E-mail is an interesting beast. Technically, it’s a web 1.0 function, but fits within the 2.0 strategy. It’s been around for a while, so we know more about what works than any other social medium. There’s an enormous amount of research in the political and nonprofit fields about effective e-mail strategies.
Unfortunately, people have been using e-mail for a long time to communication with audiences and raise money. We’re beleaguered with e-mail, yet it continues to be an effective tool with a low return on investment (ROI). It’s a technology catch-22. You’re constantly losing people and constantly gaining people.
Several people have asked me questions about developing an e-mail program. I’ll try to provide a few basics and then point you in the right directions for more information.
Why can’t we just use Outlook?
Using an e-mail service such as Constant Contact, iContact, Vertical Response or a larger eCRM service (Convio, SalesForce, Grassroots Multiplier) allows you to target e-mails, design custom templates, segment lists and most importantly evaluate!
When you send out email through gmail, hotmail, outlook, comcast or any other regular email provider, you can’t see the click-thru rates or bounces. By using an inexpensive vendor (Constant Contact, iContact and Vertical Response all run between $10-$25 a month depending on number e-mail addresses and number of e-mails sent), you can dig into the metrics of e-mail and see where you need to improve your program. Are your subject lines getting stuck in spam filters? Are people not clicking on your links? Are the subject lines effective? The tracking mechanisms allow you to deduce how effective your program is. Are you getting at lease 25% opening up your emails?
E-mail isn’t electronic direct mail.
A lot of direct mail experts like to transfer their field into e-mail, but it just doesn’t work. People simply read a piece of mail different than an electronic message on a mobile device or computer screen. You need to write for the web.
1. Write on a 7th grade level.
2. Use simple, active sentences. Avoid long paragraphs. It’s ok to use 1-2 sentence paragraphs.
3. Put a link within the first or second paragraph to your action page (if needed).
4. Include text-only emails for mobile devices or those with slow web connections.
5. Conversely, don’t be afraid to create templates customized for your organization.
List Building/Recruitment Should be Constant
Lists are never static. People are constantly burning out, changing addresses, unsubscribing or ignoring your messages. According to an M+R, expect about 20% of your list to fatigue each year. This means you constantly have to come up with creative methods of recruiting new names.
Easy strategies include:
1. Capturing e-mail addresses on all your organizations forms.
2. Adding a sign-up on your website’s homepage.
3. Including sign-up information on the bottom of your e-mails.
4. Capturing e-mail addresses at events.
5. Including information in direct mail appeals to gather e-mail addresses.
E-mail Ethics
Ethically, it’s wrong to take lists from other groups or mine addresses from social networks. People should volunteer to join your list. A lot of organizations chose to purchase lists. The ethics of this are questionable.
Think about it. Would you be annoyed if a nonprofit organization purchased your e-mail address from a magazine company, political party, church or another nonprofit. Simply because someone fits a demographic profile, does not mean that they want your e-mail. Spamming is intrusive and a good way to ruin your reputation. When it comes to list-building, I’m in favor of quality over quantity. However, you still need a lot of people to make it work.
More resources
As I mentioned above, this doesn’t even scratch the surface of e-mail best practices. Below are several sources that I highly recommend reading.
M+R Ebenchmarks
E-mail Lingo
More resources to come in part 2.
