How often you email your list is a very common question amongst online marketers.  Every marketer seems to have their own view on how often you should email your list. Some claim if you email them too often, your readers will get annoyed and unsubscribe from your list.

Others claim, if you don’t email them more often, they will forget about you, and you will lose your relevance.

So how should you balance your emailing frequency?

Here are three rules.

1. Your emailing frequency will depend on the niche you are in, how you got your subscribers, whether your emails are interesting, how much information you have about your topic and much more. If your goal is to make a sale, keep this statistic in mind:

“80% of all sales are made between the 5^th and the 12^th contact.”

2. Test to find out how your list responds to your emails. Every audience is different. Your email open rates and link click-through rates are key in this analysis.
3. Don’t rely only on email. Email is the glue that holds your sales campaign in place. But email alone will rarely suffice. Email should be used to drive your readers to articles, blog posts, videos, audios, testimonials, research, etc.  Adjust your email campaign to fit the needs of your information.

How to Handle Emailing Your Subscribers

Let’s look at the frequency of your email sends.  Again, you should tailor this to your style, the reader’s acceptance or rejection and other factors.

Stage 1:  The first date — the first couple of weeks

Now that you have new subscribers, make sure your first date is a good one!  You need to welcome them in a friendly manner and reiterate how smart they are for subscribing to your email list. If there are any subscriber bonuses for new subscribers then show or tell them how to get it.  Over deliver is a good practice here to “wow” your prospect.

After that, begin by providing them valuable content while asking a little in return. For 10-15 days, send them one email every day or two from Day 2. This means that, on day one, they get a welcome email and then from there, they will be getting valuable content for those following days.

By valuable content, I mean unique content that can be applied immediately. It doesn’t have to be long; just content-rich emails. For instance, if you are building a list of marketers, salespeople or copywriting clients, giving them a summary of things you have included in your previous newsletters will provide great value. It doesn’t have to be lengthy.

As always, keep your emails relevant to the subject matter for which a subscriber joined. For instance, if they joined your email list from your podcast website to get more information about podcasting, avoid sending emails on pay-per-click unless it relates to podcasting.

Don’t sell anything to your new subscribers during this stage.

However, if your new subscriber joined your list after purchasing your product you can make offers directly related to their purchase, but this shouldn’t be the main focus of your emails.

For instance, if you sell a podcasting product, and you send out an email to your subscribers with great podcasting marketing tips, in your PostScript you can mention that there is a tool that can make the tips work better. This is a great soft selling strategy.

Vary your information format.  Keeping content only in your email may cause you to lose some readers.  Vary the format by using audio, video, blogposts, etc. to keep your readers interested and give them other options to consume your content.

For instance, I like to create a short intro video for my blogposts to give the reader an overview while getting an increase in my KLT factors.

Audio translations will let readers listen while driving, running or walking, options they won’t have with only the written word.  Make your content easy to consume for the reader.

Stage 2:  Dating Continuation

In this stage, you need to continue building relationships by sending readers great content. However, you need to slow down your emailing frequency. This is similar to dating; if you are dating a great guy or girl who you are used to hanging out with on a daily basis, and after some time they go quiet for two or three days, what happens? You miss them. Building a relationship with your email list can work in a similar way.

This stage can last for 12-21 days. And during this time, you can send emails every three days. If you notice a majority of your subscribers have not purchased from you, revisit your selling strategy. Continue providing plenty of relevant content while using the soft selling technique.

During this stage, try to read their moods by checking on the number of readers who opened your emails and those who didn’t. This will give you an idea of what content to send.

Ask them for feedback in one of the emails in this stage. For instance, how long have they been implementing strategy? Do they want to know more about topic x? Ask them to reply, and you will get some quick answers. After all, relationships are a two-way street. It will take some of your time, but it’s worth it.

Stage 3:  Going Steady

You probably know what comes next after building your relationship through great content. Members who have stuck with you this far can trust you, and they probably like you as well.

This stage should last for about three weeks, and you can email them every 4 to 5 days. You can sell your product at this stage but don’t push. Simply recommend or suggest.

Stage 4:  Keep the relationship going… just not as fast

This is the final stage which you have been laying a foundation for. Subscribers who have stuck with you to this juncture are loyal fans, who like you and hopefully trust you. Send them emails every 5-6 days and occasionally more often when you have something of value to say to them. Continue sending them great content and send them sales letters, too.

It’s Time to Increase Your Open Rates

I have a great trick to share with you. Yes, it’s true that you already offered your subscribers an incentive upon joining your list.

However, you need to create a second incentive for them. This second incentive will be delivered via autoresponder series. When you do this, your readers will continue to interact since you will be offering two bonuses of high value. Second, your subscribers will readily open your emails because they want to get this special incentive.

And third, if you use a product, you can create pre-made content for your auto-responder by simply breaking it into emails.

Fourth, you can record videos of yourself to make your readers feel as though they already know you. For instance, your second incentive can be “5 Ways to Get More People to Subscribe to Your Podcast.” Instead of explaining all the five ways in one lengthy video, you can explain each in a 5-minute video.

After watching these videos, your list is more likely to remember your name, your appearance, and what you do and your KLT factors will skyrocket. Readers are also more likely to open and read your emails in the future.

Giving a second incentive to your email list is still a popular technique for getting them in the habit of opening your emails.

One Last Tip: Occasionally treat your readers to additional offers with substantial discounts thanks to their continued readership.  This way, you will grab their attention and increase your open rate.