Herschell Gordon Lewis on Newsletter Frequency
Herschell Gordon Lewis knows a few things about keeping fannies in seats. He directed cult movie classics like “Blood Feast” and “The Gore Gore Girls,” then repeated that success as a direct mail copywriter. His letters have sold millions of subscriptions, collector plates and other kinds of products
Here’s what the Curmudgeon says about e-mail newsletters, and how to keep people glued to them. The answer is to determine the proper frequency. This selection is from his book, “Effective E-Mail Marketing,” published by Amacom.
“Can you overwhelm an online customer? The answer lies in the last word of the question: customer. The more logically that a marketer can regard a message recipient as a customer, the less likely it is that the recipient will regard frequent messaging (or e-zines) as too many.
“Newsletter frequency ranges from occasional to monthly to weekly to daily. Each has an advantage.
“The occasional newsletter may be greeted with enthusiasm if the subject matter is dear to the heart of the recipient. Interval isn’t a factor, because most people identify an occasional newsletter as a monthly.
“The monthly newsletter should identify itself as a monthly. This adds a patina of importance and helps assure readership of the newsletter (and its accompanying sponsor message, if any).
“The weekly newsletter should arrive at the same time each week. This is a pattern-builder and overcomes the “Monday” problem since the newsletter is dated “Week of…” with Monday as the starting date.
“The daily newsletter is dangerous unless editing is professional. Too often, the desire to be in constant touch overrides the need to provide fresh information. The result can be stale, poorly written, or irrelevant content. Best success in daily newsletters seems to attend communications from organizations and computer-related senders who carefully choose a timely item as the lead.
“QVC, the television shopping network, was sending a daily e-mail describing that day’s special as shown on cable television. Because each day the prospect sees a new item under unique circumstances, the daily interval is logical.
“If a single statement could cover the enigma of how often a marketer should send e-mails, that statement might be: E-mail as often as you have something to offer that has a prayer of matching the buying psychology of those to whom you e-mail.”
