How often should I email my list? (case study)
One of the biggest “controversies” in email marketing is this:
How often should I mail my list?
The gurus are all over the map on this.
On one hand, you have guys like Matt Furey and Ben Settle who take an aggressive approach—emailing every day, sometimes even multiple times per day.
Then you have a chorus of people who say, no, you’ll burn people out and they’ll just ignore your emails, and they recommend only emailing once a week or maybe even just a couple of times a month.
So who’s right?
Yesterday I got curious and decided to do a little research.
I have two different email lists, this one that I email daily, and another one where I just send a weekly newsletter.
I was curious how many of my subscribers on THIS list are tuning out my daily emails as opposed to unsubscribing.
In my email software, Drip, I am easily able to count the number of people who haven’t opened a specific number of emails.
Here’s how it broke down for this list:
20% haven’t opened any of the last 30 emails
40% haven’t opened any of the last 10
52% haven’t opened any of the last 5
That means that up to 20% of my list is tuning me out within 6 weeks of subscribing.
Now looking at my other list, I see higher open rates across the board. In fact, those weekly newsletters average 10-12% higher opens than my daily emails.
I also get a WAY less unsubscribes from the weekly emails—which makes total sense if you think about it.
Does that mean weekly is better?
Not so fast…
Because I’m sending an email every day here, my subscribers have more chances to read my emails.
And even though fewer subscribers read any given email, I’m actually reaching far more people each week than I would if I only emailed once. Up to 25% more.
Here’s the moral of the story:
The more often you email, the more people you reach… the more you build your authority… and the more sales you’ll make.
P.S. If you’re email software doesn’t let you see how your subscribers are responding (ahem, MailChimp, I’m looking at you), then you owe it to yourself to check out Drip.
I found Drip after trying at least 7 other options, and it provides the perfect mix of power and ease of use.
Take a look here:
