How often should I send messages to my mailing list

We all have to test it for ourselves and decide what works well. Really, you can't assume that what other people are recommending is necessarily going to be right for your business.

It can vary a lot from niche to niche, and market to market (I mean that in the broadest sense of "who your potential customers are"). Mine are different from those of many Warriors, for example, because of what's attracted them on to my lists in the first place.

People joining a list through a PPC ad to find out about a registry cleaner and/or spyware remover need information, including sales information, really quickly, I think, because some of them have a specific, short-term problem right now and if you don't offer them a fast solution, someone else will. Other niches can be very different.

Just so I don't appear cagey, I'll tell you what I normally do: I email them on days 1, 3, 6, 10 and 15 and thereafter at either 5 or 6 day intervals (avoiding the "same day of the week" problem). I do that for all my niches, now, but my potential customers are (in some senses, and I think they're the significant ones) "the same sort of people" or at least "the same end of the market" in all my niches. Whether it helps you is another matter.

As much as you need to without scaring them away. I email daily.

There's no one correct answer. It depends on how they got on your list, what your own plan is, and what you're going to send them, by-and-large. With a list, you need to track everything. EVERYTHING! Including the unsub rate when you change anything. Try sending once every couple or three days. Get a baseline of how they respond to that frequency. Then change it up. Send once a day. If your unsubs shoot up, back off. Lesson learned.

Unless... sending once a day shoots up your income. Then you might decide to stick with that frequency and put more time/investment into adding more subscribers to keep up with the unsub increases.

See? You HAVE to track and test and tweak. It's a business - treat it like one!

John

Send messages as often as you have something valuable
to give to your subscribers - whether that be via content
and/or an invitation to buy a product or service.

I'm on some lists that e-mail me daily and others that'll
only e-mail me once a week or once a month.

The frequency isn't the core issue - it's the amount of
value I perceive I receive as a subscriber that determines
if I'm happy and remain on the list.

Focus on delivering high value content and offers and
frequency becomes less of an issue.

Dedicated to your success,

Shaun

Years ago I heard Matt Furey was emailing twice a day after testing, and many gurus were modeling his approach. More recently the Internet Business Box tested how often to mail and I believe they settled on 2.4 time a day.

Like many tests, it probably does matter on the niche. But more is better.

And don't confuse the goal, which is the most orders and not the most subscribers.

Cheers,
Stephen Dean

It's like how long do I wait to call a woman after getting her number?

Usually, a few days. I try not to over-think things like this. Too many variables.

how often do you have something meaningful to say? that´s the number...

Sandra

As others have said, there is no magic number.

Generally speaking, what I like to do is start by sending e-mails with more frequency, then taper of to one or two messages per week. My reasoning is that I want new subscribers to get used to the idea of getting messages from me.

But, again, that's a guideline I sometimes use, and should not be taken as a hard and fast rule of any kind.

All the best,
Michael

An important thing to realize when deciding how often you should mail your list is congruency from the start. If someone joins your mailing list and they start off receiving 1 email a week. The subscribers become used to receiving one email a week. If that same marketer suddenly sends out 1 email a day out of nowhere; it will cause some alarm and a larger opt out rate.

If someone joins your list and they are emailed everyday. They become used to this. (Or they opt out)

Another important thing to think about here is the quality of emails that you are delivering... If you are mailing for the sake of mailing, it is probably not a wise idea.

As many mentioned above, however, the true answer is that it depends.

Through proper list management and testing, you will find what is best for your subscribers. And that is a great question to ask yourself. What will best suit YOUR subscribers?

I agree with what was said in this thread test and track I would start with once a week then move up from there.

The fastest way to find the right answer from testing is to copy what other successful marketers are doing first, then make variations from there and gauge results.

The most successful email marketers I know mail at least daily.

Cheers,
Stephen Dean

Yet another example of why I'm a "lousy" marketer. I don't really give a flip how often "successful marketers" send out their emails. I realize I might be leaving money on the table, but *SHOCK* so what? I'm not going to manufacture emails just to fulfill some "me too!" quota.

This is an alarming trend I see in IM... people doing things to mimic the big money makers just for the sake of mimicking them. Take your own path. There are so many definitions of "success" - and squeezing out every possible penny from your list isn't on my list.

Not knocking those who do send multiple emails daily. Just saying that you don't have to go down that road.

John

You can't overload a list if you are giving value and helping them move closer to their goals.

However sending 1 email may be to many if you are not providing any value.

The only concrete info I can you give is the first few days. During this period I like to email at least once a day. Your leads will be more receptive to buy from you in the first week while the product is fresh on their mind. During this time only promote the product they opted in for(or 1 product at a time)

If Monday your selling this, and Tuesday your selling that, you are communicating "you are a paycheck" to your list.

I'm on exactly 3 lists. All three were in the habit of no more than 1 per week. I liked that. Now, two of them are emailing numerous times per week and I find I'm just deleting the emails unread. I don't want any more than 2 per week from anyone and won't read them and may consider unsubscribing if it continues.

Well, here's another thing to consider, and don't recall seeing in the posts above: Building a list is about building relationships, right?

So, have you ever heard somebody ask the following question?

How often should I talk to my friends; once a day, twice a week, once a week, once a month?

And even if you decided to only talk to your friends once a week, if something really worth talking to them about came up, you wouldn't wait until the week was up - you would share it right away.

No matter how often you send to your list, ALWAYS send messages of value. This could be information, something for sale, or any combination thereof. I would rather get sales messages of things that can really help me, than useless information meant to ease the sender's guilt of sending "too many sales messages in a row". Hogwash! If it doesn't have value, don't send it.

I know this isn't the question wasn't asked, but it usually is the next one. "How often should I send messages?" Then... "How many information messages should I send between sales messages?"

Anyway, just go with what feels right for you, at least at first. Then start testing and see what works best for your list.

All the best,
Michael

2.4 times a day?

Do you use a ...to be continued for the 0.4 or something?

That's more than I post on Twitter!

I am sure it works great if each message is worthwhile and provides something useful, but if the messages are pointless or nothing but ad swaps and promotions, I would leave that list pretty quick.

I write to my list how I like to be written to myself. If you are going to send a message it better be worthwhile; don't send it until it is!

As long as you hold a decent relationship with your mailing list members and dont send them crap you should be ok to mail as frequently as needed.

I get like 3 emails a day from keith doroughty and james jones and I think they are both numb skulls so an unsubscribe was needed.

They mail about absolutely everything.

I searched and found the test I was talking about, and they did find that 2.4 emails per day (or every 10 hours if you prefer) was the most profitable for them.

Internet Business Box | The Five Standard Posts

If you've read much of this thread, I'd read this post as it addresses many of the strategies that warriors mentioned and how they fared against 2.4 times a day.

Cheers,
Stephen Dean

I email my customers once a month with specials, but no more. They can call you up and get very angry. That is if they feel you are a spammer.

OK, years ago in the 90's a boss forced me to email customers once per day and the list became worthless in less than a year. People will also ignore you. That happens if you email them too often and they get tired of the spam.

Try to make sure you always email at the same time each month like on day one. Also, make sure your email contains valuable information for your consumers. Keep the sales hype to a minimum.

I'm moving my email frequency to about 4-6 days.

I get some great emails from just a handful of marketers about every 2 or 3 days. Promotional or not, it starts building up very quickly.

Internet marketers have very limited time - And sending emails that frequently can overload your readers.

As Alexa already said, TEST.

I am in internet marketing, so it might be a lot more different for somebody who is in the dog training niche, hemorroids, **** berries, or wedding groom speeches.



- Dean

I uploaded 8 emails onto my followup autoresponder.

It seems to work well. And definitely, there are unsubscribes.

Actually, it's a good thing that people unsubscribes as you want those interested ones to stay on your list and segment those who are not interested.

The most important thing in email marketing is never stop emailing them or else they will forget you.

Sometimes mail them content emails and sometimes promote good affiliate products.

Respect your list is what it takes to list building success.

And of course, you need to set the email sequences like each email send out every 3 days or 4 days.

Winson

http://www.youtube.com/user/EmailCop.../3/FZPqhgrfCS8

All the above information is good.

I think it boils down to how much trust they have in your, or how much they like you. I am on some lists that email every day, and some even multiple times a day, and I'm annoyed. Other lists though, where I am looking for good information, can email me often and I won't care a bit ... I even look forward to it ... because I know it will be some good information.

--BK

Right now I am experimenting with three lists. Two of them are sales funnels. At the end of each sales funnel, I offer them multiple freebies as a means to tempt them to opt in to a subscription to my newsletter which goes out once a week. The idea is that the sales funnel gets them used to hearing from me and if they opt in to the newsletter at the end, they receive weekly value which starts with an ad at the top followed by the monthly freebie followed by the articles I posted to my blog that week.

I do not send them the sales funnel emails and my newsletter at the same time as that is a bit spammy in my opinion. First the sales funnel then the newsletter separately if they opt in for it. Unfortunately, my model calls for them to double opt in twice which probably isn't smart, but we'll see how it goes. Hopefully, they will see value in it. Also, I plan a hard sell to the newsletter separate from the weekly mailing about once a month.

Establish a mailing schedule you can commit to and stick with it.

People don't mind receiving many emails - they just mind recieving many emails that are only boring pitch-fests.

Manage expectations. Mention on your landing page how often you plan on emailing them.