Testing ‘Justin Welsh’ Method
At Axellerato, we’re always on the lookout for innovative strategies to enhance our content marketing. That’s why we turned our attention to Justin Welsh, a prominent LinkedIn influencer known for his approach to building multi-billion dollar companies. Namely, his popular email newsletter, known for delivering concise, actionable business tips every Saturday morning, caught our eye.
The hypothesis was intriguing:
Could the success of his newsletter be partly attributed to its posting time?
To find out, we conducted an experiment, mirroring Welsh’s Saturday morning posting schedule.
We Sent Newsletter on Saturday
We designed an email newsletter around a hot topic: start building your personal brand on LinkedIn to generate more leads.
Newsletter was crafted with a compelling subject line and an engaging hook. To add more value, we included insights from Ilya, the Founder of Axellerato, and hands-on experiences from our Content Strategist.
We sent it out at 11:05 AM on a Saturday.
What Were the Results?
Lower open rates.
Contrary to our expectations, the open rates were slightly lower.
Our previous newsletters typically achieved open rates of 34.4% and 37%. However, this Saturday edition only managed a 32.7% open rate.
More unsubscriptions:
We noticed 6 unsubscriptions. This could be attributed to several factors:
a) Perhaps receiving a business-related email on the weekend was perceived as intrusive by some subscribers and disrupted their personal time.
b) Another possibility is content saturation. If subscribers receive numerous newsletters, ours might have felt like just another in a crowded inbox.
c) People have more time to analyze the email and actually think if they want to continue receiving similar emails.
Lower click rates.
This post garnered only 3 clicks, compared to the usual range of 3-6 clicks per post.
The potential reason could be that subscribers may have been less inclined to engage with business content over a leisurely weekend. Optionally, they might have prioritized it lower than other weekend activities.
For comparison, a similar topic sent on a Friday morning got a 34.4% open rate, only 1 unsubscriber, and a healthier click rate. See the difference?
Our Reflections
Our experiment suggests that what works for an influencer like Justin Welsh might not universally apply, especially for brands still cultivating their online presence.
Posting on weekends, in our case, led to slightly reduced engagement and increased unsubscriptions.
This outcome underscores the importance of understanding your audience’s preferences and habits.
While a Saturday morning newsletter works wonders for Welsh, whose audience eagerly anticipates his tips, the same strategy might not resonate with a different audience demographic.
Lesson Learned
As it follows from our recent research, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday have long been the go-to days for sending email campaigns. Confirming this trend, MailChimp reports that Tuesday and Thursday are the top choices for distributing email newsletters.
Based on these insights and supporting data from sources like MailJet, we at Axellerato will be readjusting our strategy to sending the emails on one of these days – Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.
Take a look at the research results provided by Mailgun:
‘Midweek weekdays, generally Tuesday through Thursday, have the highest email open rates. Additionally, when it comes to email clicks, the same middle-of-the-week period has the highest click-through rate. Sundays are the worst days, followed by Saturday and everyone’s favorite day, Monday.’
As we continue to refine our content strategy, this experiment serves as a valuable lesson: always be adaptable and data-driven in your content marketing approaches.
What works for one may not work for all.