I had an incredible conversation with a client yesterday that felt valuable to share with you…
It was all about how often you want to email your list.
What’s your guess about how often YOU should email your list?
If you’re like most people, you would probably say that you should email your list every other week, or maybe if you’re feeling really “aggressive”, once a week.
Guess what my answer is?
If I wasn’t running a massive other business, my answer would be “every day”.
Yup, I would email you every single day.
Here’s why…
You are in a relationship with your people.
Pretend for a second that your list is your boyfriend or girlfriend.
Now let me ask you a serious question.
If you only called or emailed your boyfriend once a month, or every two weeks…. how do you think that relationship would go?
I’ll tell you…. it would suck.
This simple analogy explains my philosophy with email in general… especially if you’re business is selling YOU as the product (meaning you’re a coach, consultant, expert, seminar leader, author, etc).
I believe you should communicate and connect with your people as much as possible…. because you’re in a relationship together.
So that would mean communicating regularly…. like every day or every few days at the least.
Now that definitely doesn’t mean you should promote something to them every day.
God no.
That’s like being a relationship where all you want is sex, and you don’t take them out for any date nights in return.
It’s just not gonna fly for very long.
Instead, I suggest you email your people constantly with great content, stories, inspirational thoughts, or anything else that adds value to their life.
Sometimes it’s something simple, like a few words of encouragement.
Sometimes it’s deeper, like a long post or video.
Sometimes it’s an invitation for people to work with you, and take your relationship to the next level through one of your products or services.
Create a nice balance that feels good to everyone, and you’ll find that your people really start to engage with you on a much deeper level.
“But won’t people opt-out?”
That’s always the response I get when I tell people this.
People become terrified of the opt-out.
But as I always like to remind you, it makes almost no difference what you say in your emails or how much value you give, some people will opt-out no matter what.
It’s just the facts.
In fact, you should know that no matter WHO is sending the email, .01%-.05% of your email list will opt-out on every single blast.
Could be because they are too busy to read yet another email, or they don’t like what you said, or they are having a bad day, or whatever.
The point is, you shouldn’t be afraid of it happening because some people will leave you. Get used to it.
But the more you communicate, the more you find your voice, the more you develop a relationship… the more the RIGHT people will stick around.
And even better, they will truly start to engage…. which is what really matters to your business and your soul.
What do you think about this?
Do you follow anyone who sends you a daily email and you love it?
Does this approach piss you off or irritate you?
What are your thoughts on giving this a try? Does it scare or excite you?
Let me know in the comments section below what you think about this conversation.
To end this post, I’ll tell you from my own direct experience that the more I email my list with good content and great energy, the more people share my material, comment on my posts, buy my stuff, and engage with my business.
So I’ll say it once and I’ll say it again.
I vote you send more email (but always make it good)!
If you found this valuable or interesting, feel free to share this with your friends.
I am standing on the shoulders of at least a dozen giants who email every day – and they promote every day. The secret is in consistantly delivering value (entertainment is value of course)
Just like your favourite TV ‘chat’ show, or radio show, you may not know what tomorrows content is, but by experience you have come to expect to be entertained / educated.
If that value promise is delivered, you earn the right to promote
This is every TV show, magazine, newspaper & blog. The tacit understanding is that IF you consistantly receive value every time you ‘tune in’ then you EXPECT there to be a commercial break
Get on, for example, Ben Settles list to see this in action
You CAN promote EVERY email IF you have delivered value by way of education and / or entertainment, as this deal simply leans into what society has already accepted as the norm
I personally unsubscribe from anyone who emails me every single day, no matter how much value they provide. It just annoys me getting so many emails from one person.
2, max 3 times a week is fine in my opinion is you provide value, although I typically email my list once, sometimes twice a week.
Every market is different and everyone has different presences of course, but I have no interest in getting daily emails from anyone as I wouldn’t read them.
Curious what others think on this topic!
In my own experience, Max, when people email me daily, I tend to start tuning them out, no matter the value, except for the one or two daily inspirational email blasts I’ve signed up for. It’s just too much. Once a week is just about right for me to receive emails from people offering their content. Given the omnipresence of the internet and cell phones, it is hard not to live in a world of virtual, hyper-connectedness with less and less “quiet.” In sending out emails to my tribe, I would rather err on the side of allowing more quiet space and be in touch a bit less often. Of course, this also has to do with my target market, who generally are older, not glued to their electronic devices, and who also tend to be pretty consciously decluttering their lives.
My email box is overflowing. I have to read through (and mostly delete) hundreds of messages a day from someone trying to promote something to me (i.e. a list I am on). It’s overwhelming and annoying because important messages are drowned out and have even gotten lost in this pile up. I much appreciate and even look forward to an email sent once a week. Too much noise otherwise, and frankly, I don’t have time to read or process that much content even if it does have value.
I will also unsubscribe from anyone who emails me daily. Unless you really are a close friend or family member, I probably don’t want to have that much of a relationship with you. Even a couple of times a week is too much. Unless you have something that I really want or need, right now, and I have the free time to read the email, the email are being deleted.
I really appreciate your point of view about staying close in touch like you would in a boyfriend or girlfriend relationship. I think that a business relationship must be given wholehearted attention though it also needs some breathing room. Individuals can digest the content, process it cognitively and actually apply it to real life scenario.
Hi max. Thanks for the thought provoking post. I would say I prefer 1-2 emails per week from people I follow. Following people on Facebook or Twitter is a next step and there I think there can be daily interactions. But the inbox is a bit sacred!
Keep up the great content. Love it and love your heart.
Richard
There’s only one place that I get email from daily – Notes from the Universe. I’ve been on other lists that email daily and I quickly tune them out and eventually end up with 20ish unread emails from them and then unsubscribe.
More then 2 emails a week drives me a bit batty with my already full inbox.
(One the flip side, I’ve unsubscribed from people’s monthly emails because that’s not enough for me to remember why I’m getting these emails)
So, I disagree that you should be emailing daily to keep in contact. The problem is email to a list is generally a one way street – I’m contacting them, but they have limited contact with me (I’m talking, they’re listening, but they might not feel like there’s a way to talk back that they’re sure I’ll hear).
However, I do agree that you can keep in touch daily. This is where social media comes in. Generally, it’s easier to have a conversation on your social media.
For the people I have personal relationships with I very rarely have only ONE way that we communicate. It’s a combination of in person, text and online.
I email my list every single with motivational message. I sometimes tie my promotion with the message, at least once a week. However on Sundays I email my list twice..7am is the motivational messages and 7pm is the training article or video for the week.
Of the 8 – 12 internet marketing lists that I’m on I’ve unsubscribed from or sent all but two of them to my promo filter, which means I never read them. Not only have I disengaged with these service providers because they email me every day with endless promotions, but many of them are in joint ventures with each other so whenever one of them does a promo I hear about it from all of the others, sometimes several times a day each.
The two lists that I actually let come to my inbox are those that email about every three days or so, sometimes daily. I don’t read every one of their emails. But every email I read from them offers value. And they keep the direct and affiliate promotions to a dull roar.
The two lists that I read are providers that I respect and trust, and I do give legitimate consideration to their offers.The stark reality is though that I’m saturated with offers and formulaic promotions courting me toward the next great *insert-your-compelling-offer-here,* on a daily basis. I opt-in for lots of free things but rarely if ever buy.
The irony is that I spend money all day/month long on my business with companies that I seek out for a specific unmet need. Their prices are set and stable, with the odd promotion. They’re not selling me on scarcity by offering me 20 bonuses if I buy now. I know they’ll be there when I need them and am ready to buy. And yet I spend little to none with entrepreneurial companies that seek me out to convince me of some area of deficiency that only their product can fulfill and only if I buy in the next 5 days.
I’d legitimately love to learn from other’s actual buying experiences and better understand why the corporate and the entrepreneurial approaches to marketing/selling are so different, and what difference this makes to us as both online buyers and sellers.