When you sign up for news updates from a website, how frequently would you like to receive emails?
How often should you send your newsletter? To answer that question, you need to think like the customer you are writing to. Say you have signed up to a discount website: are you happy to receive one email a day or is it too much?
What about a news website? If you need to be up to speed with the latest events, will you need to receive notifications every few hours?
And what about a service provider, for example the people who print your business cards or deliver your organic fruit and vegetables? Would once a week be enough?
Now let’s change sides: you are no longer on the receiving end. Let me ask you another question: how “lazy” or how “enthusiastic” do you feel?
Let me explain: I tend to feel “lazy”, find excuses not to send a newsletter and hide behind the fear of not causing too much trouble or annoyance (or even think I don’t have any topics to talk about).
On the flip side, when I feel too “enthusiastic” my “pester-power” is immense: if I could, I would send an email to my entire list every five minutes as I have so much to tell.
Testing, testing
The best way to check how often to send your newsletter is to do some testing: trial and error is still the most useful method.
To summarise, this is the suggested frequency for newsletters:
Daily for news and time-limited discounts
Weekly for special offers and news digests
Monthly for service updates, new products, seasonal offers
Quarterly for seasonal offers, products announcements.
Finally, don’t forget to get written confirmation before sending any bulk email.
Would you like to suggest any alternatives? Feel free to tweet me @paolaenergya
