Here’s the secret to finding the right Send frequency for your emails
Newsletters are an incredibly powerful tool for effective communication. Their superpowers are amazing: they strengthen a company’s brand, attract new customers, increase sales, build consumer loyalty, and increase traffic to a website.
As you venture into the world of email marketing, you’ll find the newsletter your best ally to achieve your goals. But you must pay attention to the sending frequency.
First, set the frequency and the contents, then collect the contacts
Establishing a routine for sending a newsletter is the first thing to do, even before you start collecting addresses to put in your contact lists.
Decide what to write and when to send the newsletters, then build a strategy to create your database.
It’s like putting a registration form on a website. Until your users know what you’re offering, why would they register?
Is sending a daily newsletter good for everyone?
A daily newsletter can be beneficial, but it can also cause a user to unsubscribe. Start with a simpler question: when is the best time to send a newsletter?
You should certainly send a newsletter when you have something to say. But if you do not have any relevant news or an interesting comment to share, you should probably hold off. A daily newsletter won’t be effective in that instance. But if you have a blog and are very active, or if you have an e-commerce site that always offers new products or offers, then daily emails could bring benefits. But they can also produce a side effect: people can get used to your content.
Over time your opening rate may start to fall. Your emails could tire your subscribers, especially if they’re falling into a private mailbox. Motivated users will continue to open your newsletters, but those users represent only a small portion of total subscribers.
To be really effective, frequent mailings must come with a high turnover of the contact database, a change of about half the users over one or two weeks. That change can stem newsletter fatigue.
You can also opt to send a weekly newsletter, a collection of the most relevant content to interest and intrigue your contacts.
And it’s also possible to adopt a plan that includes both daily and weekly newsletters. This strategy reaches two different targets: active users who want to stay up-to-date every day; and more passive users who prefer to receive communications from time to time.
Do limited but high-quality email campaigns really work?
Some businesses prefer to send newsletters only a couple of times a year, perhaps in conjunction with a special event, such as participation in a fair or a conference, or to signal the change of a law or contractual conditions.
Let’s be honest: do you really believe that an email campaign once per year can make a difference in your turnover? Absolutely not.
Sending emails in an erratic and irregular way also creates a whole series of problems. Remain silent for months and your users will forget you, and above all, they will forget that they have voluntarily subscribed to your newsletter. The result? Some will unsubscribe. Others will forget that they gave consent and may send an abuse report, causing the IP address to be blacklisted.
You should always write when you have something to communicate, but that’s not enough. You have to go further. You need to continue sending the ad-hoc content of interest to your subscribers.
Dead periods in which nothing is communicated should be avoided or at least limited. You should send at least six or seven newsletters a year.
The rewards are long-term: users will remember you, and you’ll avoid receiving reports that could damage your mailing.
Conclusion: what are the best sending frequencies?
The best choice is the weekly or monthly newsletter which avoids the worst problems related to daily or annual mailings.
Once you have chosen the frequency, devote yourself to building a mailing strategy with a well-defined editorial plan. Then find a way to increase your contacts database.
The most important point is to communicate continually. Maintain a more or less stable routine that interests your subscribers and reminds them that you are there for them—but without being too intrusive or too distant.