I love seeing people get great result from newsletters and subscribers. But how often should you talk to them to not wind them up? I think your schedule depends on three key factors.
Can you commit to a regular schedule?
To your subscribers a consistent schedule is arguably more important than the ultimate quality of your articles. Do people watch East Enders every day because each episode is always better than the last? People hate change and miss you when you miss an appointment. Using feedburner or a similar service for managing distribution of your newsletters lets you stop worrying about timing.
Do you have something to offer which is wanted?
Are you nagging me to do something or offering me something. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out which one you should be doing. Friendly advice great, ordering me to do something bad
Leave a little room for nice surprises
If once in a while my wife phones me and says “come on home I’ve got my best lingerie on” I am always going to make sure to pick up her calls. Nice surprises once in a while means I keep coming back.
I schedule my newsletter to appear on tuesdays and thursdays, but of course every now and again I chuck in a little surprise.
Are you getting them too regularly, or not regularly enough? Tell me here
Like anything when you have all the ambition and intent at the beginning you think two articles a day is no problem. After a week of delivering articles regular as clockwork though… you run out!
Isn’t it better to deliver one article a day, consistantly, and stock pile forthcoming articles so you never miss a beat?
How often have you seen this in life? You see people all the time, build up the trust and friendship only to not see them again for a year. Nuts.
And when you disapear it makes you inconsistent and people dislike this more than nearly anything else.
I think it’s better to work out what you can stick to and deliver it regular as clockwork. You’ll have customers stick with you because they can digest your delivery rate churn. Keep changing it and you satisfy neither.
One thing you can guarantee is ‘scatty’ communication is no foundation to represent your company.
PS. There’s one blog I follow and I wish they’d send more articles because the quality is consistantly high and bang on target.
How good are your articles?
I don’t believe you need to post everyday. If your subscribers are receiving updates from you via email that could easily become too much.
I’m posting consistently once a week.
That means people that follow me get to hear from me every week. That way i don’t flood them with emails.
And perhaps more importantly, i can maintain producing good content, which i believe will be more instrumental in my blogs success!
I am hoping to post once a week to start with and as our season builds up make it twice. Hopefully once we hit quiet season again and there’s no racing we’ll be so busy with other work I can consistently send twice a week!
Is there a good or bad day to send your posts out?