In this blog post I want to talk about email frequency and how often you should email your subscribers, I also want to share with you a few things I have noticed recently that will hopefully enable you to earn more from your email campaigns. If you have been on my mailing list for any length of time you will notice that I email my subscribers quite often and you might think this would result in you earning less money from your mailing list, well the truth is the opposite has happened.
I have never earned so much from my mailing lists as I have over the last few months and the main reason is because I am not afraid to hit the send button.
Get this! I have actually found that emailing my subscribers more often has resulted in higher open rates and fewer unsubscribes, that is something I would never ever have believed had I not tried it for myself. However, this doesn’t mean that you can just email your subscribers offer after offer day after day, there is a lot more to it than that.
What I am finding is that if I get behind a product launch in a big way I can mail for it multiple times, and by multiple times I mean 10-15 times in a week. It’s also very important that you believe in the product you are promoting as I really think if you believe in something it comes across in your emails. It’s also very important that you try to educate your subscribers about anything you promote, do your best to give them as much information as possible to help them come to a buying decision.
However, be very careful you don’t overdo it, while it’s ok to mail for one product often, I have found if I mail for 4-5 different products in a 7 day period the exact opposite happens, open rates and clicks drop and I ultimately annoy my subscribers, and that’s understandable.
How can you promote something one day, then something else the next, then something else the next and expect your subscribers not to get upset? If you market to your list like this you are simply going to burn them out and that’s what I see a lot of marketers do. They tell you that the product they are promoting is the best thing they have ever seen, only to tell you the next day that the latest product they are promoting is the best thing they have ever seen, and so on.
It’s crazy, but it happens a lot, so make sure you don’t do it, unless you want to kill your list. Select the products you promote carefully and keep this down to 1-3 products per week.
So, let’s get back to frequency of emails, how do you think I get away with emailing my subscribers almost on a daily basis?
Simple, I do my best to provide incredible value. This can be anything from creating an educational video or writing a blog post like this to educating my subscribers about a product I am promoting, or simply offering bonuses when someone buys a product through my affiliate link. It’s not really rocket science is it? Treat your subscribers with the respect they deserve by giving them incredible value and they will reward you by being loyal to you. So many marketers seem to forget that there is a real person opening their emails and that these people have the power to say ‘no more’ by hitting the unsubscribe button.
As always your comments are welcome, how often do you mail your subscribers and what sort of results have you had?
I also want to end this post by saying you will annoy some people no matter what you do, don’t let negative people get to you. I could offer to send all of my subscribers $100 for replying to my email and some would complain, you will come across people who get angry, people who unsubscribe and leave nasty comments and people who are just downright rude because you dared to send them an email, just remember that these people are in a tiny minority. As long as the majority of your subscribers appreciate what you do everything is fine, never let the small minority make you feel nervous about hitting the send button.
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Totally agree John.
If you passionately believe in the product you’re promoting and you’re just promoting that ONE product, I find my subscribers don’t mind as you’re backing it 100%.
I’ve tried the Promote-A-Different-Product-A-Day model and you do burn your list out. In fact it’s amazing how fast you can totally destroy a large responsive list following that email marketing model.
Thanks anyway John.
James Scholes
http://www.James-Scholes.com
I think you could email your list everyday if you want as along as you are providing value.
If your subscribers value your opinion, they enjoy hearing about what you are up to everyday.
Some days it could be a promotion, other days telling them about the behind the scenes of your latest product launch or generally a day in the life of your business.
Many thanks fr this John.
It’s always great to get reassuring posts like this about subjects that many people are unsure of – especially when you are starting out.
You mentioned some of these points when you talked with me in Auction Profit Avalanche and it’s great to see the same things – such as not pitching multiple products, and educating people, as well as providing good bonuses, being talked about agan, as this reinforces how solid these methods are.
I like the last bit about the negative people as well 🙂
ok thanks for a great post and keep in touch.
cheers
xxxxcarlxxxx
Great post as always John,
I have been thinking about the frequency of mailing recently and I am happy you confirmed what I found about the theme from other resources.
There is also very important idea in your last paragraph – you may annoy some people no matter what you do. I used to be frustrated with this until I realized that these people simply don’t belong to my target market and there is no reason to be disappointed with this fact as there are many others who like what I do.
Regards, George
Hey John,
Once again you have totally over delivered 🙂
So many gurus teach us how to build our list but not many give advice on what to do with it once we have that list.
Knowing how often we should be mailing is a great help as i think most folk are a little scared of mailing their list too often.
Some thing i have also struggled with just recently. Thanks for the advice.
Kind Regards
Kerry
Receiving an email a day is ok even 2 a day but it gets to the point of receiving anything up to and above 10 from the one person is getting totally frustrating. It is getting to the point that I am starting to delete my account with these people.
Not being negative I do download a fair bit of stuff, probably more than is needed, lol.
love your blogs.
Regards, Laurie
You’re absolutely right, John. Repeatedly promoting the same product shows that you have faith in it and implies that you genuinely feel it will be of benefit to the individuals you are addressing on our list. The same would apply to offline selling. But I think you hit the nail on the head when you wrote about offering your list value – that’s the most important thing of all. Keep giving and the people on your list will feel more inclined to give back. It’s the best way to earn their respect and trust.
Thanks for great posts and great products.
All the best
Siobhan
If I receive more than one email per day from any marketer (except those who I know and trust), that’s an instant Unsubscribe from me.
It doesn’t matter whether they are promoting different things in each message, or sending different messages about the same product, I’ll still unsubscribe.
Something else that triggers an instant Unsubscribe from me is when I receive a message that starts something like…
Hi {Firstname_fix},
…because they haven’t bothered to test their mailshot before sending it out. In their desperate hurry to make their next dollar, they send out untested emails.
Hi Phil,
I wouldn’t necessarily unsubscribe from someones list just because they made a mistake. I have made quite a few errors over the years myself and most people realize we are only human.
But I do see your point.
Hi,
Totally agree with you John. Phil, you could have signed up to more than one list. I think you’re being silly. Does that mean if John or the other decent marketers out there send you more than one email, you’re going to unsubscribe. I sometimes get more than one email from the same person. Don’t get me wrong you do sometimes get pi..ed off sometimes.
I once emailed John as I got 2 emails from him on the same day, John suggested to unsubscribe from one of them.
Regards
Donald
I often feel like Phil does, but I do discriminate as Donald suggests.
I don’t mind the odd bit of repetition from Marketers I trust and like.
What really annoy me are the continual “Hey” emails I get from a variety of sources that don’t actually unsub me when I request it!
Thanks John, useful viewpoint.
John,
Thanks for sharing the valuable research that you have done! I don’t email my list enough, because I usually take awhile finding and evaluating things that I want to email them about. That’s good though, I guess… My time is somewhat limited too because I have not made the jump to full-time marketer yet, but this information will help me get there.
Best Regards,
Ken Soszka
John that so true that doing more then one product and telling them its the best they are losing the credibility… I like to add one more point when someone opts out to your list the marketer should read comments on the reason and react to what the audience is saying, listen and you will be a better marketer…
thanks agian…
Reg B.
USA
Hi John,
I think it’s so easy to get email marketing wrong. It’s a bit of trial and error I have found. Depending how I’ve built the list, some respond better to daily emails, others to emails less often. I tailor my emailing to the needs of the list I’ve built.
Enjoy the journey.
Mandy
That is very true Mandy, some list require a different approach.
Thanks John,
This is one thorny question that keeps popping up.
I hate getting more than one e-mail a day from someone – but as was pointed out to me – I’m on several (=lots of) marketers lists – for research purposes of course! So I get loads a day.
But someone who’s not in the same boat – may ONLY get one or 2 emails a day total and would, hopefully, welcome one (or 2) from me.
Lesson learnt and about to be applies!
Thanks again
Jennifer
Great Post John,
I just wanted to say I totally agree with the “burnout” you can feel from getting e-mails from a person promoting product after product all over the IM map. These are typically the e-mails I will quickly unsubscribe from.
If you are e-mailing with updates and products pertaining to what your followers and readers can see is what you yourself use and believe in, it makes it easier to keep them flowing and keep the open rate up as they really do want to hear what you have to say..
Cheers,
AJ Crawford
Hi John,
thanks for the advice I have been a bit timid with sending too many e-mails thinking that subscribers would get fed up hearing from me. I think I will be rather bolder in the futrure
Rob
Hi John,
First of all, great to see you’ve ditched the facebook comments.
I totally agree with what you’re saying here. If you want to do well in a launch with a product you believe in then it’s worth a couple of mailings. It’s also worth noting that you should be putting your personality into the messages as well, nothing worse than getting the copy & paste e-mails from affiliates.
Andrew
The Facebook comments didn’t seem to attract the interaction I’d hoped for Andrew so they got ditched.
I couldn’t agree more. I see this all of the time, marketers emailing me on a daily basis with a different product each and every single day.
I guess they believe that if the first product advertisement doesn’t get you to buy it, then the next one will? I also don’t like the fact that many of these marketers are always trying to sell you something every single day.
Why can’t they just give you use ful information that you can use in your business part of the time, and then on the other times, send you offers. Maybe they could split their email campaigns up into two distinct categories. The first batch sent out for the week, give information, the rest of the week, send out emails with information and a few offers inside.
A matter of fact, I have even seen emails that just have a link inside them and nothing else. That’s just bad marketing if you ask me. I realize these marketers are trying to make money, but do they have to push products your way each and every single day? Why can’t they just share with you some of their experiences? you know, the setbacks and failures along with the successes that they had?
Remember, email marketing is all about building solid relationships, and how can you build a relationship if it is always about you and what you’re offering all of the time? To me that sounds a bit one-sided. You shoud express an interest in your readers, get them to reply to your emails and learn from them That’s how you can build a solid relationship with your customer base. Don’t just sell sell sell to them all of the time.
Totally agree John.
I mail my list EVERYDAY!
Yep, I get the odd unsubscribes but I don’t care as they probably wouldn’t have bought something off me ever … just free-loaders who expect me to give them free info for nowt!
Yeah, and hows aboit I comes polish your car too – no thanks!
I make sure my emails are entertaining with a little ed-u-cation and a promo at the end.
For example, my email title today was:
“Psychopathic customers ain’t slapping my booty”
Now, instead of getting unsubscribers, moaners, pain in the ass-i-mo’s, I actually receive emails from my list telling me how entertaining I am, “I’m the man” etc etc.
Plus, I get a few orders EVERYDAY.
So, yes, get cranking out them email messages and prepare to see your profits go ‘BIG TIME’.
I’m otta here …
Rob
HI John
As usual GREAT advise. 🙂
A solid relationship and trust with your list = SUCCESS!!!
Eye-opening email, John. Thought regular mailing would put them off. Made me re-think. Thanks for your always-useful posts.
By the way, nice site. What theme are you using?
Val
The theme is called Flexibility 3 Val, check the ‘copy this blog’ tab at the top of the page to find out more.
YIP…right again John!
It’s not so much the *fine balance*…it’s training your subscribers to see the value you are going to be giving them on a regular basis…by *GIVING IT TO THEM*!
You can even structure the same delivery in your *follow-up* sequences…proving…
1. The information and products offers are extremely relevant…as to WHY they joined your list in the first place!
2. The products in the *OFFERS* are evergreen!
3. you provide more FREE value in your emails than your product offers!
SO yeah…when you add that approach of email marketing to growth of your lists overtime…you are simply expanding on your profits!
Thanks for sharing this information John….Ed.
Hi John
This makes a lot of sense. Just today I’ve sent out an offer that my subscribers like – I’ll use the strategy you’re recommending here.
Hello John
I posted in one of your groups on Facebook about the fact that after 2 years it has finally clicked with me that I must email my list more often.
I also went through a spell of emailing more often but not actually making offers – just giving away info
I have been kind of afraid to email too often but am now emailing more and making offers and yes, I am making more money!
So it is a hurdle you need to get over and I think is very common too
Sue
Hey John,
Good stuff mate! I try to follow what I’ve seen in the past and present, note the stuff that annoy me so I can stay away from those practices in my business.
Some people just don’t get it, this is a real business and if you treat people like like a TV audience they will change the channel!
Keep it coming man! Always enjoy your posts.
Kelly
Makes a lot of sense John,
You made me learn an important lesson. I am a totally new bie to list and I dont have any list yet. But I can remember your lesson forever. Its important and crucial.
Thanks a lot for sharing your wisdom.
Mallik
It’s fascinating to read peoples comments John,
I love how some people automatically say they will unsubscribe from anyone who ‘markets’ to them too often….
And yet they are wanting to learn about marketing!!!!
I wonder if they also refuse to shop at certain supermarkets due to them advertising on their TV’s and even internet pages on a daily basis??
(then again – would they be able to buy any groceries at all??…lol)
And while I’m here – will you be updating your blog with the results of facebook comments versus blog comments?
Randy
I agree Randy, a lot of people want to learn marketing but heaven forbid if you market to them, ironic isn’t it?
The Facebook comments didn’t seem to attract the interaction I’d hoped for so they got ditched.
Hi Randy – the timing of TV Ads may not be controllable by those paying for them (or are they?!) – eg, after every Tesco Ad (with the slogan – Every Little Helps) there used to be an Ad for Lidl…….. it always made me crack up (even though I normally have Ad Blindness). I sometimes shop at both…..
John
Hello John,
Thank you for the great tips in your article regarding frequency of emailing a list. Although my list is tiny, I believe that it is important to know how many emails are too many, and how to run successful campaigns. It is good to know that sending several different offers in one week is not a great idea.
I guess the best thing to do it to apply it to yourself – how you would respond to it? For me the rule is that if I trust the person and get value from his or her emails, then I may possibly no read all of them, but will certainly read some, and will never unsubscribe. It is the depth of trust and value that determines how receptive we are the information in our email box.
I am learning a lot from you!
Warm wishes,
Galina
Hey John,
It’s funny how emailing more keeps open rates higher but I have found that same thing, it does! Another thing i’ve noticed that keeps people happy is if your subject lines are informative and not always “blind”. In other words letting people know whether the email is relevant to them, instead of continually being too provocative and then losing their interest in the body copy.
Nuff Said 🙂
Randy
lol
Hi Johnn , I email my list every week with a newsletter.
It consists of what I have been up to on the internet marketing scene and also my Product of the week in which I would be an affiliate of. I also include a list of the posts I have made during that week, usually 2 or 3 and ask them to take action and leave a comment.
As my list is in the early stages I would be afraid to email them more than twice a week.
Its funny, I get tons of email every day and I only every open up your emails as I know the majority of your emails is letting me know about some value content that you have uploaded
Good information as always from John.
One thing I do find is that if I do HTML email, I usually get 5 times the open rate.
regards David
Hi John,
Some very useful tips contained in this post. I have only ever promoted 2 different products in the same week and resulted in a higher unsubscribe rate.
Now I only ever mail 1-3 times per week and only ever promote one product at a time.
Perhaps it’s time to increase mailing and test the results.
Yes John,
I will copy your email marketing style, but I realize that the value to the customer is of the utmost importance. Each day I ask myself, ‘am I offering great value to my customer’?
John I really liked how you mentioned you mail for the same product 10x a week …mailing for one product often isn’t really a bad thing but mailing for 4-5 products in a week kinda is. Then your subscribers see that you get behind your promotions and not just spam them good tips
Hey John,
I think you do a great job with your lists. I can see that it works very well for you. Promoting one product pretty much for the week with an awesome bonus seems to be a great method and I would think is tolerated and even expected from other internet marketers on your list. Like you said though, when you get pitched the next push button or loophole and everyday it’s a different product, it gets old quick. It’s a great method if you want an unresponsive list.
Thanks, Jace
A surveys of my email subscriber base gave me the same conclusions John. When given the choice of how long I should wait in between email messages the overwhelming response was “As often as you have something valuable for me.”
I also agree – the more you mail the more you’ll make…but ADD VALUE each time. Don’t just pitch!
John T is a great example of giving value with each mailing – keep up the great work.
Jim
Hi John,
Very timely blog about this subject as I was just think this very question!
Thanks
Panicos
Hello John,
While I am getting benefit from your teachings I don’t mind receiving E-mails about your products, but I am not so keen on getting E-mails from you on other people’s products.
Trust is a very intangible thing. After careful study and analysis I have come to trust your products, but with other people’s products I don’t have that trust and I have already wasted thousands of dollars on products that don’t deliver for me. I am therefore trying to cut down on E-mails except from a few very trusted sources. But, I have noticed that a few formerly trusted sources have started pitching products which undermine my former faith in them.
Bill
Hi John!
I am in complete agreement with the post above by Bill Keidan where he says he is not so keen on receiving emails from you just to try and sell or promote other people’s products all the time.
I don’t really welcome that either, and although that in itself wouldn’t cause me to unsubscribe (because of the value you’ve delivered to me over time with your OWN products), I certainly don’t appreciate email promotions for other marketers’ products – especially not after all the money I’ve wasted on products that don’t deliver what they claim, or imply, or promise.
I find it really irritating when marketers keep emailing me to buy something else – and then something else – and something else – before I’ve even had a proper chance to go through something they’ve sold me previously to see whether that works for me or not!
Let me ask you Gary, if/when you build a list will you ever recommend products and services that will help your subscribers?
Or of you had a product of your own would you like people like me to promote it?
IMO you only waste money on a product if you don’t use it, if it doesn’t deliver what is promised simply refund your purchase.
John,
It’s a fine balance, surely? What I have taken from your message here is that “frequency” is OK, but YOU better make sure your sending stuff that is valuable, interesting and not boring!
Thanks John
Gareth
Great Info John… I have a question related to another post and backlinks…
I noticed above that James left a link to his site. You had encouraged this in some of your training, yet I wonder if some people may consider this spamming their site to get traffic.
What is considered exceptable and ethical when it comes to leaving backlinks with comments on other marketer’s blogs? It makes sense to me to do exactly what James did above…However I don’t want to appear as “just looking for a link”…appreciate your thoughts…
Thank YOu
As long as you provide value in your comments I don’t mind you getting a backlight.
It’s probably the Comment Luv plug in, or something similar, that inserts the link back to the commenter’s site.
HI John
Having just signed up to your list, this post caught my eye and I opened the email and clicked the link, this shows that what you say here works, not everyone will open your emails but if you offer your list something of value then they will read your information and build a relationship with you.
Thanks for sharing
Kerris
Hey John,
Cool post! I totally agree, I don’t think there is a specific number to follow in terms of emails HOWEVER I do believe that you should follow a few guidelines;
– Regularly provide awesome content
– Promote something you’ve actually tried, use etc. and genuinely believe in
– More content then offers.
You’ve pretty much touched on these.
Btw, your blog is awesome. You’ve really set a high standard!
Thanks John. I have been getting loads of mails from you but I have not unsubscribed and I am unlikely to because I find great value in your mails. They feel personal and friendly, not like a sales pitch. I feel this is important as well. In addition they also give me some useful information.
Keep up the good work!
As Jesse said, it is all about the feel of the email. I have been in your lists for years, and I have always found them informative and friendly.
They have great content and also following just your emails is a very good pointer where IM trends are.
Thank you again, for your great post, another Masterclass 🙂
Hi John, I’m going to mail-out more often with a total focus on the products I value myself. I think it’s working
Regards
Gareth
Hi John,
Is there a way to get my picture in the comments? I look so naked without it(LoL)
Anyway, a good post and thank you for sharing it with us. You did cover some useful points that one may not have considered. Having cultivated the list it is always good practice to maintain it. Many of what you have described are simply spamming the people on the list. Marketers are always of the view that if one person presses the unsubscribe button then two more will opt in. This is simply not the way to go as one should always try and keep the subscribers for as long as is possible as it does speak to the credibility of the owner of the list.
Now in maintaining the list they should be emailed often just how often is the million dollar question. In emailing to the list sometimes one can simply email to wish a happy birthday, to send a congratulatory message, a message about a milestone being achieved or simply to say thank you for being a loyal subscriber.
This of course assumes that the list is segmented.It would be a good idea to email more with non-offer messages and less offer messages.
I email to my list twice per week and yes, you do have those that complain.
Thanks for a good post
Vinton.
Use this to get a pic Vinton.
https://en.gravatar.com/
This is another excellent post John, when i first started out i would not mail my for fear of offending my subscribers, it wasn’t till i spoke to Nneil Stafford he made me see that they had already raised their hand and were interested in hearing what i had to offer and so long as i offered value i couldnt go far wrong. it was a little weird at first but after the first week and getting some encouraging responses i am a lot more comfortable doing it. Stories are great for building and nuturing that relationship just incase anyone doesnt know that.
With regard to how often i mail, i try to mail every two days with the occasional broadcast thrown in when i find something interesting or newsworthy to share with them
John, this post was great reading for me because I am one of those marketers who likes to email my list more often. I usually email them once a day. Once in while I even have to send out two broadcasts in the same day. Like you, I have found that this method has actually improved my open rate.
This just goes to show you that sometimes you have to try something new and go against what other people are doing to discover new ways to be successful.
Also, I purchased a copy of Simple Traffic Solutions last week and I just want to say that it is a really great buy for the money and that I have learned a ton since taking the course. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn how to start driving serious amounts of traffic to their blogs and websites.
Hi John. The key to what you are saying is making sure your subscribers trust you. If you mail offer after offer they know you are simply trying to milk them but if you provide valuable content as well as making offers that are relevant and obviously recommended by you rather than just the latest fad you subscribers will better understand that you actually have their interests at heart. By the way the final comment in italics is very true.
Hi John,
You are the expert and have handed out some great
email pointers.
Main one to remember, I think is not to spread your love around to so many offers in a week that you turn your list off.
It is always about providing valuable information along with the the offers. It is why when your emails hit the inbox, I click and read.
~Cararta
I really don’t have any experience at this, but it certainly makes perfect sense to me that you can’t get any money if you don’t ask for the sale. Therefore, you’ve got to send the emails with frequency and regularity.