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How often should I mail my list?

It’s one of the most commonly asked questions I get in my business, and I give the same answer every time.

Send emails to your list of subscribers as often as you have something of value to give them. If what’s inside your head isn’t valuable to your audience – then don’t send it!

Now, what I will say is that if you’re just getting started with your email marketing then aim for putting together one valuable email per week and build a robust schedule, one that doesn’t get impacted by any potential distractions.

One of the biggest mistakes I see in email marketing (and I’ve been guilty of it in the past too!) is getting in a groove, sending a few emails, and then… tumbleweed and crickets.

Something happens, life gets busy, new clients get onboarded, priorities change – and bam! Emails get dropped like a hot tottie!

It’s the sure-fire way of wasting all your hard work of getting it set up and having started to grow your list of subscribers.

So, here’s my tip for getting started with a schedule that you can stick to and one that your subscribers will thank you for;

1. Decide on what you’re going to talk about via your email campaigns and sequences; (e.g. dog grooming).
2. Decide on when you’re going to send your weekly email; (e.g. every Fri at 9am).
3. Create your weekly email at least 3 days in advance of when you’re sending it out (i.e. for a Friday email, have it completed and scheduled by Tuesday, latest).

Once you get your system in place, aim to get yourself a few weeks ahead of schedule, meaning that even if you don’t get the chance to create any new emails for a few weeks, you still have your queue primed to deliver your regular emails.

After consistently sending your valuable emails to your list for at least 2-3 months, then you can consider introducing more emails into your plan – maybe an additional one each week from a sequence, or even a niched-down topic that only a segment of your list will receive (e.g. Dog grooming tips for long haired dogs).

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What would the best version of your business look like?

Are you the very best version of your business? Or are there other companies out there who are much better than yours?

Let’s take an example – imagine you owned a dog grooming business, taking care of all the dogs in and around your surrounding area.

Pet owners might drop their pets off at your grooming salon, you do your magic, and then the owner returns to collect them once they’re looking and smelling much better!

You might chuck in some leaflets that contain advice on ongoing care, brushing, nail clipping, teeth care etc., but in essence it’s all about the visit to your salon.

Now pause (no pun intended!) for a moment and ask yourself these questions;

1. What could I do to make it the best dog grooming business in the world?
2. What could I do in the dog grooming industry that doesn’t currently get done?
3. What could I do to make the onboarding a new dog as easy as possible for the owner and as stress-free as possible for the dog?
4. What are the current steps in the end-to-end process, and could I add or remove some to make it even better?
5. What would make the dog’s experience even better?
6. What would make the owner’s experience even better?
7. What could I do to enhance the reputation of my business to attract more clients?
8. What could I do for my pets that pass on, to help owners with grief; how could I show my condolences?

Now, I’m not suggesting these questions are exhaustive; in fact, there are many more I could add, I’m sure, but hopefully these are enough to get your ‘creative juices’ flowing (btw, I’m also not say they are all valid questions – they are meant as examples).

Once you’ve gone through this type of questioning of your own business and client experience, you might come up a list that looks something like this; (remember, for now you’re a dog groomer)

1. I could set up a web camera in my salon that allows the owners to see their dog being groomed.
2. When the dog is dropped off for their grooming session, I could send 4 short videos to the owner;
   1. First video: dog being bathed
   2. Second video: dog being blow-dried
   3. Third video: dog having hair cut
   4. Fourth video: dog grooming finished
3. I could offer to collect each dog, and drop them off again.
4. I could offer additional services like short-term boarding until owners finish work.
5. I could provide dog nutritional advice if I became qualified to do so (would require the necessary education).
6. I could offer puppy training classes for my younger dogs.
7. I could offer dog-walking services to complement the grooming.

Now, let’s be realistic – you ain’t necessarily going to do all of these, at least not right away, but you could gradually add more value.

You also need to be cognisant of additional costs incurred, some of which may get passed onto your clients – but remember there could be things you could do that cost little to zero, but give a great client experience.

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From zero to $1 billion in just 18 months.

Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger started their business in Oct 2010. In Apr 2012 (18 months later), they sold their business to Facebook for a cool $1 billion.

When they sold, they had just 12 employees, and ZERO revenue – all they had was an photo-sharing app and a vision.

The app was called Instagram and is now part of the Meta family of companies, just as is Facebook and WhatsApp.

So, if you have the desire to build and sell a company, just know it can be done. 👊

P.S. I actually did this too, sold my business to a North American company, but nowhere near the scale of this one… mine was a meagre 7-figure sale. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Mark, Zuckerberg, Mike Krieger, and Kevin Systrom

P.S. Instagram started life as ‘Burbn‘ due to Systrom’s love of whisky drinks.

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Are you looking for some guidance on getting your content and email marketing set up?

A lot of people I speak to just aren’t sure where to even begin when it comes to getting their systems and process set up, so that they can start to receive a fresh flow of leads, prospects, and clients.

If that’s you, then you’ll benefit from my 60-Min Strategy Session where I’ll show you everything you’ll need, end-to-end, in order to get it set up.

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During the 60-minute session, we’ll cover;

• What you want to achieve from your content and email marketing.
• Where to market your content.
• Which types of content to focus on.
• How to create content ideas that never run out.
• The tactics for collecting your leads and prospects.
• How to convert your prospects into clients.
• How to automate most of what you’ll do in your system.
• The tech to choose and why.
• A strategy and a plan for you to implement directly into your business.

Click the button below to book your session now;

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Cheers, John ​ ​ ​ If we’re not already connected on LinkedIn, then let’s fix that now! If you’re new around here, let me give you a brief intro to who I am and what I do; 👋 Hi, I’m John, a freelancer with 30+ years of experience in software development, business start-up and growth strategies, and digital marketing, specialising in email marketing. I help service-based freelancers grow their businesses by showing them how to effectively implement an email marketing system that’ll bring them leads, prospects, and new clients, complemented with proven success strategies for solopreneur-type businesses. ​