Maven Marketing with Brandon Welch

How Often Should You Email Your Customers

• Frank & Maven

Share episode

Send us a text

If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re emailing your customers too much—or not enough—this episode is for you.

Brandon and Caleb break down the strategy (not just the tactics) behind email marketing that actually works. 

With real benchmarks, proven ROI stats, and examples from businesses just like yours, you’ll walk away knowing exactly how often to send, what to say, and how to keep your audience engaged—not annoyed.

Inside this episode:

  • The surprising ROI of email marketing ($36–$40 per $1 spent)
  • Benchmarks for frequency, open rates, and unsubscribes
  • What to send (even if you're “just a plumber”)
  • Why email isn’t about selling—it’s about staying top of mind
  • How to revive a “cold” list the right way

Whether you're sending one email a month or none at all, this is your reminder: your best customer is your yesterday customer—and they’re waiting to hear from you.

Maven Marketing Mastermind → https://www.mavenmethodtraining.com

Our Website: https://frankandmaven.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frankandmavenmarketing/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@frankandmaven
Twitter: https://twitter.com/frankandmaven
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/frank-and-maven/

Host: Brandon Welch
Co-Host: Caleb Agee
Executive Producer: Carter Breaux
Audio/Video Producer: Nate the Camera Guy

Do you have a marketing problem you'd like us to help solve? Send it to MavenMonday@FrankandMaven.com!

Get a copy of our Best-Selling Book, The Maven Marketer Here:
https://a.co/d/1clpm8a

Brandon Welch:

Welcome to the Maven Marketing Podcast. Today is Maven Monday. I'm your host, Brandon Welch, and I am joined by Caleb. What's your inbox count, AG?

Caleb Agee:

Oh, that's a good question, hold on. I'm at. I'm at hold on, hold on.

Brandon Welch:

Riley is out today, so it's got to be bad.

Caleb Agee:

For you. Yeah, I'm at, it just says 99 plus, so as soon as riley returns, it'll be back to unread is two, but I think my inbox count is in the like 60s right now. It doesn't. My phone doesn't tell me the actual number I like to keep it less than 50, if I can, because I want on the desktop, like on the the computer, that's one page. I want one page.

Brandon Welch:

Oh, okay.

Caleb Agee:

So I like folders, file things away, archive.

Brandon Welch:

Yeah, but.

Caleb Agee:

I leave it in the inbox if it's not solved.

Brandon Welch:

Caleb's one of the better email managers I know. And speaking of email management, this is the place where we help you eliminate waste in advertising, grow your business and achieve the big dream. And we're just going to hit one out of the park today. It's a question we get asked by literally like everybody Everybody. How often should I be sending email marketing to my customers?

Caleb Agee:

Yeah, if you don't know, email marketing is probably one of the most inexpensive, quick to pull off.

Brandon Welch:

Highest ROI.

Caleb Agee:

It is the highest ROI thing you can do, yeah, media that you can use. And we put that in the category of a yesterday customer. So in the Maven yesterday yeah, In the Maven method we have three types of customers that every good marketing plan speaks to all three at any given time. Today customer needs what you are selling right now. Tomorrow customer doesn't need what you're selling right now, but they will someday. And a yesterday customer is somebody who's already really been in contact with you or bought from you. We can add value and create a tribal bond and have them come back for repeat business With their friends and their family, or their friends and family. That's right.

Brandon Welch:

So, for that reason, because this is a misleading number, because it is actually reflecting all of the goodwill that you've already spent- but, if you were just looking at email.

Brandon Welch:

In and of itself, litmus research firm says $36 to $40 are returned for every dollar spent. So every dollar you spend, you're getting $40 in sales. You know what the truth is? There's marketing costs that has been long sunken into that past customer but you're just re-harvesting it and it's like man. It's like if you won somebody over. Like this it's marriage. This is marriage. Like why, if we've hit the home run, as Caleb and I have in our spouses, why would we keep dating? Happened to me the first time.

Caleb Agee:

Yes.

Brandon Welch:

Me too. So why would we mess that up? Why would we keep trying to go for other people? It's like this customer has already said yes, I've committed to you in this category and you're my lifelong person so long as you keep showing up for me. Fred Reichelt, who's like a famous guy who talked there's a very famous quote from Bain and Company. We've used it a lot of times A 5% increase in customer retention can increase your profits by 25% to 95%.

Caleb Agee:

That's crazy.

Brandon Welch:

If you just focus a little more on keeping your customers, imagine a 95% increase in profitability. And so the short answer to how often should you be emailing your customers is more than you are, more than you are right now. I'll bet We've had people come in here with $50 to $100 million ad budgets and going like, how do we get more customers out of this? And even at that level, even that really high level, sophisticated marketing plans, all of those things we are, we are still saying focus on your yesterday customer more. Um. So, short answer, it's the best and most profitable thing you could be doing. Second answer is um, there are some benchmarks you could use to determine. Hey, am I? Do I have like the green light to send more?

Caleb Agee:

to keep going or am I overdoing it? And I think I think that's what we're trying to. Obviously, our broad strokes answer is probably you're not doing it enough, don't worry about it so much. But here's the fallback when you are sending them and you feel like you're doing it at somewhat consistent frequency and, by the way, you can vary this. We're not really going all in on tactics and email marketing tactics today. We're talking about how often you should do this. It's more of a strategy question, but if your unsubscribe rate is under 0.3% so if it is less than one-third of 1% of your entire list is unsubscribing in a single send, then you have a green light really to continue forward.

Caleb Agee:

Um, if you notice it going higher than that, you need to investigate your list. Really is probably what's what's going on Um or your content, and we'll talk about both of those Um. You know, if you're, if you're, sending less than twice a month, you're probably not frequent enough. We talk about frequency a lot in tomorrow marketing, but in yesterday marketing it's just as relevant. How often are we in front of that customer? How often do they see us adding to their lives, building a relationship with them, because they've already entered in, like Brandon said before, a relationship with us, and so how often are we coming back to add value to that relationship, to add value to their lives? And you know just a quick number we'd say if you're not sending more than twice a month, you're too easily forgotten.

Brandon Welch:

Too easily forgotten. Yeah, way under the threshold. Here's what I will say Minimum for a service business once a week Minimum. If you're not doing that for our customers, we're always telling them let's do more. And for most people we're serving at a direct level, it's at least four emails a month and you're going okay. So what should I say? Well, you could even be a plumber something valuable to say If you tie this to your brand personality and you become more than just being a plumber. That's the whole point of email marketing.

Brandon Welch:

It's a very cheap, very easy way to maintain that relationship, and so it could be things like hey, this month we're supporting this cause and help us do it. It could be five random things we saw driving around in our trucks this week. You know the, the, the, the, the good news, the pipeline of good news, right, I'm just making up something for a plumber this is off the, this is off the, uh, off the cuff. Um, it could be um, uh, some sort of thing that ties into your personality, like dad jokes or or recipes or Could be seasonal things, like if you're a plumber, you could talk dad jokes or or recipes.

Caleb Agee:

Or Could be seasonal things Like if you're a plumber, you could talk about winter or or high heat or you know different things like that.

Brandon Welch:

It could be stories about something that is like, you know, good old fashioned nostalgia things, like I remember when or like for us it's been, frankly, friday and it's just been like a philosophy life, you know, kind of faith, work type stuff that we just sound off on. And are they inspired by communication-related things? Yes, but it really has nothing to do with marketing or doing more marketing services with us. Yeah, yet people over the years have become, I mean, regular readers of that and it just it. It's that relationship, it's a different, it's an extra facet.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah, and I think we've tucked this away, but you'll notice, no, not yet have we said sell something.

Brandon Welch:

Yeah.

Caleb Agee:

That is the trick with email marketing. I think a lot of people are saying I feel like I'm bothering people too much. If you are selling every single time, if you are talking to a past customer and all you're asking them to do is spend more money, then yes you are bothering them.

Brandon Welch:

Well, of course, you're just going to be irrelevant. I don't know a person who gets mad at emails. I think that there is a falsehood, that the business owners are sorry, people are sitting around going, or this company emails me too much. I hate them and it's like an add to your negative reputation.

Caleb Agee:

Man. Email is not a new thing. No, it's 30 years old. Yeah, email is. Everybody knows how to unsubscribe.

Brandon Welch:

They don't want to and that's, and everybody gets more emails than they're actually going to read just like you get more snail mail than you're actually going to read, but it doesn't equal a negative for you, um, but you also for the effectiveness and to get this nice return. You don't want to just be sending offers all the time.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah.

Brandon Welch:

So use it as an extension of your personality and I don't care if these days, if you want to lean on GPT to help you just make something fun and entertaining, I would have some sort of thematicatic predictability or just repetition to it. If you're the dad joke guy, do the dad joke. If you're the mom tips gal, do the mom tips. If you're the adventure getaway random story type people do that. But I would recommend there's a really solid example of a real estate company. People buy homes, like what, every seven or eight years, yeah. And there's a real estate company that did such a good job over the years doing these blogs on nostalgia and it was just local nostalgia and it's like five things you'll remember if you were a 90s kid in this town.

Brandon Welch:

And local landmarks and just like things that are like oh yeah, I remember that and had nothing really to do with selling houses or connecting people with agents or generating leads, but people open those emails at like 50%, 60%, 70% open rates.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah, they were probably getting more readership than the local paper was at that same time.

Brandon Welch:

Yeah, absolutely so a couple of quick things. If you're not getting a 20% open rate, you probably need to do better on your content.

Caleb Agee:

And your subject line. Yeah, and your subject line.

Brandon Welch:

So that's a sign that you're not being interesting enough.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah, your subject line obviously gets the click in the open, but what also affects your next open is your last email.

Brandon Welch:

Yeah.

Caleb Agee:

So if you were relevant last time and I opened it, but if you aren't relevant last time, I probably won't open it next time.

Brandon Welch:

They want to open you again.

Caleb Agee:

So that's, that's a key.

Brandon Welch:

And so look for that 20% open rate. It's like thumbs up. If you're getting that, just keep doing what you're doing. You also want to make sure your unsubscribe rate isn't more than 0.3% percent. So if you're, most unsubscribe rates we see are like in the 0.1-ish range and it's like you're totally fine, that's just part of the game. It's just like people get off your list, okay.

Caleb Agee:

Don't fret about it, don't get hurt about it, don't go looking at who unsubscribed, to realize it's like your best friend You're like really.

Brandon Welch:

Really so. And then and sometimes email programs are doing that automatically, so it's not even necessarily them saying, you know? Don't email me anymore, but a good MailChimp or a good Constant Contact or any good mail program will manage that for you.

Brandon Welch:

And then generally, if you are doing offers, if you are doing a special offer and you're doing it the right way and saying, hey, click here to get this offer, that button needs to be getting a 2% click-through rate. That's a pretty good sign. Like if you got 20% open rate, 0.3% unsubscribed rate or less and then a 2% click-through rate on that big button, you're doing really good and I would recommend your offers Do them as often, as you're going to do them as part of your strategy, but once every five to ten cents should be a special offer.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah.

Brandon Welch:

And, by the way, when you do an offer, that should be like three emails. It should be hey, we're doing this and then in the middle of it, this is still going on. Don't get it before or less.

Caleb Agee:

It's the last day.

Brandon Welch:

And the last day, last chance. Yeah, that's the proper way to do email. So, uh, so we've talked about you should be doing it more. Here's some benchmarks to consider uh, that you've got good content mix. Uh, be adding value more than just offers and promotions and saying buy stuff from me and then, uh, what else have we added that caleb?

Caleb Agee:

I think that we've alluded to this all the way through, but it's send emails as often as you have something great to say, and you won't be annoying if you write great content. And I think that's the key, that's the trick in all of this is be interesting, be exciting, sell, be a friend more often than you're selling and be helpful, add value, and I think those are the kinds of things Most of the time. I think people cringe at their own sending rate because they know what they're sending is not adding value, like inherently. I think they know ooh, I'm asking too much right now, and that check is actually okay. When you've changed your content to be helpful more often, that's when you're winning.

Brandon Welch:

Yes, email isn't dead, but your customer's memory might be, if you don't stay with them.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah, hey, real quick side note If you're waking up your email list because you haven't sent in a long time, and this is your reminder, and you're going to say, hey, I'm getting started right now, and this is your reminder, and you're going to say, hey, I'm getting started right now, take it in stride and start as if you've never been gone before.

Brandon Welch:

Oh yeah, Don't apologize. Don't apologize. Hey, jumping back on here. Sorry, I've been gone a while. Nobody noticed.

Caleb Agee:

Just send it. They weren't sitting there waiting like oh man, I don't feel like Best Buy hasn't emailed me in a while. Nobody's sitting around waiting for that email. So just just send the email, pretend like it's always. You sent it last Friday and you sent it the Friday before, just go. And then the other thing is if your list has been old or cold, maybe if, if it's more than 12 months old, watch that unsubscribe rate, watch your bounce rate and, um, just make sure you send to a good active list so that you end up not getting blocked by major inboxes. So there's a little bit.

Brandon Welch:

Your email sending software should help you with that If it's been a long time since you've emailed and you've got a big list, be careful with that. And if that's you and you're going, hey, what do I do with that? There's some extra rules that we're not going to put in this podcast.

Caleb Agee:

Yeah.

Brandon Welch:

But call a friend, phone, a friend, matter of fact. We'll give you one on the house and then we'll suggest that you join the Maven Marketing Mastermind, because that's where we answer stuff like that every week See what I did there.

Brandon Welch:

But Maven Monday at frankandmavencom Send your extra email questions that we may not have gotten to here because there are some like what ifs. And then for everybody, we are having such a good time in the Maven Marketing Mastermind. We are growing businesses, we're seeing our tribe make progress in their marketing plans, they're getting stuff out in the world, they're getting new customers and, man, that is what we live for here at Maven Marketing Podcast and the Maven Marketing Mastermind and Frank and Maven and all that. So if you want to join that, if you are feeling just a little bit unsure about your marketing, maybe a little bit lonely in the marketing department or a little bit just looking for inspiration or fun, come join the tribe.

Brandon Welch:

It's a good time. We're showing up every other week and having a great conversation about marketing and we're making real improvements to marketing plans. You will grow because of this and it's at a fraction of a fraction of a fraction at what you would normally have to invest to get a team to do that for you. And you've got Caleb and I oh my Enough said right One of those, caleb right.

Brandon Welch:

Hey, we'll be back here every week answering your real-life marketing questions. Check out that Maven Marketing Mastermind at mavenmethodtrainingcom, and we'll see you next week, because marketers who can't teach you why are just a fancy lie. Almost lost it there. Have a great week. Bye, bye, bye, bye.