Is it possible to email your list too often? If you step up the frequency of communication, will you annoy people? Will your leads and sales go down?
Let’s talk about it – including the “why” behind the answer. 🙂 Read on…
I used to get scared to email my list too often because I heard so many people warn that if you over-communicated, tons of people would unsubscribe.
I’ve even heard people imply that it’s not “respectful” to email more than once a week.
And today I heard someone say that they don’t like to send too often to their list (no more than twice per month, they said) because they personally hate getting their email inbox flooded with marketing emails – and they don’t want to inflict that on others.
And I thought, whoa! Let’s talk about this.
Because I, too, dislike having my inbox flooded with marketing.
YET… I’ve emailed my list daily for nearly 4 years and have gotten so much feedback that people LOVE the emails.
It’s not uncommon for new clients to tell me that the stuff I said in the emails was so helpful to them and convinced them to sign up.
And I have a few people I subscribe to who email quite frequently, yet I never see them as a bother – and eagerly open the emails each time.
I think the key is: what do we mean by “marketing”?
Because there’s a world of difference between “20% OFF TODAY ONLY” type messages… and insightful messages that explain how someone can make progress on one of the goals that matters most to them.
In my world, the latter kind of message is what we send.
It never really feels like marketing – even though it is.
It’s amazing how people’s thinking gets twisted by throwing quite dissimilar things into the same category.
Like, just because you personally don’t like getting 10 emails a day from Kohl’s about their 20% off sale, that someone who wants more than anything to (e.g.) save their marriage wouldn’t be up for reading one email message per day each with a different insight about how they can do that?
Those two things are light-years apart.
I’m working on a fitness goal right now, and it’s very top-of-mind for me.
I receive emails from a couple of influencers whose content is very relevant to what I’m trying to do.
It’s NOT the “20% OFF TODAY” type of content – it’s very much the “here’s how to reach your goal, and P.S. way at the bottom if you want my help, here’s how to hire me; if not, cool” type of content.
And they email almost every day.
And I love it. I can’t get enough.
The idea that I’d somehow get annoyed by hearing from these folks every day about something that’s so relevant to me and my goals (and is 99% just plain good info, NOT about selling me) is just ridiculous.
It’s laughable, really. 😂
But here’s what I think is REALLY going on.
At the end of the day, there are some “thought errors” that are leading people to the incorrect conclusion that their audience wouldn’t want to hear from them frequently.
The BIGGEST thought error is that they don’t see how their work connects to an outcome that really matters to people.
For example, I often hear, “I work with limiting beliefs. Do people really want to read emails every day about limiting beliefs?”
Or, “I’m a website designer. Do people really want to read emails every day about websites?”
That would be no and no.
Because “limiting beliefs” isn’t an outcome/goal that people want to achieve.
Neither is “websites.”
Your skills with limiting beliefs and websites can help to achieve many different outcomes/goals (or, said another way: they can solve many problems).
If you shift all of your content to be focused on certain problems (or goals/outcomes) and weave in an explanation of how your limiting-beliefs work or website expertise can solve those problems or achieve those goals/outcomes…
…then you’re dealing with a whole different ball game.
Suddenly there will be a group of people interested in reading about your “thing” every day.
For example, mayyyyybe, just maybe, there are some business owners who’d like to get more leads and customers in their business.
(Hahahahaha… isn’t that MOST business owners?! 🤣 )
That’s a problem that websites, created in a certain way, can help to solve.
If you sent a different email every day about a different point related to how websites can be tweaked or set up to get more leads, might there be some people who’d be interested in signing up for those daily emails?
(I would!! I’ll tell you that right now. I’ve not yet found a web designer who sends those types of emails, though. And there are a lot of y’all out there!)
Same for the limiting beliefs example.
If you sent content every day with a different point about how people’s beliefs stop them from attracting the right partner, don’t you think that people who want more than anything to attract the right partner at this phase of their life would be interested in signing up for those daily emails?
It truly amazes me how such a huge number of client attraction problems come down to folks not understanding how their work connects to an OUTCOME.
If you don’t understand that then you won’t understand why people would want ANYTHING you have to offer – whether that’s your free emails or your paid program.
(You CERTAINLY won’t understand why they’d pay a high-ticket fee for that offer!)
And of course if you don’t understand why people would want anything you offer, then you’ll say silly things like “I’m only going to email twice a month because I don’t want to bother people.”
And of course your sales results will then reflect the results you’d expect of a person who only emails twice a month.
This point applies to posting, too, of course. All forms of content distribution, really.
Here’s another thought:
If you shift your content to be outcome-driven in the way that I’m describing here… and some people still unsubscribe… you can most likely view that as a good thing.
They’re probably telling you that either (1) they don’t want the outcome super-urgently (because again, it’s ridiculous to think that people wouldn’t want to hear frequently about something timely that they’re trying to achieve); or (2) they don’t align with the methods and process you’re talking about for how to achieve the outcome.
Some people have told me why they’ve unsubscribed/unfollowed my stuff and it’s often for one of those two reasons (“I had a personal crisis and am not trying to grow my business right now” or “I’m not sure that your client attraction method is the one I want to use”).
In both of those cases, it’s a really GOOD thing if people unsubscribe.
Because they’re saving you the time and energy of having to deal with their objection on a sales call/conversation later!
(Think about it. A lot of sales objections happen because someone signed up for a call “just to get information” when a goal wasn’t that urgent for them, or because they don’t align with the method being used but they didn’t know what the method was before getting on the sales call.)
Bottom line: I am not aware of any evidence that emailing/posting/sharing more frequently would result in reduced revenue if you’re a coach, expert or service provider.
(And I mean sharing the type of outcome-and-methods-oriented content that I’m describing here – not just any type of content.)
In fact, I’m only aware of cases where sharing insightful stuff more often led to more sales.
A few years ago I leapt from 30k/year revenue to 300k/year in about one year’s time – and that was also the year when I started emailing and posting every day (even twice a day or more, for posting).
Coincidence…?
Anyway, if you want to feel confident to post/share/email every day to get more clients, knowing that you’re going to be sharing stuff that relates to a high-value outcome and that it’ll be insightful rather than annoying…
…I help people to articulate that high-value outcome for their work, as well as write the content that assures the right clients that you know (or can do) things that will help them to reach that outcome – and gives tremendous value and understanding at the same time.
A lot of messaging coaches will help you figure out the outcome you provide (though they might not do it the way I would 😉 ) but they won’t show you how to actually USE that outcome in your content to get attention from the right people the way I’m describing here.
I have an actual method for all of that. Not just concepts – but a plug-and-play framework for what goes where that applies to every expert niche imaginable.
In my 1:1 30-day intensive I help people to apply that framework to their business.
We meet for 1-on-1 Zoom calls to review homework assignments and you also get unlimited reviews of your content and offer pitches (for which I also have a framework).
It’s all aimed at getting more of the right people to come to you and buy from you – high-ticket offers, ideally – with the least amount of work and friction possible.
Solid messaging will do that. 😉
Send me a DM on Facebook if you’re interested in this program.
Additional details about the program, including pricing, can be found here.
And if you’re interested in having my permission to re-teach my methods to your own clients, check out my certification program.