Email is a powerful and effective method of digital marketing – but like any other approach, if misused it can cause you more harm than good. One of the trickiest things to judge is how often to send them. Here are a few pointers to help you make the right choice.
There's No One Right Answer
"It all depends" isn't necessarily what you want to hear, but it's true. The best email marketing frequency will vary according to your industry, your product or service, who you're emailing, and what you want to get out of it. This is one area where working with a local digital marketing agency can really help; you'll get a new perspective without the need to take your in-house employees away from their core tasks.
Observe Your Competitors
Look around your sector and see what your main competitors are doing in terms of email, as well as thought-leaders and influencers with high authority. Track them over a period of time, to ensure what you're observing is typical over the long run. If you're sending out one email a week and they're sending out three, ask yourself why. The people who are making waves in your niche won't just be guessing.
Keep Your Promises
If your client expects an email every week, send them an email every week. Don't change your email schedule without notice and explanation. If you accidentally miss sending one, fire off a quick apology and a reassurance that you'll be back. As in so many areas of business, customers are much more likely to accept mistakes if you're honest and open about what's happened.
Start Off Slowly
Oversharing right off the bat is a bad idea. At best, you'll irritate your recipients and damage your reputation in their eyes. At worst, you may find yourself reported for spam or even becoming the subject of negative comments and reviews on social media. However tempting it is to shout to the world about your company's products, it's best to start slowly and gradually build up, perhaps eventually from monthly to weekly.
Think Hard Before You Go Daily
If your product or service is one that justifies very frequent updates, sending emails as often as once a day may be warranted. Don't jump right in on this, though. You'll need to do plenty of A/B testing, of everything from your subject lines to your click-through rates, otherwise you could be wasting resources.
Consider Customer Lifecycle
Look at how often your customers make purchases, and time emails to fit. Sending a marketing email a week after they've bought is just a waste of resources. While you can't eliminate the risk entirely, you can tailor your email frequency to give yourself the best chance. If you're selling a product customers tend to buy once in two years, you'll want fewer emails than if it's something they'll need every three months.
Automating Email Marketing
Email marketing done right can be a huge boost for your business. The trick is in avoiding the pitfalls. Taking a holistic view of your business and your customers, and paying particular attention to what they expect from you, will help you get your email marketing right. Using a marketing automation platform, such as MailChimp or HubSpot, can simplify your email marketing strategy by sending drip-feed campaigns and autoresponders to prospects based on behavioural triggers – and can help your prospects progress along the sales funnel. To find out more about how we use email marketing at JDR, please call 01332 343281 and speak with one of our marketing specialists today.
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