Email Marketing - How Often & How Much Selling

I go for content, content, content, sales, content, sales, content and then from there I just mix it up. I think to some extent your best chance to make a sale with your email list is in the first two weeks they are on your list, so hit them as much as you can during that time. There is the long term thought process too which says build a relationship, get them to like you and then hit em. It's a personal choice really and I think in the long run it's all the same.

Sam, we e-mail every two weeks and sell in each of them. Of course I'm in retail so it's a bit different of a ballgame than many in here. We're in the music business too and mostly offer new product but also tips and industry news, etc. Our subscriber base is large. Like the websites, content is king when it comes to these e-mails.

Hi,
I think this is something you need to play around with a bit.Certainly you should be looking to email once a week with good content.
Sell on the third email.
You may if you have enough content go for two emails a week but it really depends how responsive your list is. This will mean you can sell twice a month which is ideal.
Watch for people unsubscribing, this is a good indicator that you are sending too many emails or the content is weak.
There are no hard and fast rules just go with what works.

I put soft sell offers in most emails, about an email a week, give the free gift but also do a soft sell

Thanks, I think selling in the first two weeks the way Shaun OReilly suggested sounds like the best idea. Gonna set something up like: two emails in the first two weeks & then emails once a week all with a soft sell.

I ask as I have generated a list in the past but it seemed pretty responsive compared to the "$1 per subscriber per month" the gurus tell us.

Sam

Sam, before I give you my answer, I have to give you my spin on the word 'offer' as used in this context.

When I set up an email series, I consider an offer to be a link to something outside the reader's email box, along with my take on the benefit to the reader of clicking that link. The destination of that link does not have to be a commercial offer.

With that in mind...

The frequency varies depending on the content I plan to present. If the initial content is an e-course, with steps that take a certain amount of time to complete, the course is set up to allow that interval between steps. So you might get emails on days 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, etc. Once the course part is over, I generally send about once a week with the occasional solo shot mixed in.

With my definition above in mind, I put some kind of offer in every single email. It could be a link to a blog post or video. It could be a free download or resource. Sometimes it's just a reminder of an offer made previously, especially if that offer has a time limit.

I want people to get in the habit of clicking my links with the expectation of something worth their time on the other side of the click.

As you build some history with your own list(s), you'll learn the patterns that work for you in that market.