42 Email Series- How far apart should they be?

I dont want to be very aggressive

Like Michael said, there is no magic number.

There are, however, only two factors you need to look at to start with and a third to add later.

> The first factor is the people in your niche. Are they compulsive email checkers, or once-a-week-if-they-remember types? Do they tend to get a lot of email, or subscribe to a lot of lists?

If the people in your niche aren't used to getting a lot of email, and they only check every few days or so, they could check in and find a number of messages from you if you mail too often. Unless it's the kind of content that people will eat up, seeing that many messages stacked up is going to land you in the "unsubscribed because you're 'spamming' me with too many emails" land.

You can alleviate some of that by setting out some expectations in your first message or confirmation page. "We've found that you get the best results by sending you the first X emails one per day, then they start spreading out a little as you make use of what you learn..." Then, in each message, let them know when to expect the next one and what subject line to look for.

> The second factor to consider is the content itself. What kind of spacing does it lend itself to? A 'weekly newsletter' is different than an e-course, which is different from an email coaching program with assignments to complete.

Look at your series, and take your best guess at how long it would take the average subscriber to gain the most benefit from that message. That's your interval for the next message.

> The third factor comes with experience and data. Look for the messages that perform poorly, and see if changing the interval might help. Measure the result. In other words, testing and tracking to optimize performance.

You might find, for example that a message you guessed would yield maximum user benefit in two days actually takes three. So adding an extra day between that message and the next improves response on the next message. Or you might find the opposite - a user works at using what you teach for a day and starts getting frustrated, so offering a way to make that step easier (like buying a piece of software) before the frustration passes works better if you send that message a day sooner than you originally thought.

One of the best ways to do this is to keep asking your users for feedback.

I'm going to agree with Steven that sending them every 15 minutes would be too often. I was kind of hoping that the later post suggesting one a day for the first 14 days was similarly jokey (I won't speak for anyone else, but that would certainly get me a lot of "unsubscribes"!) ...

Anyway, you have to test it for yourself.

If it's relevant at all (which it may not be, to you), I'll tell you what I now do - after testing about half of them, such as I could - in all of my 8 niches with all of my 8 lists: I send email on days 1, 3, 6, 10 and 15, and thereafter every 5 (or sometimes 6) days, i.e. not always on the same day of the week. For me (maybe not for everyone), any more than that would be "aggressive" and I'd expect it to cost me money, overall.

But the main thing is: well done for having a series of 42 emails. I'm always baffled by people wanting a "10-email series" or "12-email series", myself. (I send to mine for ever. Once they're in there, it doesn't cost anything, really, and the proportion who eventually buy something is very high).