How often should you send newsletters?
Some simple guidelines for sending art newsletters
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How often should you send newsletters?
How often should you send a newsletter?
What should email campaigns contain?
Should you send it to all subscribers?
While there are no cookie-cutter answers to these questions, there are good guidelines to follow so let's dive into the nuances of these topics so that you can figure out what email marketing approach to take.
How often should you send?
There are two perspectives from which to tackle this question: the technical side and the marketing side.
Let's start with the technical side since it's something not a lot of online creators think about.
Every December, there's a problem in the marketing world: emails are not being delivered. Why is that? Many companies collect email addresses all year long, but send no email campaigns. Nothing all year, and then they wake up just before Christmas, import a huge list of addresses and finally decide to send something—and it doesn't get delivered. The reason is simple: the ISPs (Internet Service Providers), like gmail.com, outlook.com and yahoo.com get flooded with tons of emails from senders they don't recognize, and so they ignore them or filter them out. Some of these emails have gone dead, cold or become spam traps and the sender didn’t know because they were simply sitting on the list doing nothing with it. This kills deliverability of the entire campaign.
How is that relevant to you as an artist? You need to send something regularly, so that the ISPs remember you and don't flag your emails as suspicious. That means that at the very bare minimum, you should send at least 1 email every month or 2. This is the absolute bare minimum from the technical standpoint, but it's far from ideal.
OK, that’s the technical side. Now let’s look at the marketing side…
What is ideal from the marketing side of things is sending 1 or 2 emails every week, but—and this is key—in every email you should have something to say.
Look at it from the point of view of the person who's receiving the email. Is it interesting to them? Do they learn something from it? Is it relevant? You don't want to send emails just to send emails. That will only make the potential customer ignore them.
And while on the subject of people ignoring your emails, keep in mind that your email gets easily lost beneath a pile of other emails, or the person might simply be too busy to care about buying a piece of art right now. It's not personal. All you can do is to show up in their inbox with some regularity, offering something they could benefit from. And when the stars do align and they happen to be in the market for art, then they'll read your email or remember a past email of yours and buy something.
"Oh, this would be perfect as a gift for aunt Jenny."
So send emails as often as you have something new, interesting, or useful, ideally once or twice a week. That way you'll stay top of mind.
What should your email campaigns include?
Let's start with the basics. Each email should have one big call to action (CTA) and should be focused on one central idea. New artwork, new collection, new class. One idea and a clear call to action to take the people where you want them to go. Stay on brand, but if something really interesting happens to you, you can also share that (and for bonus points, you can also tie it to your art or life as an artist in some way).
And here's one practical tip for you: try to get a small sale as soon after signing up as possible.
When people sign up, you're on their mind. They are most aware of your work and enthusiastic, so it's a good idea to offer something small to them. Why? Because once they buy something small from you (study, small print, small sketch...), they are a step closer to buying something bigger from you. You establish a buying relationship. Most email marketing providers allow you to create an automated introductory series x min/hours/days after sign up, so this is one use case for it.
Now let's move on to a slightly advanced topic: segmentation.
Some segments matter more than others
You don't always have to email your whole list. You can make groups of people and send them more targeted offers. If someone took your class before, they're more likely to take another class (perhaps add a discount for an upcoming workshop). If someone bought a print, they might buy another print. If someone opens every single email you send, they might be on the verge of buying something. These are all groups that you can send more specific emails to.
Let’s recap:
Send emails at the very least once every month or every other month, but ideally 1 or 2 times a week. Always make the email interesting, novel, or useful. Have one central idea for each email you send and have a clear call to action. Think about what segments of your audience you could send special offers to. Do this, and you'll be well ahead of most people. You'll keep your list active and generate sales from it consistently.