Testing, 1-2-3 🎤

Published: Thu, 10/10/24

Updated: Thu, 10/10/24

Image showing a welcome campaign email surrounded by two different wait times- 2 days and 4 days.

Hi there friend,

Ever feel like you’re just throwing emails into the void? Or worse, flooding inboxes and hearing crickets? Don't worry—you’re not alone. If your open rates are dropping, engagement is low, unsubscribes are piling up, or you're new to email marketing, a good place to start is to analyze then optimize how often you hit send.

Staying top-of-mind without overwhelming your audience can make a world of difference to your engagement and conversions. Sending emails once or twice a week is a sweet spot for many businesses. However, the perfect timing depends on your audience and the type of content you’re sharing.

For example, educational content or newsletters work well with a weekly cadence, while promotional emails may benefit from a more spaced-out approach, like bi-weekly or monthly sends. If you’re promoting a sale or limited-time offer, consider a slightly higher frequency, a few emails over a week, to build urgency.

One of the most critical email sequences for any small business is the Welcome Campaign. Timing here is essential because you want to capitalize on the enthusiasm a new subscriber has for your brand. A typical Welcome Campaign might include 3-5 emails sent over the span of two weeks, with the first email going out within minutes after they sign up.

Then the rest of the send cadence is up to you. Will you wait 2 days before sending the next message? Or three? You need to find what works best for you and your audience, and that isn’t something you guess—it’s something you test! Testing send cadences will give you the data you need to determine whether your subscribers prefer a steady stream of info or a slower drip.

How to Test & Find Your Perfect Welcome Campaign Send Cadence 👋

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to test for your welcome campaign’s sending cadence. Don’t worry—it’s simpler than it sounds!

First, make sure your welcome campaign is all set up with engaging content and take stock of your current schedule, i.e. how long you are waiting between each send. Are you sending one email a day? Every few days? Weekly? This will be your baseline for comparison.
Now, pick two different sending cadences to test. For example, try sending emails every day versus every three days. Keep it simple to ensure you’re getting clear results.
Duplicate your welcome sequence in AWeber by going to the three dot menu on the right side of the campaign index page and hitting ‘copy’. Adjust the wait times between each version’s messages, keeping all other content the same. This way, you’re only testing the cadence, not the content!
Next, choose one campaign to test for two weeks to a month, and have the other campaign paused.
Now it’s time to launch and measure results! As the emails go out, keep an eye on your campaign stats in AWeber. You’ll want to track:
1. Open Rates: Are subscribers in one campaign opening your emails more often?
2. Click-Through Rates: Which cadence is driving more clicks?
3. Unsubscribes: If one campaign sees more unsubscribes, it might be a sign that it’s too frequent.
After you have run your first campaign, time to switch! Activate your other variation and pause the first one! Then repeat step 5!

Or, Allow Subscribers to Choose Their Own Cadence! 🙌

Using Custom Fields on an AWeber sign up form, you can let new subscribers choose what cadence they want! They will be tagged according to their preference, triggering a corresponding Welcome Campaign.

This is super neat and super powerful. After about a month of letting subscribers choose their own cadence, you can review the performance of each campaign to see which cadence produces better outcomes.

This Week’s Challenge

Using the steps above, set up a test for your welcome campaign or create a sign up form using AWeber with send cadence options. After a few weeks, you should have enough data to draw some conclusions.

Did one cadence lead to better engagement? Was there a clear winner? If so, you can roll out that winning campaign to all new subscribers.

Finding the perfect email cadence isn’t a one-time deal! Keep testing, keep improving. Subscriber preferences can change, so revisit your strategy every few months to ensure your emails stay fresh and effective. AWeber’s split-testing tools make it easy to experiment and stay on top of your audience’s needs.

What did you think of this email?

❤️❤️❤️ Loved it. Can't wait to get the next one.

💔 I didn't really care for it.

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