Many a business owner has seen the look of childlike excitement that comes across my face when I talk about newsletters. I believe if you are doing any online marketing, event marketing, or partnership marketing, email newsletters have a place in your marketing plan. But one question comes up almost every time the subject of newsletters is discussed: How often should you send email newsletters to your list?
First, let’s put a working definition around the idea of a newsletter. For the purpose of this Marketing Tip, when I use the term newsletter, I mean a communication that goes out to your subscriber list (or a segment of it), that you take action to produce and send consistently.
I am not referring to a direct email you might send to an individual, a one-time blast you send for a sale, or even an automated sequence of emails that might go out to individuals who take certain actions in your CRM. Although those may sometimes fit into the newsletter category, for now let’s define it this way.
Newsletters have an important function in your marketing plan. They are a vehicle for lead retention and customer retention. I also believe they have a role in your sales process. Email newsletters are a powerful tool, and if you want to get more of my thoughts on why, read here.
#Newsletters have an important function in your #marketing plan. #business #smallbusiness #smallbiz #smb #entrepreneur Share on XIf we’re agreed that newsletters are a worthwhile way to market your business, how frequently you send out your newsletters ultimately comes down to three things.
- How long your content will be
- What type of content it will be
- What your newsletter analytics tell you
Let’s unpack this!
Length of Content
When it comes to #1, you need to start with a guesstimate. If you are going to send out a quarterly newsletter, you may be able to include multiple pages of content in each one. If you are sending out a monthly newsletter, you may want to keep it to a page or two. A weekly newsletter should probably have a clear theme of valuable content and be something that doesn’t require much scrolling. And if you are going to send it daily, think about what you can send that would be a short bit of content, but catchy and worthwhile. A word of the day. A poem of the day. A prayer of the day. A quote of the day. Something snappy.
Your audience may be able to handle more or less content than those suggestions (we’ll talk about that in #3), but it is a good start as a rough idea.
Many years ago, I did monthly email newsletters, and the decision to switch to weekly newsletters was a big one for me. I was afraid to annoy my subscriber list. In the end, I made a decision to go weekly and to shorten it, leading with my Marketing Tip of the Week. It actually worked out MUCH BETTER for nearly everyone. When it became easier to digest, people started digesting it.
Type of Content
Ultimately you are trying to include content that will attract your audience. Your goal is to make them want to open your newsletter. And then your goal is to make them want to click on something interesting they see in your newsletter and hopefully land back on your website, social media, or other resources.
When you get right down to it, we get a lot of emails and spam. We all do. Your subscribers are probably on many other businesses’ lists. So, if they are going to stay on your list, open your newsletter, or click through from content you shared there, they are going to have to see value in it.
This looks different for every business out there. You need to capture the essence of your industry and your brand. Then you look for what your audience is responding to. If that means you are including a particular type of informational content, motivation, art or photos, interviews, stats, humor, or something else, you can experiment with what segments will serve a purpose of attracting and driving your audience to the next call to action.
You might also offer discounts or promotions, but remember that your audience may fatigue quickly if that is all you are doing. (Of course, if what you do is curate and share discounts and promotions, and that is why they signed up, there is certainly a market for that).
Start with what you know about your audience, and then watch for the results to see what works.
Newsletter Analytics
The analytics from your newsletter are worth their weight in gold. This is the part that can directly impact your sales process.
The analytics from your newsletter are worth their weight in gold. #newsletters #sales #marketing #business #smallbusiness #smallbiz #smb Share on XIf you are one of the many people who sends newsletters and have never looked at the reports, you are not alone. But I want you to begin now.
Analytics from different providers may tell you different things, but generally you can at least find out who opened your newsletters – and maybe how many times they opened it, who clicked on a link, and what they clicked on. That information by itself is meaningful for you.
The analytics tell you what content attracted your audience. It also tells you how far down they got in the newsletter. If they stopped clicking on links halfway through, consider shortening your newsletter. If they only interacted with a certain type of content, do more of that.
Above all, don’t be afraid to reach out to your audience. It is one of the ways you can build your relationship with them until they are ready to work with you, buy from you, or in some other way accept your calls to action.
Don’t be afraid to reach out to your audience. #newsletters #business #smallbusiness #smallbiz #smb #entrepreneur #marketing Share on XPlus, for many industries it takes dozens of touches with a lead before they would be ready to become a customer, and a smart newsletter can go a long way in creating rapport.
There is no set answer to what content we send and how often we send it. But, if you are wondering how often to send email newsletters to your list, addressing these three factors is a great place to start!