One of my agency clients recently asked me to write a monthly newsletter for one of their clients.
When I inquired as to why they wanted a monthly newsletter, I was told that the client wanted to minimize unsubscribes.
This makes a lot of sense as a motivation…
…except that it’s wrong.
This common but incorrect conclusion is built on three false underlying assumptions…
Assumption #1: Unsubscribes are Bad
When I first learned about email marketing, I was taught a phrase: “bless and release.”
People leave for all kinds of reasons.
Maybe they don’t need what I do.
Maybe they don’t like me.
Maybe they’re not aligned with my philosophies, or just don’t get my vibe.
Whatever the reason, if they want to go, I want them to go. Who wants unaligned people hanging around?
Whatever their reason, when someone leaves your list, that’s not a bad thing.
They are not your people, and you are not theirs.
When they leave, it makes room for those who are a better fit.
Assumption #2: Monthly newsletters get less unsubscribes than weekly
Imagine you open your email and see a newsletter from some company you worked with six months ago, or even one you’ve never heard of.
What do you do? Unsubscribe right away probably? Report spam?
What if I told you that you opted into this list and just forgot?
You opted in back in February, but the list is monthly, so the first email you got was in March. You open about 1 in 5 emails in your Promotions Tab, so the next time you noticed this newsletter is August.
If someone opens 20% of your emails, it’s not likely that they see 5 and choose to open 1. It’s more common that they see 1 in 5.
A monthly newsletter means that your readers will see your messages so rarely that it is much more likely that they’ll forget that they signed up and think you’re mailing without permission.
Assumption #3: Newsletters pack more value
They can, but they usually don’t.
And that’s because of what they choose to share.
My friend James Hipkin uses a newsletter format very effectively because the content he shares is highly relevant and high value.
But too often, this is not the case.
Too many monthly newsletters are a torrent of vaguely relevant, somewhat generic and often salesy content.
We have only just brushed the surface of these three topics, and I’ll be diving deeper into all three of them over the next few days, so stay tuned.
(I couldn’t do that in a monthly newsletter, now could I?)
This was originally shared out through my highly valuable, very interesting, and not-monthly Resource Letter. If you’d like to receive content like this every day, and get my Power5 Networking Tips, just sign up below…