Once agents start implementing a content marketing strategy, it doesn't take long before they begin to wonder how often they should be posting new content and how often they should be emailing their contact list. The rate at which blogs are posted and emails are sent is often referred to as a "marketing cadence" and it's a crucial element of your content marketing strategy.
What kind of cadence is best for agents who want to improve their content marketing? The answer is, not surprisingly, "It depends." There are several factors that agents must consider when trying to answer the question for themselves.
When it comes to an email cadence, many agents are worried about oversaturating their prospects and clients with too many communications. At first glance, this seems like a valid concern. Studies have shown that over-emailing is the cause for 69% of all unsubscribes and 45.8% of all spam reports. But when we review the behavior of the agents we work with we find that, if anything, most of them under-send emails.
Still room to grow
However, when we reviewed the marketing cadence of the majority of our agents we found that the average number of times an agent e-mailed a client list was less than once a month unless they were using automated campaigns, then it was between 2–4 times a month. That suggests that, for many agents, there's room to grow in their emailing habits — that is, as long as they have something to share. It also shows the power of committing to an automated marketing system that uses campaigns to increase the instances of communication while still maintaining a consistent cadence.
When it comes to publishing content, a cadence has a lot more to do with the publisher's capacity than the audience's. The quality of the content produced directly affects the quality of the e-mails sent. Of users who unsubscribe from an email list, 32% do so due to "irrelevant or useless" email. How often can you create a piece of material that is insightful, actionable and interesting?
If the answer is daily, you would be justified in posting content every day, and your emailing cadence could increase as well. However, if you're producing only one piece of content every other month, you won't have the leeway to send as many e-mails because you won't have new posts to share and to use to push traffic.
Studies have shown that over-emailing is the cause for 69% of all unsubscribes and 45.8% of all spam reports. (Photo: iStock)
Mike Gospe, co-founder and principal of KickStart Alliance and author of The Marketing High Ground, suggests these six questions to ask when determining the cadence for your email and content publishing:
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- Who is the target audience — the persona?
- How do they want to be communicated with?
- Which content offering will benefit them the most?
- What happens after a prospect responds to a call to action?
- What happens when a prospect fails to respond?
- How will a specific series of activities and offers qualify prospects and drive the pipeline?
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For example, one of the features of Agency Revolution's Attract Marketing Suite is its campaign library, which provides agents with myriad dynamic content pieces including articles, videos and infographics, that can be sent out to a marketing list several times a month without ever exhausting it. Other content marketing companies, especially those that work with insurance professionals, offer similar products.
Although we still encourage our agents to create personalized material for their blogs, we understand that content creation is not their primary occupation and are happy to supplement their efforts with our content library.
Be consistent
Once you've established a publishing and email cadence, the best practice is to keep it consistent, which will help your prospects and clients develop an expectation for how often they will receive new messages from your office.
Consistency will help prevent spam reports and unsubscribes, whereas if you go too long between e-mails, your audience may forget the exact nature of the marketing relationship (even if they agreed to get the e-mails in the first place). According to Return Path's ebook, "Frequency Matters: The Keys to Optimizing Email Send Frequency," mailing too infrequently can cause some problematic issues, for example:
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- Poor or inconsistent sender reputation,
- Higher complaint rates,
- Lower lifetime value,
- Difficulties keeping your subscriber list clean,
- Increased risk of triggering spam traps,
- Lost revenue.
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A consistent cadence in publishing new content also communicates the idea that you are a thought leader whose expertise is not limited to a few ideas but encompasses a large number of subjects in your field.
By establishing a consistent cadence in your email and blog publishing, you will give your content marketing effort a firm foundation from which to launch. Your audience will grow to rely on and appreciate the insights you deliver on a regular basis, and you'll develop a reputation as a reliable and trustworthy source of expertise in your field.
Rick is the president of Agency Revolution. He can be reached by sending email to rfox@agencyrevolution.com. The opinions expressed here are the writer's own.
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