brand identity means there is less likelihood of subscribers forgetting about them between monthly emails.