Email marketing - how often ?

[4little1s]

Hi,

Have a growing database of customers that have ordered from us and said they are ok with us emailing them offers etc.

How often to people email their customers with new products / offers etc vs not get on their nerves and being a pain ?

Currently we email about every six weeks or so and we see an increase in sales shortly afterwards, so we know it works...

 

[emailblaster]

I think twice a month is fine. If you offer an unsubscribe function then you could add a landing page that offers them the chance to only receive your email say once a month or every two months, rather than unsubscribe. This could be a good way to keep them on your list happily rather than lose them because they don't want emails too often.

I subscribe to large retailers and get emails at least twice a week from some. I delete those that are not of interest but some do send offers which i either keep or forward to friends. I think its worth upping your email rate as even if you do lose some, they probably would not have bought again anyway.

 

[davidshaw89]

Sorry, but twice a month? I hope you are not expecting your customers to remember you!

at OP:

If you want to have any success with e-mail, you need to be communicating with your customers every few days. You need to keep the communication between you and them constant. Informative useful e-mails will not be flagged as junk.

Also, what industry are you in? can you send them useful tips? reviews etc? without going for the hard sell? if not, is there anything else you can say in your emails to build confidence?

Did they buy a product that is regularly updated / requires some kind of replenishment (eg. ink cartridges for a printer)? if so, is there a new accessory that you stock? or has it been a while since they bought *ink* - maybe they will run out soon and you can grab the sales opportunity?

Also, remember to monitor e-mail performance so that you can tweak them to improve conversion.

Hope this helps,

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

I wouldn't recommend E-mailing them as much as David says. There isn't ALWAYS an opportunity for a sale so it can become annoying very quick. I'd only recommend doing it anywhere near as regularly as that if you had great copywriting skills so you could draw the recipients in and make your E-mail appear to be something of great value they aren't getting enough of.

A good rule to follow is don't just E-mail them for the sake of E-mailing otherwise that's a good indication that the value of your newsletters will be not good enough. If you have a genuinely good offer or something of value and importance to say, then say it.

What I would agree with is keeping the hard selling low in relation to the soft selling. Give the recipients information of value. Give them tips, reviews, good offers they can't pass up. Once you build up that value you can then hit them with a hard sell now and again and you'll find the sales return from this is much higher and also importantly, the un-subscription rate is very low. Make it appear that you're GIVING them all this amazing stuff and that you aren't taking any value from them. You aren't taking their money, you're giving them an brilliant opportunity to spend their money on something great which they will love.

To answer your original question though I would try once a week at first. Then measure the un-subscription rate in relation to the sales you receive from the newsletters and then adjust accordingly.

 

[maria102]

We are trying to do campaigns when we have some worthy news as I don't want us to fall into the spam filters or people to tire of us, however you do need to do them regularly so people remember you. Our last campaign was letting people know that our spring stock had arrived (about three weeks ago) and we are sending another this week when our website should go live. Whenever I receive emails from other sites more than once a week, I don't really read them as I doubt that there is anything that different /special that they have to tell me.

 

[IainW]

Hi Maria,

Newsletters must have either important news worthy subjects or special offers, thats what the majority of customers sign-up for.

Send your newsletters out on average twice a month, definitely not every couple of days.

If you are using HTML newsletters then a blend of text and photos is ideal. Don't forget your newsletter subject title that will show in the customers inbox, make it eye catching, this can make a difference with your "open" rate.

Kind regards
Iain

 

[Mister B]

Well, from the perspective of a punter, if I received newsletters every two days then the first course of action taken would be to unsubscribe.

And with a retailers hat on, I'm in the monthly camp, as long as the newsletter is worth reading. If it's just full of inane copy or poorly constructed offers, then you are giving the customer no incentive at all to stay on the mailing list. Make them look forward to the newsletter to the extent that they're getting their friends to sign up.

Less is more IMHO

Mister B

 

[davidshaw89]

just to clarify, as I seem to have been misquoted:

I did not say 2 days - This would be too much.

I said "every few days" which if you want to put numbers to, could be between 3 & 5 days, which is just over once a week.

Nobody has to read if they don't want to, but it is vital to keep contact with your customers - use any excuse to send them an e-mail. Just because you are e-mailing them, does not mean you need to sell to them.

Having a periodic e-mail with your product updates, and then more regular e-mails with information/tips which might be useful to the customer will not get you flagged as spam. (Which it technically isn't since they opted into your list anyway - as long as you provide an unsubscribe link you are not obliging them to keep receiving your e-mail)

If you only send out an e-mail once a month, then when they do get it, they will probably not recognise the sender and delete anyway.

 

[20note]

I only want a mail if it has some value to me.

I am about to unsubscribe to a certain printing company that is on here because I am getting atleast 2 a week and fed up......

2 a month tops is my guide or people will be anoid.

 

[Eplaygaming]

.

Lets put it this way....

I've been getting an email twice a day off one particular company.

And I'm getting pretty pee'd off.

I've unsubscribed twice and they still keep coming, so I've had to send them an email asking for them to take me off their list.

Watch this space !

My company opt in emails are sent a follow up once a week.

.

 

[Pete Crane]

Hi,

Have a growing database of customers that have ordered from us and said they are ok with us emailing them offers etc.

How often to people email their customers with new products / offers etc vs not get on their nerves and being a pain ?

Currently we email about every six weeks or so and we see an increase in sales shortly afterwards, so we know it works...

You're facing arguably the most common planning issue in email marketing, and like just about everyone else at this stage you're looking at the issue in the wrong way. The value of the message is far more important than the frequency of the mails. Think about what you would like to send to your contacts (not just naked promotional material but information that they'll find of use) and then diarise out the sending dates.

A high frequency of mails won't just annoy your contacts - it will annoy the hell out of you too. We always advise that you should operate a frequency that you can handle; far too many times we've had companies start using our system with incredibly ambitious plans that fall apart before the first quarter is over as they simply run out of content and realise they have placed too much burden on their office time for one task. A twice per month schedule, using a promotional and a newsletter format, and using good content, might be achievable for you but don't get too stressed if you decide for example to run a bi-monthly newsletter.

 

[garyk]

I would also say make sure the offers are relevant, you have the buying history of each individual so with very clever marketing and IT automation you can in fact send offers relevant to a customers buying history. No-one really does this effectively, not even the big boys but it is very feasible.

 

[4little1s]

Thanks everyone some great advise.

 

[Poppy Design]

Hi

I would say once a month is good to start - as said before make sure you have some interesting new stuff for your customers and also an "unsubscribe" option ... there is nothing more annoying then enewsletters without any option to unsubscribe!

Joanne

 

[Mattonella Tile Studio]

I'd say once a week at the absolute maximum. I always try to read the newsletter we get from UKBF each week but any more frequent than that then I'd stop.

 

[socialmarketingmama]

I would have to say once a month, you want to stay fresh in their minds...but not over do it.

 

[steve prescott]

It all depends on what you're
trying to achieve.

A newsletter frequency should
be different to a product pre-launch
frequency.

A product pre-launch frequency
should be different to the frequency
during the final days before a
product launch.

The frequency during a product
launch should be different to a
post-launch frequency.

And there are many other variables
and considerations: whether you
send full emails or direct prospects
to a web page... whether you're
trying to segment your list for a
later product launch... and more...

"How often should you email your
prospects?" is like asking the
question: "How big should a
raincoat be?"

Steve P

 

[iboxsecurity]

most of our clients tend to do two a month also taking into consideration the DAY and TIME of sending newsletters out are very important also.

 

[dotcomguy]

Anything beyond weekly, and I'd expect you to find your way into many a spam folder. There's a fine line between marketting your product and harrassing people.

 

[GridmodelsUK]

You should think about process emails as well as marketing emails. These can be much more profitable. Check out this article: http://shop4business.homestead.com/five-emails-your-business-should-be-sending-07.html

 

[davidjgoss87]

I would say once a week or every 10 days would be acceptable, but always ask yourself if you are going to have something new to say every week or 10 days. You could end up just cobbling something together without much thought or an obvious purpose, and get nowhere.

 

[aras333]

is emailing effective? someone told me that it's possible to send 40K e-mails, but only 1-2 might reply

 

[iboxsecurity]

email marketing CAN be very effective just like any other marketing - depends how professional as to how effective it is. We have multiple customers sending out lists of 5 - 10K people and have great results.

 

[Digger1]

.
I've been getting an email twice a day off one particular company.

That sounds like a tiny bit of overkill. I believe you should contact customers when you have something important to say which would be of benefit to them and build rapport, trust and sales for your business. We tend to contact new customers a couple of times in the first week once they have purchased or signed up to our newsletter. We then contact them once a week for about a month. After that our contact drops to about once every two weeks - unless we have something important to tell them.

Try testing different times, contact methods, etc to see what has the best results for your business.

 

[jussurvivin]

Personally I think this is a really difficult one - I used to run a recruitment business which was extremely competitive and I would email every two weeks - some customers loved it - some got really annoyed - it was always different text selling different candidates but hey ho...I suppose the question is - does the cutomer want the product or service? or are you trying to force it on them? If it helps any what I always do is think about if I was the customer receiving my e-mails - woudl I want to read them woudl they get on my nerves or would I think it was borderline harrassment? Only you know your product service well enough to know how much is too much... I think if youre getting good results every six weeks then try every three weeks and see what happens and maybe add a questionnaire asking your own clients how much is too much...
Sorry going on a bit there me thinks...

Now I am Account Manager for a Leaflet Distribution Business so am interested in how much is too much and the difference between industries which appears vast....:|

 

[greeneast]

Very informative thread with may opinions. I'm sure some of it will depend on the type of business you are emailing about. If I had a weekly update from my accountant I'm sure I'd fall asleep before reading the title, but an e-commerce site with lots of products being added and special offers could do the 10 Days but even I would not bother reading a weekly e-mail so why would I push it on others.

I currently try and do monthly, but have recently added lots of products and upgraded my site to include loyalty points and feedback options. I emailed existing customers first to try and get feedback rolling, now I will be emailing all non-customers this week to tell them all the updates and try to get more business.

2-3 weeks sounds better than monthly, but I would rather just email when I actually have something to say than to waffle on. (bit like now LOL). I want to build credibility with my customers so they know my site, my products and my communication is all "Quality" driven.

 

[stuart bloomsbury]

I said "every few days" which if you want to put numbers to, could be between 3 & 5 days, which is just over once a week.
.

I would get extremely annoyed if someone emailed me every 3 - 5 days. Would put that company straight on the blocked senders list.

 

[Epindura]

I would email them everyday if they don't unsubscribe. Some marketers do it even twice a day even though I think it's a bit too much.

But if you got good products or services, everyday, but making sure the ads are intersting.

That's me.

 

[L Patmore]

With email marketing, personally I would say email every week if you are a e-commerce site and have physical products to sell and not just services.

The emails must be of quality, and should ideally be tested to cater for online email collection, and well as better know programmes that collect on the PC via a pop3 or similar method. Online mail boxes often if not always strip out custom formatting, so you need to either use in-line CSS or HTML format as you go along. A badly formatted email will also cause an unsubscribe as well as bad content.

If possible, try to pull in the email address you are sending the email to, this will show if a person is receiving 2 or more emails, what email address it is coming from, and also show them, you are not sending duplicate emails to the same address, but different subscribed addresses. An unsubscribe feature is also advised.

With email content, special "Email Only" offer's can often work well. If the customer only gets an offer because they are subscribed to your emails, this can help keep the subscribed numbers on the rise, rather than dropping. The content must be fresh, and sue images for products where possible as the images generally sell the product. You can even run simple cometitions as well and try get some interaction between yourself and the customer. Above all, make the customer feel wanted, and not abused, if possible use their name at the start of the email "Dear Mr J Smith" If you speak to them by name, they tend to listen more than, Dear Customer, cause everyone is a customer, but not everyone is a Mr J Smith.

Also test your emails. Test the response rates on days, open rates on times, and segment your data so you can send different offers or content to different people, i.e. send customers who have brought in the past 6 months a Free Delivery offer off, those 6 - 12 months a 10% Offer, Over 12months, send them a 15% offer and try to reactivate the customer again. Emails are a great way to speak to all your customers new and old. Times and days will make a massive difference, so test, and track stats weekly. If you cant track the stats let me know and I knwo of a good email service you can take a look at that will help you improve your email campaigns.

Good Luck


Lee

 

[directmarketingadvice]

I would get extremely annoyed if someone emailed me every 3 - 5 days.

Wow. You must have a really good life if that's something that gets you so annoyed.

I think the mentality of this thread is all wrong.

- I'm on Clayton Makepeace's list and get emails 6 days a week. I would never consider unsubscribing from it.

- I'm on Gary Bencivenga's list and get an email around once a quarter. I wish he'd send them far more often. (if he could keep the quality at the current level, I'd love him to email me 5 times a day)

- I get notifications when Drayton Bird updates his blog. I enjoy getting them.

Do you see what's going on here?

I don't care about frequency. If it's good*, the more the better. If it isn't good, once a year is more than I want.

Steve

* interesting and relevant to me

 

[L Patmore]

Steve,

I agree with what your saying 100%, but the emails you are mentioning are information based, rather than a physical product or group of products based?

I get the feeling that the thread is based on selling products, so replied based on that. Information emails are different, as are of a different nature and feel to them.

Your final comment "interesting and relevant to me" is spot on, but when sending an email full of products i.e. tents, clothes, gadgets etc etc.. it is far to easy for these emails to be intrusive if not done properly. Emails mainly on advice on a set topic or two, is a relevant as the persons interest who receives it.

So agree with you 100%, but was looking mainly from a product point of view and not information.


Lee

 

[directmarketingadvice]

I agree with what your saying 100%, but the emails you are mentioning are information based, rather than a physical product or group of products based?

If someone has nothing interesting to say about their products - or to their market - then they've got a problem.

The original poster is selling nursery "things" - furniture etc.

Would it be unreasonable to assume most of their customers have young children? Or that those children are one of their main interests? And that information about toys, parenting, children's health, education etc might be of interest to them?

And, if that's the case, then there'd be plenty of opportunities to share relevant information with their list and combine that information with affiliate links.

It needs to be done with empathy and grace, but it can be done.

Steve

 

[4little1s]

Thank you again everyone, some great responses and gives me plenty to think about - I love this forum and everyones willingness to get stuck in.

 

[L Patmore]

If someone has nothing interesting to say about their products - or to their market - then they've got a problem.

Again, I agree with what you say, but there are companies out there that use the products and online copy as the bulk of there email, and pull out a single item or group of items and use new copy to promote just that.

I have worked on many different types of campaigns, all based on a different types of customer. Some just want to see products, others want to see more information, it all varies on your type of customer.

With email marketing, to me its about knowing what the customer wants. Everyone is different and will view different approaches with different end results.

So in reality there is no right or wrong way of doing things, just a personal view. Testing will open a few eyes, and if tested in a sensitive manner you will be able to try most things without to many problems, and test an email along side a current standard email with a even split in the database.


Lee

 

[stuart bloomsbury]

Wow. You must have a really good life if that's something that gets you so annoyed.

Thanks for the personal insult regarding my life, which you know nothing about, but I was just giving my opinion.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

Thanks for the personal insult regarding my life, which you know nothing about, but I was just giving my opinion.

I was making a joke about what seemed to me to be a very extreme reaction.

Steve

 

[NigelLegg]

Email marketing can be intrusive - but if the emails contain information as well as a plug, for example survey results, medical information, information on education for toddlers, etc (to pick some subjects which would be of interest to the original poster's target market), and there was more information on the subject on the website, the emails could be used to draw people to the website. Once they are there, of course, it is up to them to browse the store and make a purchase.

 

[cragrat]

If I was getting email for a company every few days/week that wasn't very interesting the emails would get ignored, deleted and marked as spam in my inbox. Many email clients, use information like spam flagging to filter other peoples emails, which will make it alot harder for the company to send their spammy emails in future.

There's an article I wrote on email marketing that may be helpful at ki-media.co.uk/ online-marketing/ how-to-make-the-most-of-email-marketing/

 

[kirit1966]

For us we contact customers every 6-8 weeks with various offers. I think every few days is too much. I get emails from certain companies every few days and they go straight in the bin. Some of these companies are very hard to unsubscribe from also!!!

 

[adam]

just to clarify, as I seem to have been misquoted:

I did not say 2 days - This would be too much.

I said "every few days" which if you want to put numbers to, could be between 3 & 5 days, which is just over once a week.

Far too much. I get some update emails from a few companies but if they come in less than a week after the first they get unsubscribed from. I just don't have the spare time to read all of it, like this forum, great place but I don't get a chance to read all the posts.