Is Your Lack of Consistency Affecting Your Email Open Rates?
Mar 28, 2022How consistent are you with the day and time you send out recruiting messages? Is it random week by week or is it on the same time and day week by week?
The reason I ask is that I seem to be having a lot of conversations with coaches these last few weeks who are frustrated that recruits seemingly aren’t opening their emails. They feel like they are wasting a lot of time reaching out and getting nothing in return.
Certainly, the quality your subject line and of your message matter.
My goal for this email is to give you a few other tips that I found to be helpful in getting a better response rate with the emails that you are sending so you are getting good ROI each and every time.
As you know if you have read any of Dan Tudor’s newsletters, when sending out your recruiting messages, consistency is key. He has found while interviewing thousands of student athletes, that recruits want to hear from coaches every 6-9 days. If you are not doing that, that could be one of your problems.
That you probably already know but I want to take it a step further. Your goal should be to send valuable content on such a consistent schedule that your recruits actually look forward to a certain day/time to receive your messages.
Here is what I mean. Have you ever told your recruit that you will be emailing them every Tuesday at 2pm? When I became a Dan Tudor TRS client, that certainly helped me to solve my sending out messages every 6-9 days issue because the emails were already written for me. What I didn’t do a good job with was sending the messages out at the same time and day of the week because it never occurred to me that it mattered.
What I learned through reading some marketing research was that if you send out your messages at the same time and day of the week, recruits will expect that it is coming and are more likely to open it.
For example, you might have noticed that I send this newsletter at the same time and day every single week and I can tell you from testing it, that is has helped my open rates. Dan Tudor sends out his newsletter every Tuesday morning for the same reason. When you are consistent with when you send your recruiting messages out, your recruits will know to expect an email from you and then will be more likely to open it.
Don’t just assume that they pick up on the consistency, tell them you are going to do it. Tell them you have a lot of information to give them about your program and will need to be sending it through email. “Expect to get an email from me every Tuesday at 2pm.”
Not only will it give them a heads up as to when to expect an email from you, it gives you a deadline that you need to stick to. When you have this deadline, it forces you to prioritize your recruiting. It will force you to work more proactively because you will need to get things done in advance, so you don’t miss the deadline. It also helps you avoid distractions and stay focused on getting these messages out.
To choose which time is best to send your messages out, review your analytics and TEST TEST TEST. Try sending out your recruiting messages on different days and see which gets the best open rates. You can (and should!) also test the send time to see what works best. Past data on open and click through rates can be a strong indicator of which day/time your recruiting messages perform the best.
Coach, bottom line, don’t just keep doing the same thing over and over and expect a different result. For the rest of January, pick a day and time that you will send recruiting messages and stick to it. See what results you get and then adjust as needed. Good luck! If you want my help, please reach out to me at [email protected].
P.S. If you have found this article helpful, please share it with your staff or other work colleagues! Studying time and energy management over these last 8 years and applying it to my coaching and recruiting has been a game changer for me. I am committed to helping coaches get more important work done in less time so more time can be spent with family and friends. Thanks!
