How Much E-Mail Is Too Much?

Issue #2396

• WEALTHY: Investing in all-weather stocks without the risk (Christian Hill)
• HEALTHY: Why you should graze where the grass is greener (Kelley Herring)
• WISE: Charles F. Kettering on the role of mail in the business world

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

• Should you send your customers more e-mail? (Bob Bly)
• A tiny detail that could make a big difference in your sales (David Cross)
• It’s Fun to Know… about chimpanzee sympathy
• Add "propitiate" to your vocabulary

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A Leveraged ETF for All Market Conditions

By Christian Hill

Most investors would agree that in tough economic times one safe haven is consumer staples. Companies like Johnson & Johnson, Coke, and Philip Morris do well in all markets, and tend to weather storms better than companies that sell discretionary goods.

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"If a fellow wants to be a nobody in the business world, let him neglect sending the mail man to somebody on his behalf."

Charles F. Kettering

How Much E-Mail Is Too Much?

By Bob Bly

The other day, one of my online subscribers, CR, complained about a famous Internet marketer. "I unsubscribed from his list," she told me haughtily. "As soon as I joined, I got e-mails from him once or twice every day - and there’s no one I (or anybody else) need to hear from that much."

This begs the question: How frequently can you e-mail your online subscribers?

Or, said another way: How much e-mail is too much?

People have lots of opinions about this issue, which they support with arguments that are both passionate and logical.

The problem is: Their opinions are wholly subjective.

The fact is: There’s an easy way to objectively and accurately determine the optimal e-mail frequency for your online subscribers.

How does it work?

Well, every time you send another e-mail blast to your list, a small portion of your subscribers will opt out.

Why?

They decide that your content is no longer of value to them… or you are doing too much selling… or they don’t like your style… or you are e-mailing them too often.

The "opt-out rate" - the percentage of online subscribers who unsubscribe from your list per e-mail blast - is a Web metric that you can measure. A 0.1 percent opt-out rate means that if you have 10,000 online subscribers, 10 unsubscribed after getting your most recent e-mail.

When your opt-out rate is around 0.1 percent or less, you can rest assured that you are not sending too many e-mails to your list too often. If you were, the opt-out rate would be higher.

But when your opt-out rate gets above 0.2 to 0.4 percent, you are losing subscribers at too rapid a rate. For instance, if you have 10,000 subscribers and you’re losing 100 subscribers every time you send an e-mail to your list, you have an opt-out rate of 1.0 percent. That’s much too high.

You should measure and keep track of your opt-out rates with every e-mail you send.

Adjust your e-mail frequency, ratio of sales pitches to content, message length, and topics until your opt-out rate hovers around 0.1 percent to 0.2 percent or less.

Then watch what happens if you increase the frequency of your e-mails - if, for instance, you go from one e-mail per week to two.

If you get a sharp upward spike in the opt-out rate - double or more - your subscribers are telling you they don’t want to hear from you that often. And you should probably drop the extra e-mail.

On the other hand, if you add an extra e-mail per week and the opt-out rate does not rise significantly, you are safe in continuing at the higher frequency.

But should you?

Yes.

We have lots of preconceived notions about what our market wants - and doesn’t want. And one of those preconceived notions is that people don’t want too much e-mail. But when the opt-out rate is low, your subscribers are telling you they DO want to hear from you often via e-mail.

That’s important, because the more times you can reach out to your list with a valuable offer, the more money you make online.

My colleague Amy Africa, a top consultant in business-to-business (B2B) e-marketing, says that one of the most common online marketing mistakes is not e-mailing your list frequently enough.

And if you are making that mistake… you are leaving money on the table.

[Ed. Note: You can make sure that you're giving your customers exactly what they need AND that you're making the most money you can. The best way to do it? Master one vital skill. Learn how from two experts.

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I Shot the Serif

By David Cross

Which group of fonts is better for online marketing efforts: Times, Palatino, and Bembo? Or Verdana, Helvetica, and Arial? Typeface lovers will immediately know the difference. The first three are serif fonts; the second three are sans-serif fonts.

Why should you care? Because the type of font you use could affect the success of your online business.

A serif is the small embellishment on the ends of the up-strokes (ascenders) or down-strokes (descenders) of some fonts. The serif gives the typeface a more "elegant" look and feel.

Whether you choose to use serif or sans-serif fonts seems like a super-small detail. But it’s one that every marketer should be aware of. Because if you make the wrong choice, you could be prohibiting your customers from reading your online content or sales promotions. And if they can’t read your copy, there’s a good chance they won’t buy anything from you.

The general rule about fonts is as follows: For printed content, blocks of text using serif fonts are generally more legible. On a computer (or television) screen, sans-serif fonts are generally more legible.

Various usability studies have shown that people generally perform on-screen tasks more expediently and retain more information when reading sans-serif fonts. In Britain, sans-serif fonts are used almost exclusively as the default fonts on screen, precisely because they are more legible.

Here’s another reason why serif fonts may be less legible on screen than sans-serif fonts. To correctly display the nuances of serif fonts requires a resolution higher than most computer monitors can deliver. Most computer monitors operate between 72 and 96 dots per inch (dpi). At the font size of most on-screen content, there are not enough dots on your PC monitor to render the serifs accurately without making them look bitty or pixilated.

Finally, a caveat. Rules are there to be tested and broken. One of the advantages of doing business online is the ease with which you can test assumptions. So why not run a multivariate or A/B split test - one with a serif font and one with a sans-serif font - and see which pulls a better response?

[Ed. Note: There's a lot you may not know about starting and building an Internet business. David Cross - Senior Internet Consultant for Agora Inc. - and a team of marketing and business-building experts have gathered together all the core information you need in one place, organized in simple steps, ready to be put into action. Here's how to go from a standing start to a thriving business online.]

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Dear ETR: "My understanding is that most of the fats in cattle are the kind with few, if any, health benefits."

"In a recent article, Kelley Herring recommended grass-fed beef as a source of omega-3 fatty acids. I had been told that the bacteria that help cattle digest the grasses they eat saturate most of the fatty acids they eat, and preferentially saturate the omega-3s. In other words, my understanding is that most of the unsaturated fats in cattle are omega-6 and omega-9 fatty acids (the kind with few, if any, health benefits). Is my information mistaken?"

Jim S.
Raleigh, NC

Dear Jim,

When it comes to beef, the grass is definitely greener on the pasture-fed side.

Meat from grass-fed beef contains two to four times the omega-3 fatty acids than its grain-fed counterparts. That’s because 60 percent of the fats in grass are omega-3s.

Dr. Loren Cordain, PhD, author of The Paleo Diet and a professor in the Department of Health and Exercise Science at Colorado State University, has done quite a bit of research on the lipid composition of grass-fed vs. grain-fed beef. You see, wild ruminants (including elk, deer, buffalo, and antelope) represented the primary fat source for humans prior to the development of agriculture. Because our genes haven’t changed much since the days of our paleo ancestors, Dr. Cordain holds that this dietary deviation - due to a shift to unnatural farming practices - has been the root of chronic disease. I strongly agree!

Dr. Cordain and his group evaluated the lipid makeup of muscle meats and other tissues of wild ruminants as well as those of grass-fed and grain-fed cattle. They found that the lipid composition of wild ruminants was quite similar to that of grass-fed beef, but notably dissimilar to the unhealthy lipid makeup of grain-fed beef.

When it comes to eating higher on the food chain, there are two things to think about: the animal’s environment and its diet. If you always opt for the more natural method (grass-grazers vs. corn eaters; wild vs. farmed; free-range vs. caged; pesticide-free vs. sprayed), you’re sure to have a healthier, more nutritious diet.

- Kelley Herring

[Ed. Note: In a world full of information, it can be difficult to make the "right" choices when it comes to your health. Let ETR's team of health experts - including Kelley Herring - guide your decisions and help you lead a better, healthier life.

And be sure to check out Kelley's website, HealingGourmet.com, for delicious and healthy recipes.]

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Reader Feedback: "A big thank you to Kelley Herring."

"A big thank you to Kelley Herring for writing about some of the properties of coconut oil. Since being vilified by the medical community because it is a saturated fat, many people have missed out on the tremendous health benefits of this amazing food.
 
"I hope that with the new understanding of the healthfulness of such natural foods as coconut oil, more people will eat healthier and more nutritionally dense foods that can improve their quality of life."
 
Becky Rider
Fargo, ND
 
"P.S. Jason Holland’s recommendation of jazz classics was terrific. This underappreciated genre needs well-informed people like Jason to introduce jazz to a whole generation of people who may not be familiar with it."  

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It’s Fun to Know: Chimpanzee Sympathy

We often comfort people who are under stress by putting our arms around them and giving them a hug. According to recent research from scientists at Liverpool John Moores University, chimpanzees do the same thing.

The researchers found that chimps that had been involved in a conflict were often joined by a fellow chimp (usually a "friend" or family member) that would comfort the victim with two-armed embraces or kisses on the head and back. The fellow chimp’s gestures seemed to not only calm the victim but also reduce such stress behaviors as nervous scratching and self-grooming.

(Source: Associated Press)

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Word to the Wise: Propitiate

To "propitiate" (pro-PISH-ee-ate) - from the Latin for "favorable" - is to appease.

Example (as used by Helen Gibson in Time Europe): "Yet the Fairy Bridge [on the Isle of Man]… didn’t get its name for nothing. Here the locals lift a hand ever so slightly and mutter ‘Hello, little people,’ to propitiate the fairies underneath."

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Copyright ETR, LLC, 2008

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