Every time I work with a children’s author on setting up their author newsletter, I get asked the question: how often should I send out my newsletter? Well, there’s no one one-size-fits-all answer to that question! That’s because the answer depends on a lot of different factors.
In today’s episode on Kidlit Marketing Made Easy(er), we’re going to chat about what you need to consider before hitting “send” so you can find the email frequency that works best for you and your subscribers.
Bonus: I’ll also give you some tips at the end on when not to send a newsletter!
How often should you send out an author newsletter?
If you do some research on the Internet, you’ll find that, on average, the best frequency for newsletters is once a week, followed by biweekly and then monthly. But that’s not taking into consideration who you are and why you’re writing a newsletter. There are three factors to keep in mind when deciding on the cadence of your newsletter:
- Your subscribers
- Your content
- Your goals
Consider your subscribers
The size of your audience and what they like is important. If you have a large subscriber list, you might want to send out more frequent newsletters to build a relationship with more people on that list and to keep them engaged with you, at least at first. On the other hand, if your audience is small and you have a great connection with them – for example, they answer you when you ask questions or they send you spontaneous emails in reply to something you shared with them in your newsletter – you can send out fewer newsletters and still maintain that connection.
You might also want to play around with segmenting your audience so that you can send out different newsletters to different groups of people if you write in more than one category of kidlit. This will help you to tailor the content and frequency of your newsletters for each group so that you’re not sending newsletters about back matter in nonfiction picture books to your middle-grade verse novel fans! And who knows? Maybe your middle-grade verse novel fans want to hear from you every week while your picture book readers feel that once a month is more than enough, thank you very much.
Whatever you decide to do, remember these two words: quality and consistency.
Don’t forget that quality is always more important than quantity. If you find that you only have the time to write and send out a newsletter once a month, then make sure that it’s a good one and stick to that frequency so that your newsletter will be sustainable over the long term. Be consistent with your frequency so that your subscribers know what to expect from you, don’t feel disappointed because they’re waiting for a newsletter that never comes, and don’t forget about you because your monthly newsletter only comes every three months. Being inconsistent is a sure path to ending up in someone’s spam folder or having them unsubscribe.
What content are you sending in your newsletter?
The type of content you’re sending will also affect how often you send out your newsletter. The aim of an author newsletter is to connect with readers and to build relationships with them. The delightful end result of making new friends and enjoying writing to them regularly is that when you have a book come out, your subscribers will buy it from you because they know, trust and like you, and want to read you and support your work. So, there are times that you’ll be building connections with your readers and there are times that you’ll be promoting your new book to them.
When you’re building connections, a monthly newsletter can work well but when you’re promoting a new book, you might want to send a weekly or bi-monthly newsletter over a short period of time to keep your subscribers updated before going back to your monthly newsletter frequency. Basically, evergreen content that is always relevant like writing tips, sharing book recommendations and personal updates can be sent out less frequently than timely content like a new book launch.
I send out my newsletter, The Kidlitter Letter, every ten days, so it comes out three times a month. Why did I choose to do that? For two reasons: I know my subscribers don’t enjoy getting weekly newsletters but I need to send them the newsletter more than once or twice a month as I provide them with timely actionable writing opportunities, and I also showcase writing contests with deadlines. I don’t want them to miss out on opportunities to earn money or hone their writing skills, so I chose a frequency of every ten days. The second reason is that, as an editor of children’s literature, I spend a lot of my time editing and coaching authors, and I wouldn’t have the time to write an engaging newsletter every week even if my subscribers wanted to receive a weekly one. So, you see, combine what’s best for your subscribers and what’s best for you, and you can’t go wrong!
What’s the goal of your newsletter?
The content of your newsletter and the goal you have for it go hand in hand. Ask yourself what you’re trying to achieve with your newsletter… if you just want to keep in touch with your subscribers, once a month is enough but if you’re trying to build a hype about a school visit or a book signing or a new book coming out, then set up a short-term plan where you send more frequent newsletters.
But here’s the thing – make it clear to your subscribers that they’ll be getting more frequent newsletters and explain the reason why, then give them the choice of opting-out of those emails if they’d rather only get your normal newsletter. Put yourself in your subscribers’ shoes. Let them choose how often they’d like to hear from you instead of bombarding them with emails out of the blue!
Check your statistics
After taking into consideration your subscribers, content and goals in deciding how often to send out your newsletter, you will want to be responsible about the health of your list too. What do I mean by that? No matter if you’re with Flodesk, Convertkit, Brevo or Mailerlite, all email service providers will give you statistics about your newsletter that you can check. Use them! This information is important.
If you notice that a lot of your subscribers are opening and clicking on links in your newsletter, that’s a good sign that they like what you’re sending them and how often you’re sending it to them. So, keep on doing what you’re doing! However, if your subscribers aren’t opening your emails and aren’t clicking on links you’ve put in them, you need to change some things. Maybe you’re sending too many emails or too few? In this case, you’re going to have to experiment with doing something different to see what sticks.
Email open and click-through rates are only one way to measure engagement. You can also look at other metrics, like how many people unsubscribe from your emails or how many people mark your emails as spam. Take all of this information into consideration and, if you’re not sure what to do next, just ask your audience! I’m sure they’ll be happy to tell you if they feel they’re getting too many emails from you and don’t have the time to read them or that they’ve basically forgotten they’d even subscribed because they hardly ever hear from you. Sometimes, good old-fashioned communication is the best way to get a job done.
When NOT to send your newsletter
So, the short answer to how often you send out your newsletter is: it depends. On what? On your subscribers, your content and your goal, as we’ve just seen. But there are times, no matter your subscribers, content and goal that it’s best not to send out a newsletter. When are they?
- If you don’t have anything to say: if you’re consistently struggling to find something to say, it’s best to take the time to find something valuable for your list to read rather than to send them regular newsletters filled with… nothing. What should you do in this case? Focus on finding content that your subscribers will enjoy. Go and listen to episode #6 in this podcast called What Do I Talk About in My Author Newsletter. There’s a lot of helpful information in there!
- On holidays: of course, you don’t know which holidays all your subscribers celebrate and which they don’t but try to avoid the ones a lot of people celebrate. No one is sitting in front of their computer waiting for your newsletter when they’re spending time with family.
- If you’re having technical difficulties: if you’re having trouble with your email service or website, wait until the problem is fixed before sending out your newsletter. We don’t want your fans to receive emails that are full of weird errors or HTML code!
And that’s all I have for you today in this shorty episode! You might have noticed that I didn’t talk about the best time of day to send out your newsletter. The reason for this is that you’re not a huge business trying to capitalize on the spending habits of your audience and experimenting with data about time zones and what not; you’re a children’s author who is building connections with your audience. As long as you’re consistent about how many times a month they can expect to hear from you and deliver the engaging content you promised them when they signed up to your author newsletter, you’re doing great!
Links
- Kidlit Marketing Made Easy(er)
- Flodesk (this is an affiliate link which gives you 50% off your first year and earns me $19)
- What Do I Talk About in My Author Newsletter?
- The Kidlitter Letter
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