Newsletters are a great way to connect with your clients, prospects, and referral sources. But you may lose--or even alienate--readers if you communicate too often. If you don't contact them often enough, they may not think of you at the right time.
In this blog post, I'm sharing my top three tips to help you decide how often to publish your newsletter.
1. Consider what your readers want
How often do your readers want to hear from you? Poll them informally when you meet with them. If they're frequent web surfers, you could conduct an online poll.
Weekly is too frequent, in my opinion, unless your audience is signing up for short market commentary or financial planning tips.
Monthly is the sweet spot for many newsletters. Especially if you're targeting prospective clients and referral sources, it's a gentle reminder of your existence. But it's not so frequent that it's obnoxious.
Quarterly works well for many financial advisors. Your newsletter can complement quarterly account statements or market commentary.
2. Don't over-commit.
Come up with a publishing schedule you can stick to because there's no sense in making promises you can't keep. Your readers will begin to count on you if you communicate regularly. If you can't stock to your commitment to publish, clients and prospects may wonder how committed you are to other aspects of your business.
3. Offer choices.
If your company is robust enough to offer multiple publications at different intervals, let your readers choose how often they'll hear from you. For example, Kahler Financial offers the option of receiving emails "for each new post, daily, weekly, or monthly. You can even choose to receive an e-mail for each new post AND weekly in order to ensure you don’t miss out on anything." Rick Kahler's default is to send a weekly newsletter.
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Susan B. Weiner, CFA
Check out my website at www.InvestmentWriting.com or sign up for my free monthly e-newsletter.
Copyright 2009 by Susan B. Weiner All rights reserved
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