E-Mails - How Often To Send Them Out

[vselin]

Hey SC -

What is your opinion on how often to send out marketing e-mails?
Is there a certain day of the week that is best?
Is there a certain time that is best?

Also - even if we do not have anything to offer (such as a sale, new items, etc) is it still a good idea to send them out & get them in front of customers that signed up for them?

I always thought that maybe tuesday - thursday would be the best.....and send them out around noon.
We are trying to do them every 2 weeks (instead of the every 6 month plan we are on now

Thoughts?

Thanks again for opening up this forum!!

[Cactus_AudreyK]

I think an every 2 weeks email is fine- by far!

I would absolutely make sure that you had something to offer within the email- even if it is just a relevant article or conversation, blog post (link to it).... anything... it doesn't have to be a new item or sale item, but you can link to current products you have within your relative content. Or below it, etc.

As for day/night, that depends probably more on what you find most successful. Look at your analytics and see what days/time of day you have the most traffic to your site... maybe send them out ahead of that time, and see if you can drive people there on the lower days...

Anyway, that's just a couple thoughts of mine, I look forward to seeing what other people have to say.

[4ndr3w]

Only as often as you have something relevant to say, and no more often than you said you would on the sign up form on your site.

[cactus_jeanl]

In response to what time of day to send emails, we've found in our experience doing PPC ad scheduling that the majority of traffic and sales happens between the hours of 8am - 6pm, when people are at work and presumably in front of a computer all day. I agree that you should check your analytics and plan emails around busy/slow times. There is a wealth of info in analytics & the Yahoo store manager that can help you determine good times and days for emailing!

[candypam]

hmmm.. I feel there is no bigger (behind the desk) shopper than myself. I try and think like my customers. I do not want bothered with email after email from the people I buy from, but a once a month email announcing a sale or new products is great and I feel accepted!. For the past 4 years, I have sent one email a month. This Easter season, I took a gamble and sent 2, 2 weeks apart just to test the waters. Yes, the second email generated almost as many orders as the first... but... I also received a lot (52) emails from our customer asking us to take us off our list, or please just send one a month. I felt terrible! The extra orders were worth it, but I felt I lost a form of trust. I also went against my own system. Stores that slam me day after day with emails, I put on my spam list, and when I want something, I look in my spam area and see if any of them have a sale going on. I don't want my customers to put us on their spam list, and most won't if you just do it once a month. Actually in every order we place a magnet, we change that magnet all the time. They must keep it close by, because we get a lot of calls and emails before repeat customers place an order with us asking if we have a sale or whats new! I don't know if it's because of what I sell, but I myself have lots of magnets from the businesses I buy from hanging around. Just my take on it all .. oh.. I also found out Tues & Wed between 9 and 11am worked the best for us to send emails ;o)
Thanks,
Pam

[cactus_michellej]

Thanks for your personal insight! Switching up your strategy after four years of doing things one way can be scary. Testing, testing and testing the waters however is the only way to know what's best for you and your clients. Fortunately, you saw some positive impacts of the second e-mail, but unfortunately, negative impacts as well. However, industry standards do show that sending bi-weekly is not an overload on your customers if it is something they except from the beginning. As you say, possibly some of your newer clients were more open to the twice a month e-mail then some of your older customers. With that said, you never can tell. You can simply catch a customer on a bad day and instead of pressing delete they press spam.
Additionally, thanks for advice on the days of the week. Industry best practices do also suggest Tuesdays and Wednesdays to be the optimal time to send.