OK…so how much e-mail marketing is too much?
This is a question most people ask me, and unfortunately there is no one right answer. The biggest problem I see in email marketing campaigns is that people either send too much e-mail (welcome to the SPAM game) or fearing they will be labeled a spammer they don’t send enough e-mail and lose the chance to promote their products or services.
This next bit of advice will assume that you have followed the principles set out in my last 2 blog posts and you have built a list of people who are genuinely interested in your products or services.
But I will give you some rules of thumb that will help you determine that “sweet spot” where you can send offers and promotions.
Rules of Thumb on E-mail Content
If you have product or services to sell, I recommend not sending sales pitches every single e-mail. One thing that annoys most people is constantly getting pitched to.
The #1 rule of e-mail marketing is content. Provide quality content. Even if people delete it, I believe there is a funny magic aura that tells people that someone has been pitching them or that someone is really trying to give good content.
I can’t prove it scientifically, but I do believe it.
My rule of thumb is AT LEAST 3 e-mails of content per 1 offer.
Frequency
Here’s the question I am almost always asked, “How often should I send e-mail.”
Again, the short answer is “It depends.”
What it depends on is who is on your list. You really have to know who is on your list to determine how much email you can send them. By understanding their habits, you not only increase your chance of getting them to convert to sales, but you also will get a better idea on how often you can send them offers.
Let me give you some examples:
Let’s say you have a list of people interested in business opportunities. You also know that they are on A LOT of other lists. So, you know they get a lot of e-mail. For these people, you could probably e-mail them every single day.
The reason is that this type of list probably gets A TON of emails. They hardly read all their e-mails, so you have to keep sending them emails just to get it read. In other words, you might have to send 10 emails before they’ll even open it up.
But if your list is comprised of corporate types, if you send them an e-mail every day, you’ll get a resounding amount of anger directed at you.
Another example would be if your list is international. I have known some people who have lists that include people from the UK. He sends out e-mails maybe once a week. His unsubscribe rate is low, but among people from the UK, it is very high. The way people from Britain deal with e-mail is different than in the U.S. So, you should take that into consideration the e-mail habits of non-Americans if you have a substantial list of international readers.
Here are some general of rules of thumb that should help you determine how frequently to send e-mail:
1. If your list is comprised of mostly corporate types, don’t send more than 1 e-mail a week. These people are very busy, and more than once a week is too much for them. If you want to send e-mail more frequently, then make sure they are signing up for a daily e-mail or something of that nature so they know beforehand that they will get frequent e-mails. But make sure your content is really good if you’re going to try this.
2. For most lists, if e-mail marketing is a big part of what you do, then I suggest sending e-mail every 4-5 days.
With either of these, you can play around. If you are not getting response, then maybe increase the frequency. But if you are getting massive unsubscribes, cut back.
There is no one right answer, but the key to e-mail marketing is paying attention to your list. They will tell you when they want your e-mails or when they don’t want them. It is your job to listen to them and deliver what they want.
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OK. So, you want to get better at marketing online, and you know e-mail is one of the most effective forms of online marketing. Well, it is.
But you’re worried if you are too aggressive, you’ll piss off the people you are trying to sell to. Or worse yet, you’ll be accused of being a SPAMMER! And that’s the rub, isn’t it? The fact is we get a LOT of e-mail all the time. But some people get so many messages that your messages get lost in the pile.
So, you have a decision to make. Do you e-mail them over and over to make sure they are getting your messages? Or do you e-mail so little that you constantly get lost amidst the daily horoscopes, newsletters, and other information in your prospects and client’s inboxes?
Well…have no fear. In this series you’ll discover how to find a happy medium between these two losing strategies and I’ll give you some tips that are virtually guaranteed not to piss off most people.
Before you start
First things first. Let me go into what I mean about pissing people off. Let’s get one thing straight. You’re bound to piss somebody off. I mean, there are people out there with some incredibly thin skins.
I got an angry e-mail form someone unsubscribing to my list because he said I was e-mailing him too much. Well…he did subscribe to my blog updates, but he said he only wanted to hear from me once a month.
Great for him, but my business would be dead in the water if I only followed up once a month with people (and yours probably would be too).
So, someone is bound not to be satisfied by your efforts to safeguard their inbox.
But don’t fear…most people will appreciate your effort.
Making people happy starts before they even opt in
The first tip you will get is probably the most important. First of all, before you start your e-mail marketing campaigns, you’ll need a service to manage the people that want to opt into your list. You’ll need this because you want a way to automatically follow up with them. As we go deeper into this series, we’ll talk about using autoresponders (automated e-mail messages) for marketing. And you’ll need a reliable service that delivers your e-mail (you’d be surprised how many of these services fail to deliver your e-mail).
I don’t recommend using your personal database software because it is hard to send automated e-mails and you might run into SPAM complaints (more on this later).
The service I recommend is Aweber. I’ve used them for years now, and they’ve been very reliable and offer outstanding customer support. Best of all, they offer a 30-day trial, so you can try before you commit to anything.
Once you have a good system in place, you can start your e-mail marketing campaign.
Tip #1: Give people something of value in exchange for them opting into your list
How many times do you give your name and e-mail address to someone offering you this awesome free report, only to find the report is not worth a pile of horse hockey?
When you ask for someone’s e-mail address, you are asking them for permission to communicate with you later. For that privilege, I’ve always believed you must offer something of value upfront.
For example, offer a valuable free report, a white paper, free video, free audio, or something else that you feel will be valuable.
As for me, I offer updates to free things on my site. Currently, I give away an eBook. Anyone coming to this site can just snag it without giving me anything (this type of method will be covered later in this series). If they want to be notified of future free things, I will let them know by e-mail. But I also give people the chance to get e-mail updates to this blog. So, I think if people feel the content of this blog is valuable, they can opt into my list.
Getting value upfront will make your prospects happier in the beginning and more apt to accept your future e-mails.
* a note on newsletters. Personally, I think there are too many newsletters out there, and “opt in to get my free newsletter” isn’t as effective as it used to be. If you have a newsletter, I recommend having archives on your web site so prospects can determine the value beforehand. That way if they find it valuable they are more inclined to subscribe.
Tip #2: Do a Double opt-in
When you are asking them for a name and e-mail address, do what’s called a double opt in. This means someone must confirm that they do, in fact, want to receive e-mail communication from you.
I believe the double opt in is crucial to keeping down the piss-off factor. The reason is two-fold:
1. By confirming, a person is taking one extra step, therefore showing they are interested in what you have to offer.
2. You prevent people from fraudulently signing up others. This actually does happen. And you don’t want to get spam complaints.
Most 3rd party services require this. I know Aweber does. Having a double opt in puts you in compliance wit the CANN SPAM Act. There are ways around doing a double opt in, but I don’t recommend it. When you do a double opt in, it protects you from people who call you a spammer since they confirmed that they wanted to be on your list.
So, to recap:
• Get a good service for delivering your e-mail (I recommend Aweber)
• When you ask people to opt-into your list, make sure you are giving them something of value in exchange for their e-mail address.
• Make them confirm that they want to be on your list.
In part 2, I’ll give you some tips on how to empower the people on your list, so they will want to stay on your list once they are on.
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