It is often difficult to answer questions about email marketing as people ask the wrong ones. The problem is that they are too specific: how many, how much, that sort of thing. Email marketing is all about what is best for you. But let’s start with one that is easy enough to answer:
Why is email marketing so important, especially with the growth in the social media space?
There were suggestions that the popularity of emails was dropping. Five years ago roughly 130 million emails were being sent every day. In 2010 the number was 290 billion. They are essential for business to business and all but for customer based marketing. That said, it is not a case of either or. Just use email marketing as the lead.
More difficult to answer is:
How long (in words) should your average email newsletter be?
Newsletters are an excellent way of capturing and keeping subscribers to your emails lists. However, they require considerable investment: the more copy, the greater the price. If your content is exciting, educational and entertaining people will read it regardless of the length.
Check out the newsletters the leaders in the same market sector as you are after. Do not just copy them, compete.
How often should you do a cleanup of your email subscriber's list?
It is easy to be specific here. Unsubscribes must be completed as soon as you can. Hard bounces should go before the next use of the email marketing list and softs can be usefully given a second chance.
Should you post your email newsletter on your site?
Newsletters cost you. You need to get the maximum return from your investment. By all means add the serious articles to your website, but allow a couple of months gap so as to make it worthwhile to subscribe to the newsletter.
What is the average unsubscribe percentage you see and when do you find people unsubscribe i.e. after the first, second, third, etc email?
2010 figures give an average of round 0.3%, going from 0.11% to 0.41%. Timings of unsubscribes have a greater range. Variations from your norm should concern you more.
