You can't get blood out of a turnip. And you certainly can't get blood from a turned off donor. Whole blood donations can happen as often as every 8 weeks (56 days). So why is my local blood bank sending me multiple messages every week? I received two on Saturday and one this morning. I'm committed to filling their needs, but not if they are going to fill up my inbox.
Email Marketing Frequency is an important metric for email marketing. Unfortunately, the number is often based on the needs of the marketer instead of the prospect. My local blood services organization is rapidly approaching the
Too Much Information Tipping Point. I'm not sure they realize that if I choose to unsubscribe from their announcements, they will never get me back.
Of course, it's easier to send out a generic message to the entire list. But is it effective? The marketer's schedule may not meet my schedule. The irony is that organizations have all the technology they need to make their email marketing both easy and effective. Modern email systems like
MailChimp provide marketers access to both contact and transactional data. Not only do I know who subscribes to my newsletter, I know who opens the newsletter, when it was opened and which link, if any they clicked.
We have the ability to mass market to individuals, but only if we remember the definition of "Permission-Based Marketing".
Subscribers grant permission to marketers, not the other way around.
Here are some tips and resources to
make your email marketing both easy and effective:
Email Marketing Tips
- Let prospects and subscribers choose how they wish to be contacted. My subscription form asks visitors to choose a delivery format (HTML, Text, Mobile).
- Schedule your communication broadcasts to meet the needs of subscribers. Choose either event-based, (birthday, anniversary or renewal date), or calendar-based, (Every Tuesday at 10 am).
- Before increasing message frequency, increase the value of your message.
- Sync frequency to message length - send shorter messages more often. Delivering long messages subscribers won't read soon leads to messages they won't open.
- Use content and layout variety to spice up your marketing.
Email Marketing Resources