Sending an email newsletter is the most efficient way to stay in touch with the people who buy from you or want to know more about what you do.

An email newsletter is also a great way to sell more of your products or services to prospects, past customers or the people they know. (People share good emails with colleagues, friends and family.)

Your customers are the most important people in your business.

So communicating with them on the regular should be your highest priority.

But not everyone is natural at keeping in touch.

If it feels forced to write a regular email to your list you’ll quickly lose interest and enthusiasm.

And if you don’t know what to send to your list it’s even harder. Often frustrating. And a time-consuming brain drain.

When NOT to send emails

Some think no communication is better than bad communication. And I guess that’s true. But then again, who decides what bad communication is?

I know some companies that send the same email every month. It works. It reminds their customers to buy their stuff. When I first heard this I thought “really! The same email every month?” But isn’t that better than sending no email? It is, because he who communicates the most has the most influence.

That’s why I advocate emailing at least monthly, preferably weekly and for some people multiple times a week, depending on what you do and who’s on your email list.

If you’re a hobby type business for example then more emails are best. I’m on a couple of hobby lists right now and I almost never hear from them. And when I do they don’t really say anything.

Which is a mistake on their part because remember this: people subscribe and stay on your email list because they want to hear from you. That’s why I stay on the hobby lists I’m on. I live in hope they’ll send something interesting.

What if people don’t want to hear from you very often?

If your subscribers don’t want to hear from you they can always unsubscribe. After all, there’s an unsubscribe link in every marketing email you send, right?

And if you’re afraid of upsetting subscribers because you send email too often, you can always give your subscribers the option to join a sub list that you mail less frequently. Just put a section at the bottom of each email that says: Don’t want to hear from me so often? Click the link below and I’ll only email you once a month (or quarter or whatever).

Using tags in your email sending software will cause this link to automatically flag the subscribers who click it as people who only want your monthly or quarterly emails.

Of course, you’ll then have to create a monthly or quarterly email to send to these people.

But that’s easy.

Once a month or quarter do a “round up” type email that summarises what’s been happening with links to relevant pages and products on your website. (More on this some other time.)

Then continue to mail everyone else weekly or at whatever interval makes the most sense.

Deciding email newsletter frequency

Oh, and when you’re deciding the frequency to send emails to your list, always err on the side of more emails not less.

Most people underestimate how often people on their list want to hear from them.

And most people on your list will only open 20-30% of your emails anyway, which means they’ll only read 1 in 4 emails you send.

So if you send monthly, they’ll receive 12 emails a year and only read 3.

Hardly a relationship building exercise.

Listen: If you email monthly, the first thing you should do after reading this is switch to twice monthly, then work toward once a week. Then look at your sales stats and decide which is better, once a month or once a week.

I know of some companies that mail twice a day! And up to 5 times a day when running a special promotion or limited time sale.

Based on the results I see my clients getting, your sales will increase when you increase email frequency.

And that’s without applying any of the suggestions I make about how to write emails that convert readers into buyers.

Make sense?

Good.

For even better ideas to help you build a successful email newsletter subscribe below:

Then go write an email.

Subscribe to my email newsletter and I’ll send you short lessons and ideas (1 or 2 times a week) to help you succeed with email marketing: