Email your list at least once a month, and twice a month if you have something worth saying. MailerLite’s 2025 data on more than 42,000 accounts shows weekly senders get more clicks and fewer unsubscribes than accounts sending one to three a month. So pick a rhythm you can hold for a year. Then hold it.
If your customer list lives in a spreadsheet and “start a newsletter” has sat on your to-do list since spring, this one’s for you. You’ve already done the hard part: you have people who know you. The schedule question is easier than it looks. The part that can quietly sink a small sender is deliverability... and the rules got stricter in 2024.
How often should a small business send marketing email?
MailerLite looked at sending habits across more than 42,000 of its accounts in 2025. Most businesses email often: 52% send at least weekly, and only 11.1% send less than once a month. Here’s how the cadences compared.
| Sends | Open rate | Click rate | Unsubscribe rate | Our read |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Less than 1 a month | 35.11% | 3.74% | 0.87% | Too quiet. People forget you, then leave when you finally write. |
| 1 to 3 a month | 33.48% | 4.32% | 0.54% | Where most small businesses should start. |
| Once a week | 33.22% | 4.87% | 0.38% | Good if you have weekly news: specials, new batches, openings. |
| Twice a week | 32.98% | 5.31% | 0.33% | Most clicks in the data. Needs a real reason every send. |
| Daily | 30.04% | 4.97% | 0.36% | Opens slip. Only worth it for a shop with daily news. |
Two cautions. These are MailerLite customers, and accounts that email more may simply be busier businesses, so the table shows what travels together, not what causes what. And open rates are shaky. Mailchimp warns that Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection can distort them, and Google says it doesn’t track open rates at all. Watch clicks and replies instead.
Here at CPC, our default for clients is one newsletter a month. We move to twice a month when there’s a reason: a busy season, a launch, a list that’s clicking. In our book, a short email on schedule beats a polished one that shows up whenever.
What should you put in the email?
One useful thing and one clear reason to act. That’s the whole format. Here are 4 things that fill a year without strain:
- A seasonal reminder tied to your calendar, like furnace tune-ups before the first cold snap in Indianapolis, patio season, or the back-to-school rush.
- The answer to a question a customer asked you this month. It’s often the same one you’d turn into an article.
- A recent job with a real photo and a real price range or timeline.
- One offer, some months, never every month.
Keep the offers in the minority. Don’t get us wrong, offers work. But an email that’s always a sale teaches people to skip you. Write subject lines the way you’d say them across a counter: “October furnace tune-up slots” beats “Don’t miss out!!!” Google’s guidelines also tell senders to send from a clear sender name and avoid subject lines that start with “Re:” or “Fwd:” unless the message really is a reply. Use a name people know, like “Dana at Fletcher Plumbing.”
This is also where content marketing pays twice. An article you wrote for your site becomes the first half of the email, with a line or two on top.
Where does your list come from?
From your people: the ones who already know you. Ask at the counter or the end of a job, put a sign-up on your website, and add a QR code to the receipt or the truck. A list of 300 people who remember you beats 5,000 who don’t.
Don’t buy a list. Google’s guidance says to never purchase email addresses and not to message people who didn’t sign up, because those recipients hit the spam button and your future mail follows them there. Got an old spreadsheet of customers you haven’t written to in years? Send one short reintroduction first: here’s what you’ll get, here’s how often, leave anytime. Google also suggests periodically confirming people still want your mail and considering removing anyone who never opens or reads.
What do Gmail and Yahoo require now?
Google began enforcing its sender guidelines on February 1, 2024, and Yahoo publishes a similar set in its sender best practices. The summary:
| Rule | Gmail (Google’s sender guidelines) | Yahoo (Sender Hub) |
|---|---|---|
| Who it covers | Everyone gets the basics. Sending more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail adds the full set. | “Bulk senders,” with no published volume line. Yahoo says it will not specify a threshold. |
| Authentication | SPF or DKIM for everyone. SPF, DKIM, and DMARC at 5,000+ a day. | SPF and DKIM, plus a DMARC policy of at least p=none. |
| Unsubscribe | One-click unsubscribe plus a visible link in marketing mail at 5,000+ a day. | One-click unsubscribe plus a visible link, processed within 2 days. |
| Spam complaints | Stay under 0.10% and never reach 0.30%. | Keep your spam rate below 0.3%. |
An owner mailing 800 people isn’t a “bulk sender” by Google’s 5,000-a-day line. Honestly, we’d still act like one. Yahoo doesn’t publish a threshold, and the basics (authentication, a low spam rate) apply to every sender Gmail sees. For scale, 0.10% is about one complaint per 1,000 emails delivered.
The 30-minute version, and the one thing we’d do this week if you haven’t:
- Send from an address on your own domain. Google warns against impersonating Gmail From: headers, so if your tool sends “as” a @gmail.com address, switch.
- Run your email tool’s domain authentication step. It hands you DNS records to paste in at your domain host. That covers SPF and DKIM.
- Add a DMARC record set to p=none. Both Google and Yahoo accept it. Your domain host’s help page or your web person can do it in about 10 minutes.
- Ask your email provider whether it sends one-click unsubscribe and includes a visible link. Never hide it.
- Once you send real volume, check your spam rate in Google’s Postmaster Tools.
The law sits underneath all this. The FTC’s CAN-SPAM guide says every commercial email needs an honest subject line and sender, your physical postal address, and an opt-out you honor within 10 business days. Penalties run up to $53,088 per email, and business-to-business mail isn’t exempt. Yahoo wants unsubscribes handled in 2 days. Do it the same day.
Is email worth the effort?
Litmus reports that email returns an average of $36 for every $1 spent, more than any other channel it compares. We can’t see the method behind that number, since the full report sits behind a form, and averages hide a lot. A list of 300 customers won’t behave like a retailer’s list of 300,000. Treat $36 as direction, not a promise.
So why do we still like email? It’s cheap, and you own the list. Your Instagram reach moves when an algorithm does. Your list stays put. If you ever leave us, every list we built stays with you.
Who should skip email for now?
3 kinds of owner. If you sell something people buy once every 20 years, a monthly newsletter will feel forced. Spend that time asking for reviews and referrals, and fix the way you show up on Google first. If fewer than about 50 people know you, collect addresses before you write a word. And if you can’t commit to a monthly send for six months, wait. One email, a long silence, then a sales blast is the pattern that gets flagged as spam.
Plan where email fits
Our free 90-Day Plan Starter puts one goal, one audience, one offer, 2 channels, and a weekly rhythm on a single printable page. Decide how often email goes out right next to everything else. No email, no login.
Rather have somebody in your corner on this? Our content marketing work includes a monthly newsletter. We write it and send it, and you give us about half an hour a month. It runs inside our published retainers: at $1,200 a month we run one channel properly, and content or email can be that channel. 3 months minimum, then month to month. See the full rate card.
What else do owners ask about email?
How many subscribers do I need before email is worth it?
Fewer than you think. A list of 200 customers who know you can fill a slow week with one good email. If you have fewer than about 50 people, spend your time collecting addresses first, at the counter, after a job, and on your website.
What day and time should I send?
Pick one and keep it. Timing matters less than whether the email is worth opening, and open rates are unreliable anyway because Apple’s privacy features can inflate them. Send on the same day each time so people learn to expect you, then check which sends got clicks and replies.
Do I need Mailchimp or something fancier?
No. Use the tool you can stand to open, as long as it lets you authenticate your own domain, includes a working unsubscribe, and exports your list. We send from the tool a client already uses and set one up only if they don’t have one.
Do the Gmail and Yahoo rules apply if I only email a few hundred people?
The strictest rules start at 5,000 messages a day to Gmail, and Yahoo publishes no volume threshold. The basics still apply to everyone: authenticate your domain, keep spam complaints low, and make unsubscribing easy. It takes about 30 minutes, so do it.
Can I email past customers who never signed up?
In the US, the CAN-SPAM Act doesn’t require sign-up consent for commercial email, but it does require your postal address, an honest subject line, and an opt-out you honor within 10 business days. Gmail’s guidance still says to email only people who want your mail. We’d send one short “here’s what you’ll get” email first and let people leave. This isn’t legal advice.
What does Carson Poore Consulting charge for email marketing?
It runs inside our published monthly retainers: $1,200, $2,400, or $4,800 a month. At $1,200 we run one channel properly, and email can be that channel. 3 months minimum, then month to month. We take 8 clients at a time.