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As a small business owner, you need to be a lot of things to make your business go—but you don't have to be a marketer alone. Join host Dave Charest, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, and Kelsi Carter, Brand Production Coordinator, as they explore what it really takes to market your business. Even if marketing's not your thing! You'll hear from small business leaders just like you along with industry experts as they share their stories, challenges, and best advice to get real results. This is the 2x Webby Award Honoree Be A Marketer podcast!
Today on episode 50 of the Be A Marketer podcast, it's another Ask Dave episode, and I'm answering your questions about how many follow ups should occur after the first email outreach, and what is the best time frame in between to do so. This is the Be A Marketer podcast.
Intro Voice:Be a marketer.
Dave Charest:I'm your host, Dave Charest, director of small business success at Constant Contact. And I help small business owners like you make sense of online marketing.
Dave Charest:And on this podcast, we'll explore how to find the time to be a marketer. Remember friend, you can be a marketer. In a constant contact, we're here to help. Well, hello, friend, and thanks for joining me for another episode of the Be A Marketer podcast. Today, we have a question from Hadassah, and Hadassah is a marketing and content coordinator at a provider of telemarketing and contact center services.
Dave Charest:So think of business that helps you with outbound calls to fill the pipeline, outreach for donations to consumers and to customers, and also inbound support. So Hadassah's question is, how many follow ups should occur after the first email outreach? Also, what is the best time frame in between to do so? Well, this is a great question, Hadassah, and it's an important one because the reality is that the one email is often not enough. And it's actually not because people aren't interested in what you're sending them.
Dave Charest:It's actually more to do about the fact that, well, they've got more pressing things to do in their own lives. So let me give you an example. My wife and I have a local cheese shop here in the Massachusetts area that we love to frequent, and they're also a constant contact customer. And 1 year, they were having this event, and it was, an apple cider event. They were bringing in some local vendors, and they were gonna have a cookout, and it was gonna be a day filled with music and ciders and beers and food, and it was sounded like a really great time and a and a perfect thing to do in a weekend with the family.
Dave Charest:Now when I got the first email about the event, I was obviously excited about it. It was like, yes, I wanna do this thing. But at the time, my life pulled me in the direction where I had to go take my kids to school. And then, of course, my daily commute kicked in and the regular day, and I forgot all about the apple cider event. Now I got a reminder about this event probably, like, a week later, and I was like, oh, yeah.
Dave Charest:That's the event that I wanted to go to and bring the family to. But, of course, when I got the email, I was just on the way to a meeting at work, and, of course, I had to push that to the side, and I didn't take any action on that actual email. Although, of course, as I've mentioned already that I did wanna take that action. Well, finally, I got a last chance email, and this was the email letting me know that if I did wanna go to this event, well, now was the time to buy tickets. And so for me, it was kinda like that kick in the pants that, like, look.
Dave Charest:This is the thing I've been talking about. This is the thing I've been telling my wife about, and she seemed on board, and we really wanted to do this thing. And if we were gonna do it, well, it was this last email that was gonna make me do that thing. And so this was the opportunity to make me prioritize it and actually take some action. Now, again, if you just sent me that one email, I would have forgotten all about it, and I never would have did the thing even though, of course, as I mentioned, I wanted to do it.
Dave Charest:And this is ultimately what we're talking about here. And I hate to break the news, but not everybody is always thinking about your business as much as you are. And so they've got other priorities take care of, and so you have to give them multiple opportunities to take up the thing that, well, they wanna do and you want them to do. Now, there are some other things to consider, of course, when you start thinking about this and some of the questions you might want to ask yourself, well, do I have an existing relationship with these people? Now I'm assuming since you're sending from your Constant Contact account, of course, you do have some type of existing relationship with these people.
Dave Charest:So it's not like you're cold emailing somebody. So that's gonna take a play into whether or not somebody is gonna be more likely to take an action on the first time. Right? And then the other thing is to think about is how big is the ask? Now if you're asking somebody to just go check out an article, well, that's a lot less of a commitment than somebody asking for, let's say, a $500 payment, right, in order to do something.
Dave Charest:And so you really do need to consider how big the ask is because there's oftentimes there's gonna be more objections for you to overcome, And that might warrant you actually sending more messages. Okay, so that's something else to think about. And then lastly, it's important to remember that, of course, the timing and the urgency is really important to spur people to action. And so we mentioned the announcement. So you're letting people know about the thing.
Dave Charest:You're giving them a reminder about it, but then you're also giving them this last chance. And so when you start thinking about the timing of this, so I always like to work backwards from kind of like the drop dead date. Right? And this is the time where somebody has to take the action or else they're gonna miss out on whatever the offer is. And so if you start thinking about maybe a good place to start, and you can test again depending on your audience and the nature of the thing that you're offering.
Dave Charest:But I like to say a good place to start is, let's say, 3 weeks out from the expiration date of the time where people can take the offer. So that's your first email. That's your announcement. And then a week later or 2 weeks out from the end date is your reminder. And then either the day before or the day of that thing expiring, that is your last chance email.
Dave Charest:So that's a good place to start and start thinking about how many times and how much timing in between do you want to think about sending your emails. And then you can try that and see how that works for you and when you'll start to see when most people start to take action. And I think what you'll notice is that a lot of times, it's on that second and third email where people actually go to move. So let's recap a few things here. So people aren't thinking about your business as much as you are.
Dave Charest:So you wanna make sure you're planning on at least those three touches that we mentioned. That usually means, of course, the announcement, a reminder, and a last chance. And a general timing could be 3 weeks from the drop dead date for the announcement, 2 weeks for the reminder, and a day before or the the day of for the last chance email. Now a general timing I'm gonna say this one more time. Now a general timing could be 3 weeks from the drop dead date for the announcement, 2 weeks for the reminder, and the day before or the day of for the last chance email.
Dave Charest:Well, Hadassah, I hope that helps and thanks so much for sending in your question. Listener, make sure that you're scheduling at least 3 email touches when you're trying to spur someone to action. Remember, one email likely isn't going to do. So you wanna give people multiple opportunities to take up your offer. Well friend, do you have a marketing question for me?
Dave Charest:I'd love to hear it. If you're a constant contact customer, you can head right on over to the constant contact community to post your question for an upcoming Ask Dave episode. I'll include a link for you in the show notes. I hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Be A Marketer podcast. If you have questions or feedback, I'd love to hear from you.
Dave Charest:You can email me directly at dave (dot) charest (at) constantcontact.com. If you did enjoy today's episode, please take a moment to leave us a review. Your honest feedback will help other small business marketers like yourself find the show. Well, friend, I hope you enjoy the rest of your day and continued success to you and your business.