Emailing marketing has been proven to be a valuable asset in any marketing strategy. Not only is it a relatively affordable option to reach your students, it is also one of the best marketing efforts for making a substantial return on investment. In fact, according to HubSpot, email marketing campaigns generate about $37 per $1 spent. Not bad at all!
If you have ventured into the world of email marketing, you have likely wondered what your distribution schedule should look like. When should you send your emails? Should emails go out in the morning, afternoon, or evening? How often should you email your students? How do you know you're emailing too often, or not often enough?
To put it short, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. The best answer to this question will depend on several things, including the objective of your email, what you are emailing, and how many people you are emailing.
What Affects How Often You Should Email?
Let's explore this in a bit more detail. No two businesses are exactly the same, and the objectives of your marketing campaigns will likely vary due to the size of your customer base, your budget, and the content of the media you are distributing. Below, we break down how these factors impact your emailing schedule, and our recommendations for optimizing your process.
How Many Email Lists You Have
By this, we mean how many different segments you have divided your contacts into, and how much they vary from one another. Of course, they all vary—that's why they are segmented into different lists. But some of these lists can be grouped together for specific mailing categories. You can group together contacts who have opted into one specific type of newsletter even though they may be segmented into different general mailing lists.
What we recommend: If you have just one type of newsletter mailing list and don't ask your contacts to opt into a newsletter subcategory, we recommend mailing these contacts at least once a week to ensure enough people are opening your emails. We wouldn't recommend emailing any more than three times a week, however.
On the other hand, if you have more than one mailing list mailing out more specific topics, we would recommend sticking to at least once every two weeks, and no more than once a week. Since this mailing list is most specialized, if you email more often, your recipients may feel more inclined to unsubscribe.
The Type Of Content You Want To Send Out
Related to the previous topic, the topic at the helm of the newsletters is important in establishing how often you want to email. Are you emailing general updates, or are you sending out other content, such as tips, tricks, and advice? As well, how long are the newsletters you are sending to your email database? Are they longer, jam-packed with content and news? Or are they on a singular topic?
What we recommend: Your newsletters can be any length, and include any content in them. What makes them successful in garnering engagement and opens is how often you send them. Once your contacts have come to expect newsletters of a certain length from you, you don't have to send them often to receive engagement from them. In fact, a lot of the time, less is more. Once you have shown you provide valuable content and information in your newsletters, your subscribers will know they are worth the read.
If your newsletters are longer than 500 words, and cover a wide span of topics, we recommend sending them over as little as once every two weeks, or once a month. This may seem like a small amount, but gate-keeping content like this for a monthly newsletter can be helpful in generating anticipation and excitement for the next edition!
How Engaged Your Recipients Are With Your Newsletter
Taking a step back to ask why someone may subscribe to your newsletter(s) will help you find out their intent in subscribing. Are they a passive subscriber who accepts news as it is sent to them, or are they an active subscriber who is hungry to learn more? The answer to this question will help you figure out how often you should be engaging with these contacts, and more importantly, how often they want to be engaged with.
This is particularly important if you are emailing prospects and attempting to guide them into becoming a student. You must maintain a careful balance between emailing enough to stay at the top of their mind, but not too often to avoid driving them away. Remember: you want to provide something of value each time you reach out—not email for the sake of emailing.
What we recommend: If you know you have a contact list full of people who are actively participating in conversations and want to learn more, email these contacts more (at least once a week, possibly even more if they respond positively to it.) They are more likely to open emails, and more likely to share your content with friends.
If you have a list of contacts who have offered implied consent to emails or are not as active participants, less is more. Your CRM may even have an option to exclude recipients who tend to not open messages from emails. This can be used to boost your message open rate in applicable situations.
How Much Time You Have
Finally, the best work is done when focused and devoted to the task at hand. If your attention is divided between multiple duties, then it becomes harder to write emails that resonate with your contacts. Using a member management software can help in automating small tasks so you have more time to build meaningful relationships with your prospects.
What we recommend: If you are writing your emails yourself, and you are also managing several other parts of your school, we recommend only writing as many emails as you can commit to. This may be an email once a week, once every two weeks, or once a month depending on how busy you are.
Regardless of your schedule, you should at least commit to a set time table for distributing emails. This could be every Monday, every other Friday, or on the first Wednesday of each month. Whatever it is, stick to it so your contacts know to expect your emails when it comes time to receive them.
