People often ask me how often to send their email newsletters. Like most questions worth asking, this one doesn’t have a simple answer.

But I can offer a few guidelines, based on other people’s data and my own experience.

The real answer is, “As often as your subscribers want.”

So then you ask, “How would I know that?”

Well, if you have a big marketing and communications staff, you offer subscription options, which cover both frequency and content.

I presume you don’t have a big mar-comms staff. (That’s why you read my e-letter.)

Another option: Run a survey to find out how often your subscribers want to hear from you.

But the results may not help. What people say they want often and what they actually respond to are two different things. Response rates are the measure that matters.

So if you’re a small shop and you have a smallish email list, the best way to figure out what your subscribers want is to try a schedule and see how it works. If it doesn’t work so well, try another.

Where to start? I have two rules of thumb:

• No less than once a month. People forget that they signed up with you, so they start unsubscribing or, worse yet, reporting your emails as spam.
• No more than once a day. People get tired of you, so they start unsubscribing or, worse yet, reporting your emails as spam.

Finally it comes down to how much subscribers value what you have to say. If you provide engaging and useful content that people want, they may want it daily. If you only ever ask for money, they may see twice a year as too much.

Once a week is a good starting point. If you don’t have enough bandwidth, try twice a month or, at minimum, once a month.

Monitor your engagement metrics – open, click, and action rates – so that, when they fall off (as they almost certainly will), you can try emailing more or less frequently.

Does your heart quail at the idea of a weekly or even monthly newsletter? Does the idea of monitoring engagement metrics give you a headache? Honey, we need to talk.