Hands up anyone who has come in on a Monday morning only to delete and unsubscribe their newsletter emails to oblivion. Anyone?
I know I do. In fact, lately I have been unsubscribing at a rate of knots from a huge array of website articles that I or someone else in their infinite wisdom has decided to subscribe me to, at their peril.
That means that it is getting tougher to keep clients on a mailing list. Not only does your content have to be relevant, timely and targeted to your audience (as we have discussed in previous articles), but it also has to be sent at the right time.
What is the right time?
That’s a really good question. And this is the interesting part. It depends on what platform you are posting on (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus), and whether you’re sending out your standard monthly newsletter in hard or soft copy. If you’re not sending your clients at least one communication a month – whether that be via social media or your database – then you’re being left behind and unfortunately you’ll soon be obsolete in your area of expertise.
I think you should be sending a newsletter with relevant information at least once a month. On social media, you should be sending something at least once a day, whether that post is your unique content or something that’s happening in your local market.
What day and time of the day should you be posting?
We have found that sending a newsletter once a month on a Wednesday at around 11am is the best time, but make sure you do this at the same time every month. With Facebook, we have found the evenings can work well. The best time to post on Facebook is between 6pm and 9pm on Thursday and Friday. As far as Twitter goes, that’s a different audience again. Posts tend to work best during the day between 11am and 1pm on weekdays. I would treat LinkedIn the same.
If you are unsure about any of my suggestions, the best thing to do is test your articles using a great program called bit.ly, which tracks the number of opens and the time the link was clicked. We use Mailchimp for our newsletter send and find the system provides incredible insights into who is opening our newsletter and when.
Finally, whatever you do, have a go and don’t expect results overnight. Keep trying for at least six months before ditching your strategy. Top of mind awareness is so important in today’s world when there is information overload.
Peter Sarmas, director of Street News
Peter Sarmas is the director of Street News, a property information portal for consumers. Peter has always believed in helping people improve their personal and business lives. He became involved in the real estate industry in 1997 and since, has always had a passion for property and informing people. So began the vision to build a website that would help educate the public on the state of the local property market as well as how to buy, sell and rent a home. Always having his finger on the property market pulse, Peter’s goal is to pass on his real estate knowledge and insights to others. His aim is to engage and educate through his various articles, content styles and specialist writers and their expertise.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
![peter-sarmas](/images/peter-sarmas-1.jpg)
peter-sarmas
Peter Sarmas is the director of Street News, a property information portal for consumers. Peter has always believed in helping people improve their personal and business lives. He became involved in the real estate industry in 1997 and since, has always had a passion for property and informing people. So began the vision to build a website that would help educate the public on the state of the local property market as well as how to buy, sell and rent a home. Always having his finger on the property market pulse, Peter’s goal is to pass on his real estate knowledge and insights to others. His aim is to engage and educate through his various articles, content styles and specialist writers and their expertise.