Today, we've got some email marketing tips for you... And what we're going to get started with is how often you should be sending email blasts!
First and foremost - The term "email blast..." These are your customers and your prospects... Sometimes, describing an email blast as "sending an email" or "mailing to your list" is a little more palatable. But, I've talked to hundreds of business owners who want to blast their list!
With that, we're going to dive in.
When you're setting up email marketing campaigns and drip email sequences, you want to make sure that you're emailing your prospects frequently enough without going crazy, without making them want to unsubscribe, mark you as spam, or just generally fall out of touch.
In short - send out your "email blast" frequently enough WITHOUT upsetting your subscribers.
Unfortunately, there's no magic answer to how often you should mail. I can't tell you that 4 times a week is the optimal number of times a week or a month. It 100% has to do with your niche, your audience, your offers, your tone, and your content. There are so many X factors in terms of what you mail your list and how often you can mail them.
What you have to do is get a very, very good understanding of what your list expects and actually mail it to them! Send your email list emails and see what the open rates are, what the engagement is, what the unsubscribes are, and deliver what they want!
Email Marketing Tips: Have A 30-Day Plan
Now there are some general rules of thumb that we like to follow.
Let's say a new lead hits your website and they sign up for your landing page today, what happens?
We always plan for the first 30 days of email marketing campaigns, focused around what we're trying to get a prospect to do. We have a plan for at least the first month. (I know that's quite a lot, but it's what our Done For You Sales Funnel Client have come to expect - largely because of the best practices we employ for them.)
Typically that plan goes like this.
- Day 0, which is the very first day, 10 minutes after they opt in, is fulfillment. In short, we deliver the ebook or the thing they requested when they opted-in.
- Day 1, which is tomorrow, ask them what they thought of the PDF or lead magnet that you sent them. You could also include a content marketing piece, blog post or Youtube video. Send them something that is high content, high value, that you know people like because other people commented on it already.
- Day 2, is bonding. Send an email, linking to your social profiles. Talk about your experience in the industry, showcase a case study or testimonial. Explain how you helped somebody do something in the world and it made the world a better place.
- Day 3. Continue bonding (more of the ^^^)
- Day 4. Continue bonding (more of the ^^^)
- Day 5. Don't send anything.
- Day 6. Don't do anything.
- Day 7, do a promotion. Send emails promoting a product or offer that you have in your repertoire. Send them an email saying, "Buy this." (write it a little better than that though! My point, you want to kick off a promo on Day 7 and beyond.)
Email Marketing Tips: Get The Clicking
Each email you want them to open, read and click a link. You want them actionable.
You want them clicking the link in the email to go somewhere because that is training them to continue clicking the links in the emails that you send.
If they just open an email and don't ever do anything, you're never going to generate any revenue from them. You don't make money from email opens...
Email Marketing Tips: Go With The Flow In Blocks Of Three
You want to read your list. Go with the flow. If they respond to webinars, do some webinar marketing. If they respond to sales videos or video sales letters, send more sales videos or video sales letters. If they need more content and education, send more blog posts!
When you're promoting something, always do blocks of three.
If you're promoting a product through a webinar or sales video, do email blasts in blocks of three. Mail three days in a row, then give them two days off.
You also want to make sure you send multiple emails linking to the same thing. Not everybody opens their email all the time. Send multiple emails. Track the links and the opens. Sort based on who's opening and who's clicking links.
Email Marketing Tips: On Your OFF Days
During the two "off" days, you will probably want to add some goodwill boosting content... Content marketing type stuff that people are going to like. For example, blog posts, videos, podcasts, workshops; they're all great to mail.
You don't need to send multiple emails for content either - one email's going to do it. If you write a blog post once a week then send that email, make sure to send an email out with a link to the blog post.
Email Marketing Tips: Two Promos Per Month Max
Max out at two big promos a month. More than that, people will get upset. Less than that and your revenue is less than it should be.
If you do, one per week, your list will be aggravated. It'll seem a bit aggressive.
The better way is to do one big promo email blast, then send a few pieces of content, then another promo.
The content that you send out in between promos reestablishes goodwill and faith in your business! Then, it's easier to walk into the next promo because your email list will be 'preframed' for the offer...
Email Marketing Tips: How Many Emails Per Month?
From an email frequency standpoint, you'll get pretty far with two big promos separated by bonding content.
If the frequency is too high, which sometimes happens, send fewer emails. If you have a list of people who enjoy sewing, 10 to 15 emails a month might be too much! They might log in to look at their emails once every three or four days and they see four emails from you. They're going to say,"Meh, they send too much email. I'm going to unsubscribe."
So just make sure to watch your numbers and you should be fine.
So if you need to lighten it up, that's awesome. And if you need email heavier, that's fine too.
I will tell you that the longer you go without emailing your list, that next email, unsubscribes are going to be through the roof. After that, it calms down. If you mail two or three days in a row, the unsubscribes and spam complaints will go down.
The simple fact is, people forget about you in four to five days. It's kind of crazy to think about, but if you have 20,000 people on your email list and haven't emailed them in 10 days... They've already started forgetting they signed up in your email broadcast list! You will get unsubscribes.
The more often you mail, the lower total unsubscribe rate you have.
Email Marketing Tips: Unused Hotel Rooms?
I know a lot of marketers who think of the people on their email list as "unused hotel room.
They send email blasts out each and every day because for every day that they don't mail them, they're missing out on revenue. So it really just depends on the type of relationship that you want to have with your customers, with your prospects.
Personally, we treat our email list like family. We want to send them content, videos, webinars and lots of stuff that'll make their business better. We don't send email blasts for affiliate promotions and a bunch of random stuff. That's us, though. You may want to grow a list, mail the heck out of it, and let those people go sooner than later.
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