Hey there. This is the first post in a five post series titled ‘Top Five Email Marketing Myths’. We’re counting down, starting with #5 –
“If I email too much, they’ll unsubscribe!”
This is so untrue! You can email your list a lot and have a list that is happy as a pig in you know what.
However, let me make this clear: You WILL get unsubscribes, it’s normal and a natural part of the email process.
Now there’s a trick to this, well it’s not so much a trick as it is common sense. Here is how to email your list as often as you want without having to worry about ticking them off:
Set Clear Expectations – If you plan to email your list once a day and the occassional twice per day let them know that. Tell them they’ll be getting a LOT of emails. Obviously you don’t want to send them garbage so if you’ve got great info and you need to send it once a day you’re subscribers will be happy to be in the know and on top of the latest news in your topic or industry. There are plenty of successful businesses that email out all the time.
Offer High Value – As I mentioned in the last point you need to provide value. In order to do this you need to flip the ‘how can I make the most money?’ mindset to the ‘how can I provide the most value that leads to goodwill and sales?’ mindset. It might seem like a tiny switch but it is extremely important to the overall success of your marketing messages.
Don’t Email Garbage – Yep I mentioned this one too and it’s fairly obvious but sometimes we get roped into promoting offers for people because they’re friends or because they did something nice for us. You need to be a tough business person here and weed out everything that’s garbage and then go beyond that. You want to offer ONLY the highest quality in any offers you make. Whether it be your own products or someone else’s, make sure it is top-tier standard. AND don’t pound your list with offer after offer after offer! Give them tools, resources, freebies and other good things so they don’t consider you to be nothing but a money-hungry scammer.
Understand Their Needs – If you are emailing out ALL the time but you’re totally out of whack with what your list is looking for then they’re going to unsubscribe. Worse, they’ll probably label you a spammer before they do (even if you’re not, they can do that). The smartest thing you can do here is make sure you understand the needs of your list. The easiest way to do that is to BE your target market.
For example, I teach how to build a website at Website Design Mojo. I don’t only teach it, I do it. I build websites for my business and also for clients so I’m very much in the loop to the needs and wants of someone who’s built a website. I do need to stretch, however, when it comes to understanding what a BEGINNER needs (since it’s been 12 years since I was a total beginner). That’s when I be careful to listen to my market, ask them questions and go personally to people for advice. You want to make sure you always understand what your market needs and deliver that to them.
Those are some ways you can make sure your list is happy to receive emails from you.
You might be reading this, however, and be wondering why in the world you’d want to create all that work for yourself and email your list so often. Good question, it is.
Look at it this way:
- It takes about 7 marketing messages to make a sale (or so the story goes).
- If you email your list once per week that’s 52 messages per year.
- According to the math that would be only 7 sales per year!!
- Now, up your messages to twice per week and it stands to reason you can expect to you double your sales. Three times per week and you could possibly triple your sales. Up by five times and potentially get five times the sales. Get it?
That alone was enough for me to start paying much more attention to how many times I email out.
Just remember that you’ve got to focus on quality!! If you try to pull money out like your own virtual ATM machine you’ll find your list quickly grows to resent and ignore you…
For those on your list who are really and completely against getting too many emails – yes, they will unsubscribe. Guess what? You simply can’t please everyone. I had to come to terms with that and decide WHO I wanted to please – the people who only want my emails four times a month or the people who want lots of information from me and are just as happy with twenty or thirty emails from me per month if the topic requires it.
In the end if you treat your list like the gold it can be they won’t get mad at all. Instead you’ll have an email list of people who respect your opinions, wait for your advice and take your consideration recommendations because you’ve proven yourself to be a trusted source of valuable information.
Good deal, eh? 
Angela
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So true. Speaking from a subscriber’s position, I call people who email me once or twice (some have even emailed 5 times a day) as spammers. (Of course I would never accuse them in public because, after all, I did subscribe to their lists and can unsubscribe.) But you, Angela, can email that many times and I would NEVER call you a spammer. That’s because those people who irritate me and I think SPAM are the ones that only promote the latest launch or it’s an adswap. YOU, on the other hand, offer way more interesting and/or valuable information. I really look forward to your emails.
Thanks
Twitter: AngelaWills
says:
Aw thanks so much Donna you just made my day!
It’s funny because after I sent this I realized that one of my lists DID end up getting two emails from me just today, kind of ironic because I don’t usually do that.
So… I was wondering if someone would come over and challenge what I wrote by saying they were sick of hearing from ME… haha.
I’m glad you don’t feel that way and the general concensus I’ve seen from my own list and the other totally ethical marketers I’ve subscriber to or worked with tell me that emailing to much is a total myth (as long as the emailing has the right intentions at heart!).
Hi Angela…I love being on your list and I look forward to getting your emails! I really do…I am still learning and you are a great teacher and role model because you are living the “laptop lifestyle”. What I also like is that you’ve tried things that didn’t work and then changed directions which is awesome because we get to learn from your mistakes as well as when you decide to take a risk and try new things.
As a result of this post, I have been emailing my list only 1 time per week regularly, but I didn’t do the math. So I’m going to start emailing my list twice a week now at your recommendation which means I will double my exposure, the information I am giving and hopefully, my rate of success. So far, I haven’t had any complaints as I always give value first and then promote second. Thanks again!
Twitter: AngelaWills
says:
Thanks so much for the comment and compliment Michelle.
I think it’s a great idea to start emailing your list twice per week and as long as you ease them into it and make them aware of more great info coming their way you should be fine.
I am on your list and as a subscriber can definitely tell you I’d love getting more frequent emails from you. I also really look forward to reading your stuff as it’s so thought-provoking and motivational in a way only you can do.
That’s one of the things about email marketing done right. Your emails only can come from you and I get so much out of them. If you don’t email more often you’re actually holding back something that could be of benefit to more people, more often.
So instead of thinking: “my subscribers won’t like it” we should be thinking about the subscriber who’s sitting back thinking “I love Michelle’s writing, I wish she’d put out more stuff!”….
Twitter: christinalemmey
says:
Angela,
Your math makes total sense but as a list subscriber, frequent emails can still be a pain, even if you understand the logic behind having a list.
I’m on one list where it seems I get an email at least every other day. Some days I’m torn about whether I should unsubscribe but for now I just don’t open the emails. That seems just as fruitless from the emailer’s standpoint because if I’m not opening the emails, I’m not buying either.
I already know I’m bad about not emailing enough but maybe the sender should think about how often THEY like to get emails and follow suit with their own lists, especially if you are in your target market.
Just thinkin’! Great post!
Twitter: AngelaWills
says:
Christina you make some great points and I actually added a bit to my post to address what you said.
Basically my take is that I’d rather build my list for those people who ARE ready to hear my message a lot and get very frequent emails. That puts me in front of them more often and builds my business faster. If I decide to do that the people who get annoyed at a lot of emails WILL unsubscribe but I know I can’t please everyone and what I am left with is a list of people eager to hear from me often.
I totally agree about thinking about your target market and compare that to how often you like to be emailed.
Also we have to realize that many emails don’t get opened as you mentioned. To me that is also a case for sending more emails, too. Since I know many people who really did want to read my one email per week just didn’t get to it because they were busy or whatever I know if I sent more than one they can take what they want and leave the rest. They’ll end up catching some and missing others.
Anyway, I could ramble on and on about this but ultimately I think we build a list of subscribers who are happy with the terms we set out as the others will unsub. Of course that is as long as we treat them like people and not numbers or ATM machines.
Thanks so much for your input!
Twitter: LaurieNeumann
says:
Hi Angela,
Well, you’re not the first person who has said this, and it’s really starting to make me rethink how often I email my list. I feel like if I write more than once a week, I have to wait til the next week to share something else.
But really, as a subscriber, I want to hear about things I may be interested in. I don’t want to read a book each time, but I”d like the facts.
I guess I need to have that same mindset when I am emailing my list:-)
Twitter: AngelaWills
says:
Yep there definitely will be people who don’t want to hear from you often and you need to let them unsubscribe. What you want is a list of people who ARE ready to hear from you more often, they are out there and if you build a list like that you’ll have more opportunities to grow your business and help more people!
If you prefer just the facts then yes, that’s a great way to look at sending out content as well.