If you a business owner today the likelihood is that you dabble in email marketing, or at least have started to think about it.
Email has opened up a new and effective way of keeping in touch with your customers quickly and relatively cheaply.
You can use the emails to give great information, keep them up to date with industry news as well as new products, services and offers.
It only takes a few seconds to communicate with thousands of people.
Because email marketing is a hot topic, I have written numerous posts about it, such as:
How to build your email marketing list
How to become the King or Queen of email marketing
10 words that will make people open your email
Email marketing – When’s the best time to send?
But in this post I want to look at one of the most frequently asked questions…
How often should I email my customers?
It depends…
Your ideal frequency is going to be determined by your business type – what’s right for your neighbour isn’t necessarily going to be right for you.
Take a good hard look at your business. The optimum frequency of your emails will depend largely on:
- What you are offering your customers
- Who your customers are
- What you have to say
People tend to send email son either a quarterly, monthly, bi-monthly (i.e. once every two months), twice monthly, weekly and sometimes daily (or multiple times per day) frequency.
To help you out, here is a short guide to email frequency:
Quarterly
This is great if you don’t have a lot to say. Your products and services probably don’t change that much and you rarely have offers to make.
The main problem with quarterly is it’s not regular enough to make an impression on your readers. By leaving so much time between communications you run the risk the recipient forgetting who you are.
Monthly
Monthly is quite common as it’s regular contact without being intrusive. The content can be a mixture of information, offers, news and views. This type of information exchange is a great way to build and strengthen relationships with your customers.
As a copywriter I send out a monthly newsletter. It provides hints and tips on copywriting, marketing and social media – its all free information that I am giving away and I never sell through it. By the way, if you want to get on the mailing list visit my website and sign up.
Twice a month
This is a compromise if you want to make contact more than monthly but don’t have enough to say for a weekly newsletter. One of the main benefits of twice monthly is that you can use one newsletter to give information whilst the next could be an offer on one of your products.
Weekly
These are often used by stores looking to sell. Their weekly emails let them communicate offers and new lines quickly and easily to their customers. Plus being retail outlets it won’t come as a surprise to the recipient that they are being sold something.
Keeping up with your chosen frequency is important because your readers will soon get to expect your next issue. If you have to miss one make sure you tell them to keep them informed.
Email marketing (whether it’s to sell or to offer a regular newsletter) is a great way to keep your company name ‘out there’.
Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter