Subscriber DK writes:<\/p>\n
“Bob, I am a fan. I’ve read your copywriting book a dozen times
\nover the years. Then I found your site and signed up for your
\ne-newsletter. But I want to tell you that you send it too often.<\/p>\n
“I don’t really want to unsubscribe. But I also don’t want to
\nget things to read several times each month. How can we come to
\nsome middle ground? Do you have some ‘occasional contact’
\nchoice?<\/p>\n
“Also, your newsletter often has an air of ‘Desperately Seeking
\nSusan,’ when it should be relaxed and informative. I mention
\nthat for your benefit, not mine.<\/p>\n
“After years and years, I’ve learned to adjust my own ‘level of
\nsignificance’ meter that’s equivalent to turning down the radio
\nwhen a commercial blares. Others might not do that, but rather
\nbe put off by the blare.”<\/p>\n
DK is debating an issue — optimal email frequency — based on
\nsubjective opinion. But actually, the matter can be determined
\nthrough simple testing.<\/p>\n
Here is the formula….<\/p>\n
>> First, start with a modest initial frequency.<\/p>\n
If you don’t have much content to share, or have limited time,
\nyou can start with a monthly e-newsletter.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, if you do have lots of valuable tips to share
\nand the time to write them up, start with a weekly email.<\/p>\n
>> Measure your opt-out rate, which is the number of subscribers
\nwho unsubscribe to your list with each email distribution.<\/p>\n
Ideally, the opt-out rate should be 0.1% or less, meaning for
\nevery 1,000 emails you send, at most just one person
\nunsubscribes.<\/p>\n
At that level, your content is probably good enough that most
\nreaders want to stick with you.<\/p>\n
>> Next, gradually increase the frequency of publication.<\/p>\n
If you are monthly, go weekly. Already weekly? Go to twice
\nweekly.<\/p>\n
Then watch your opt-out rate. If it does not spike when the
\nfrequency increases, you can now send more emails without eroding
\nyour list.<\/p>\n
>> Of your emails, at least half should be content and less than
\nhalf sales emails for products, either yours or your affiliates.<\/p>\n
If you send too many sales emails, subscribers quickly tire of
\nbeing sold all the time and not getting useful tips from the
\nnewsletter — and so they opt-out or stop reading.<\/p>\n
>> But keep in mind: the more emails you can send at a frequency
\nacceptable to your subscribers, the more sales messages you can
\ndistribute.<\/p>\n
And the more sales messages you distribute, the more you sell
\nonline — which if you are an internet marketer, is how you make
\nmoney from publishing an e-newsletter beyond just giving away
\nfree content.<\/p>\n
Regarding subscribers who just take all the free content offered
\nthem, Ben Settle has this to say:<\/p>\n
“[Many] freebie-seekers just flit from one free opt-in to
\nanother, and brag about all the free stuff they find but never do
\nanything with, or ever will do anything with.”<\/p>\n
This is based on an old observation: “People value free advice
\nbased on what they pay for it: zero.”<\/p>\n
Not always the case, but there is more than a little truth in it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Subscriber DK writes: “Bob, I am a fan. I’ve read your copywriting book a dozen times over the years. Then I found your site and signed up for your e-newsletter. But I want to tell you that you send it too often. “I don’t really want to unsubscribe. But I also don’t want to get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1848,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-online-marketing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1848"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1744"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1747,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744\/revisions\/1747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}