We regularly hear the question “How often should you send out marketing emails?” so this post should begin to answer that question for you:
TRANSCRIPT
In today’s snippet, I want to just talk about a topic that is, actually, pretty big on the marketing radar for just about everybody who’s into regular marketing, and that’s emails. More importantly, “how often should you send out marketing emails to your clients and potential clients”?
Now, as is often the case with many of these issues, there’s no real one-size-fits-all answer. It, literally, does depend on you, your type of business, and your type of customer or contact.
But that doesn’t mean that all hope is lost. What I’m going to do is I’m going to share a few ideas based on what we do, and some of the people we know do, and some of the things we know that work in the business world.
First things first. The frequency of your emails all depends on two things: What business you’re in and the types of contacts and customers that you have.
Think: Engagement with customers
Let’s have a think about how that pans out. If you sell to consumers, and you’re in a position where you can engage these consumers on a very frequent, high-level engagement basis, you’ll probably get away with sending emails out as frequently as maybe twice a week, as long as you keep them interesting, engaging, and relevant to your target market.
Now, a good example is a lot of clothing retailers will send out something nearly every week.
I buy sport nutrition from a certain company, and they send me two emails a week, one about offers on sport nutrition, and another one about workout routines and best practice in sports and exercise. To some extent, they’re mixing it up a little bit. They’re still sending me something out twice a week.
It may well be that, if you’ve got a high-level engagement, and your clients and contacts have really bought into what you’re doing, then twice a week is fine. But the key is to keep it engaging.
Why not ask the audience?
How often should you send out marketing emails?
Another good way of looking at this is perhaps you could take a survey.
When was the last time you emailed your customers and asked them how often you can email them or when is a good frequency — every week, every two weeks, every month, every three weeks?
In all honesty, no matter what business you’re in, I think you should be at least sending an email out every two to three weeks.
I heard it said a number of years ago at a business talk that it’s not your client’s job to remember to buy from you; it’s your job to remind them to do business with you.
If you’re not doing that on a frequent enough basis, I promise you, if something more interesting comes up, they’re off.
I have another friend who is a tax consultant, for example, and she sends something out once every two or three weeks. A lot of her clients tend to be other accountants and people who run small businesses. So what she’s trying not to do is to pester people. And this is a biggie in any of our marketing: at what point do you feel like you’re getting to pester people? And that’s a question only you can answer.
What I would say is this: in Business-to-business, you’re looking at probably a couple of times a month. You can get away with sending stuff out on a more frequent basis, but you need to accept that there will be a high unsubscribe rate if you do that.
If you send something out every couple of weeks, as long as you’re managing to grow your database faster than it’s shrinking, then you should be fine. That’s a big deal because, if people are unsubscribing in droves, then you need to ask yourself the question, am I sending stuff out too frequently or is the stuff I’m sending out not relevant or interesting to my target market? That’s a whole different topic.
Do the research; Ask!
But whichever way you choose, always remember to do the research. If necessary, ask your target database, how often would you like to receive our emails? That will give you some indicator. Only a small number of people will respond, but that should give you a good indicator as to how often it needs to happen.
In our business, we send something out typically every couple of weeks. Sometimes, it’s a little more if we’re promoting something. Sometimes, it’s a little less depending on what’s going on. But, usually, twice a month, at least, our database gets hit with an email.
People unsubscribe, but our database is growing faster than it’s shrinking, and to be honest, those who are unsubscribing from our list are the people, in our opinion, who are least likely to buy from us anyway. That’s fine. We’re happy with that. So should you be. If people come off your list really quickly, then fine. Move on. Grow your list elsewhere.
Just keep in touch
The key thing is this: Keep in touch.
It’s an age-old maxim that if your target customers don’t know you’re there, they’re never going to buy.
If you’re not reminding them that you’re there, you’re never going to stay front of mind when what you have to offer comes into mind for what they want.
So however often you email people, remember, it’s up to you, your type of business, and your audience. I would say at least twice a month for all businesses. All businesses should be sending some stuff out on email.
Now, if you think that’s too much, that’s fine. It’s entirely your choice. I know that some people in professions do struggle with this.
But, ultimately, as long as you’re sending out stuff that’s relevant and interesting, then people will read it, and your unsubscribe rates will be low.
If you’re sending out just another newsletter to rant about how great you think you are, that’s all they hear, I tell you what, that ain’t going to work. You’re going to have to send stuff out that’s going to be useful, relevant, and interesting to them.
So I hope that answers the question. How often should you send out marketing emails? It depends on you, your business and your target market. Either way, go and do it. Make it happen. Keep in touch with people.