When it comes to email marketing, I often get asked the following questions:
- How often should I email my list?
- How much is too much?
- What should I say?
I hope to shed light on this important aspect of your business by providing a handful of tips to follow when sending an email out to your subscriber list…
Quick tips:
- Email your list as often as you promised you would. (Don’t let them down!!)
- However, you do want to be respectful of how many emails you’re sending. I’d typically say weekly is plenty, but if you’re in the midst of a product launch, you can email your list a few times that week – just be mindful of how often you’re doing so.
- You should give valuable content that will remind subscribers why they signed up for your list in the first place… and leave them wanting more.
- Remember that your email subscribers made the first move by signing up. This is a way of saying, “I’m gonna trust you to deliver the goods.” If you want to build a long-term successful online business, then your list is a precious gem that must be cared for.
(P.S.) The size of the list is not what matters. It’s the quality of the list that makes all the difference in the world. So even if you only have 15 people in your database, email them regularly and give them pure gold.
Not-so-quick tips:
Whether you offer a newsletter or occasional updates, you definitely want to read these email campaign rules before sending out another email. The tips I am supplying are valuable and will help get you higher deliverability rates and higher conversion rates!
- Test what time is best to send your campaign. Typically, I recommend sending your campaign between 10am and 1pm (in the time zone where the majority of your list lives). If you send your campaign too early, people will be quick to delete your email because they just got to the office and are already being bombarded with emails and to-do’s. By sending your email campaign after that first wave of chaos, more subscribers will be more likely to read your content. (But make sure to test what time is right for you. Even I still test every so often!!)
- Be careful of the words you put in your subject line. Avoid spam words such as ‘free,’ ‘limited time only,’ ‘for you,’ ‘buy,’ ‘amazing,’ ‘click here,’ ‘offer,’ ‘winner,’ ‘opportunity,’ etc. View a list of the top 100 words you should avoid in Subject lines.
- Sit down for one day each month and brainstorm a content plan. When the day comes to send your email, you don’t want to get writer’s block on what to say. Make a general list of topics you could cover in your emails. In addition, keep a folder of good articles or website links that you can offer to your list as resources.
- Sign up for your competitor’s (ugh, I don’t like that word) subscriber list. No, this isn’t to copy what they are doing. Instead, find new and fresh ways to deliver content that sets you apart from what they are doing. It is good to keep on top of what your industry has going on, then always try to stay ahead of the game.
- Make sure your domain is part of the email address you send your campaign from. For example, you could use something like ‘[email protected].’ That way, people recognize your URL and are more likely to open it and easily find their way back to your website.
- Tips to avoid getting caught in spam filters:
- Avoid using all caps to get a point across.
- Keep your text black or blue – no red or yellow highlighting.
- Limit your number of links in the email to 3 or 4 when you can.
- Don’t overdo punctuation such as !!!!! or ?????.
I wrote a very specific article titled, “5 Key Ideas to Get Better Results with Your Email Marketing” that you might enjoy reading next. I give details about:
- Subject lines
- How to format your email
- Tone
- What to focus on
- Calls to action
I just felt called to share these email marketing tips with you. If you found them helpful, please comment below to let me know!
What now? Go out and make someone happy today. That’s an order! 🙂
xoxo
Amber Vilhauer
