While there are a few marketers out there that just do not mail often enough to their list, they are few and far between. More often or not, there are more marketers guilty of mailing out to frequently to get any real benefit from their lists.
Getting it right from day one by using a moral approach will ensure that you retain the maximum possible amount of members on your lists. It will also result in the best long term earnings per list member. Firstly, it goes without saying that you should always mail new members as soon as they have joined your list. A simple thank you email with an introduction of what they can expect from you. That is also a good time to let them know your mailing routine. i.e. that you send out a weekly newsletter to all members on a Friday for instance. Or that they can expect a maximum of 5 emails from you per month. Yes, you should have a mailing routine and you should stick to it rigidly. Let your members get used to your emails arriving at the same time of the same day each week if possible. The more regular your mailings the less likely you will ever get accidentally accused of spam.
Exactly how many times you should be mailing your list per week, or per month, is not so much important as how many times you should NOT be sending out nothing more than sales pitches for products or services. That’s the stuff that really pi$$e$ people of and causes so many people to unsubscribe.
If you have plenty of great content, full of tips and advice to give to your list, there is no reason why you cannot be mailing them two to three times per week. If not, the best suggestion is one email at the same time, on the same day of each week. Your mailing is then basically a newsletter and can promote a product or service, while also providing interesting and valuable content.
Personally, I do not send out regular emails to my lists that do nothing other than promote a product. I am pretty damn sure that no one joined any of my lists so that they could get advertisements delivered to them by email. When I am emailing out advice or strategies, I recommend a product or service some times. However, if I am going to recommend a product or service, you better believe I have already personally tested it first. If I think it could benefit some people on one of my lists, I will recommend it and give genuine reasons why it would benefit them.
This moral approach ensures that I hold onto my reputation by never promoting rubbish just for the sake of gaining a commission. Plus, the fact that I have spent considerable time and cash testing any given product or service prior to recommendation, I am able to justify my commission earnings to myself. A credible recommendation, backed up by testing carried out by someone with expertise and experience in that market is highly valuable. Believe me, most people recognize that fact and as a result, have no hesitation using my affiliate link to make the purchase and let me earn the commission.
But what happens if you are not expert in the market your list subject is about. Or don’t know how to test a product or service effectively? If that’s the case, then I would have to ask you, what the hell you are doing? You have no right to build up a list giving out advice and tips on a subject you are not an expert on. Please don’t forget, just reading a couple of ebooks on any given subject does not make you an expert. Real hands on experience is recommended before you start advising anyone on any subject. If you do not have a good knowledge of the subject and do not have the experience to effectively test out products or services within that market, get the f&#$ out. You are deceiving people. In some instances, deception for gain can be considered a crime.
If you ever feel that taking a moral approach to email marketing is a sign of weakness and you prefer to use what you consider is the aggressive marketing approach, by doing nothing more than promoting to your list members, almost daily until they unsubscribe. Then it is time for you to try a different approach, or get the hell out of marketing and stop pi$$ing people off. Firstly, you are not using aggressive marketing, you are using lazy marketing. True aggressive marketing is something totally different and takes a bit of skill to master. You are not squeezing every last cent from your members wallets before they unsubscribe. They left because they seen through you. They left before spending a fraction of what they would have spent over the long term. Get real, get moral and you will get the maximum potential from your lists.
So that’s it for the moral approach to mailing your lists. Firstly, you should already be an expert on the subject matter of course. Then its just a case of ensuring you always give quality, valuable content. Recommend products or services within your content, but not all the time. Always make sure that you really know all about the products or services you are recommending, through testing first. Best practise is one email per week on the same day. But a few additional emails are fine if you have lots of valuable tips, advice and strategies to share with your members.
