Forget automated sequences, welcome series, and all that jazz.
Let’s talk solely broadcast emails.
These bad boys seem to scare experienced and beginner marketers alike. They have this belief that if you send too many broadcast emails you’ll lose subscribers. Send too little and those subscribers will forget who you are (and might unsubscribe anyway).
That’s because marketers think in terms of: How do I get as many people as possible to open this email? How do I get as many people as possible to click on the link in the email?
In other words, they’re thinking like marketers, not like businesspeople.
And why wouldn’t they think like marketers? It’s their job to get leads, not to get sales, right?
That’s why you hear waaaaaaaaay too many marketers OBSESS over optimal delivery time, day, and frequency.
<-- Look at how many results
After writing for many different email lists (retail e-commerce, health and wellness, tech, and even vibration isolation solutions), and learning from amazing marketers who’ve tested this stuff more than I have...I’ve found out why this question regarding frequency is irrelevant.
Especially if your goal is long-term profit over clicks.
The truth is: the people who ask this question aren’t actually wondering about send frequency.
They’re wondering: How many emails can I send so that I get the least amount of unsubscribes?
Yes, it sucks to lose a lead. But what sucks more is denying your biggest fans the opportunity to get a solution to their running-out-of-fuel level problem. Every email they get from your company is a piece of proof that shows them your company can solve their problem.
No proof = no sale.
So instead of reading stats upon stats compiled across dozens of industries and list sizes about the optimal send frequency, look at your own company. Determine how many emails you should send based on these questions:
1. Do I want to make my company more money or am I okay with the current cash flow?
The more emails you send, the more chances you get to 1) engage with your subscribers 2) show them you can solve their problem with your products/services
2. Does my company offer multiple products or services? If not, does my company offer multiple benefits from one product/service?
The more products or services your company offers the more chances you have to show different segments of your list that your company can help solve a problem. This is also true if your company offers multiple benefits with one product or service.
3. How much time and effort can I put into creating these emails every week? Or, how much time and effort can I put into working with others so that they can take the time off my hands and create these emails for me?
Your audience might be okay with getting an email from your company every day, but if you don’t have the time to create them or work with people who have the time to create them, then you can’t really send one email a day.
4. Am I okay with paying a higher monthly fee for leads that I’m not doing my best to convert?
Most email marketing software is priced based on the number of subscribers in your system, not on the number of emails you send.
ConvertKit’s pricing tiers:
ActiveCampaign’s pricing tiers:
AWeber’s pricing tiers:
Mailerlite’s pricing tiers:
So, why pay for more subscribers when we all know you get a higher ROI from sending consistent proof to the subscribers who want to solve their problems using your help? Especially, if those subscribers are people who have already bought products from your company.
Here are some examples:
A small list of under 500
I used to do email marketing for a yoga studio focusing on chronic pain and injuries. No other yoga studio in the area 1) had an email list 2) had such a specific focus. It was like a goldmine for people who had been struggling with chronic pain and/or injuries after trying so many other possible solutions.
It got to a point where people would ask: Why haven’t I gotten an email this week?! Did I miss an event?
Solving chronic pain was such a running-out-of-fuel level problem that people wanted as much proof as possible that this would help them solve their problem.
A medium list of 30,000
There’s a marketer I follow who used to send emails sporadically. Sometimes a few times a week. Sometimes once every few months.
Now I’m lucky if I get to see his name in my inbox a couple of times a year.
That’s because he’s proven to his subscribers enough times that he can solve their problems. Now, he probably doesn’t have the bandwidth to demonstrate more proof (he would have too much work on his plate).
A big list of 2,000,000+
When I worked at a retail e-commerce company that had thousands of products, I wrote emails every day to different segments. There were thousands of unsubscribes per week, but it didn’t matter because we consistently brought in the same amount of revenue.
There were always repeat customers because they believed in this company. This company solved their problems easily.
Repeat customers talked about the products, so new subscribers kept on coming in.
A list of I-don’t-know-how-many but it’s one of my favorites
There’s a wine subscription company that sends me emails EVERY DAY, sometimes twice a day! And get this—I can’t even buy the damn wine because it ships to US residents only. So, why am I signed up to it? They’ve given me more than enough proof that I should buy their wine.
When (yes, WHEN, because I won’t accept the fact that they’ll only ever send their wines to people in the US) their service is available to people in Canada, I’ll be the first Canadian who buys their wine because I’m on that list.
What should you do now?
Do you solve a really specific problem for people who’ve been struggling to solve it for a while?
List down every single piece of proof you can give that demonstrates how your company can solve it. Maybe it was a customer who came back to you and thanked you for the effects your company’s tea has had on their livelihood. Maybe it was an Instagram post your company was tagged in that talked about how your bathing suits made them feel so much more confident to get out of the house.
Make your customers the heroes. Your subscribers will want to be those heroes too.
Above all...
Always be proving your products rather than marketing them.
Comments