Balancing frequency & length
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Previous topic: Frequency
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Time, energy and material
One of the biggest problems for newsletter publishers is producing each issue on time and to a consistent quality. Many newcomers start off with grand plans for producing a daily or weekly publication, and soon run out of time, energy or material to sustain this timetable.
It's important to make sure your newsletter length and frequency (and content strategy) doesn't exceed your ability to produce valuable content to a regular deadline over a long period of time.
Whatever is optimal from the reader's perspective (and your own), you must still be sure you have the ability to find the time, energy and material needed to fulfill your requirements.
Costs and revenues
Frequent, long newsletters cost more (in time, cash or bandwidth) to produce, send and manage than infrequent, short newsletters.
So be certain that an increased length or increased frequency compensates for this greater cost. Think about how these changes can affect various factors which determine success; how will length and frequency affect...
- your impact and influence with readers?
- advertising revenue?
- the response to your promotions?
- unsubscribe rates?
- demands on customer service?
- etc...
The reader again
How much content you send out and how often will also impact the value your readers gets from this content, quite independent of this content's intrinsic value.
Economists call it the law of diminishing marginal returns. Others say "you can have too much of a good thing". Although what you send has the same intrinsic value, too much of it and it begins to lose its impact.
Just how much content are your readers willing to read and absorb? Just how often can you really expect them to open your emails. I like cooking Chinese meals, but do I really want 10 new recipes delivered every day?
Anybody putting out a daily newsletter, for example, must be very sure that they're not overburdening the reader with information, that they're delivering great value and that they can keep that pace and quality going in the long-term.
Settling on the right length, frequency and content strategy is clearly a complicated decision. The good news is that it's hard to go very wrong.
You wouldn't bother producing a 50 page daily email, or a two-line quarterly one. But anything in-between will likely find some kind of audience. This is not to say that you won't benefit enormously from thinking about the issues discussed above. But don't be frightened by the decision.
Most email newsletters have between 1 and 4 pages of content, are weekly to biweekly, and provide enough information within the body of the mail to have their own independent value, with more value coming if you follow the links provided. So if you fall into this range, you're pretty safe. (But don't forget the value of being different!)
A note on URLs
If you're going to point readers to your website, make sure the link takes them to the exact location they need for the corresponding information - don't make them look for it themselves. Don't make them jump through hoops. The same applies for any URL you provide. Respect your reader!
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