What comes to mind when you read the words “email marketing”?
Don’t worry, I can hear your groans from here!
Email marketing is one of those things that we feel like we never get quite right. It’s simultaneously easy and tremendously labor intensive; “past its prime” but still essential and critical to how we reach our audiences. It is this dichotomy which makes email marketing so frustrating; we know we have to do it, but we often don’t know how to do it successfully.
At this quarter’s McKinley breakfast, I presented to a group of clients and friends on this exact dilemma. We hear all the time about overuse and abuse of email, of which many of us are guilty, but we’re still not able to shift course. The main reason is that email has become a habit, and this is especially prevalent in associations. There are such low barriers to use—low cost, ease of use, ability to reach thousands of members and customers at once—coupled with the instant feeling of gratification that comes from pressing “send” and knowing your message will appear in front of hundreds or thousands of eyeballs.
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In my previous post on membership communications, we looked at the challenges associations face in breaking through “the clutter” to get the attention of their members. While professionals are inundated with messages from every corner of their lives, successful associations have developed ways to increase the likelihood that their communications will be noticed. In my experience, it starts with a disciplined methodology.
- Set communications objectives/goals to help define the desired outcome of a specific communication or marketing campaign. This will inform decisions about defining the target audience(s), messaging, and tactics, and it will help establish clear expectations for an association’s efforts.
- Develop integrated marketing communications plans to translate objectives into
a “game plan” that allows you to be proactive in executing stand-alone communications or campaigns. Defining audiences, messages, channels, and timing helps increase the probability for success and ensures that different tactics can complement each other. It also establishes “owners” for the different marketing activities.
- Assign a “gatekeeper” to oversee the timing of distributing communications to members. This staff member or department can also review communications content from various program areas to provide the association guidance on reducing redundancy and increasing cross-promotion opportunities. Having this filter is particularly critical for managing email and social media and avoiding communication overload.
- Segment audiences and tailor messages to improve the likelihood that communications will resonate with the intended recipients. You want your members and non-members to associate communications from your association with being relevant and value-adding. There is a positive correlation between segmenting and tailoring messaging accordingly with open and click-through rates.
- Test and control groups provide the opportunity to measure the effectiveness of subject lines, content, links, timing of emails/postings, etc, in electronic and direct mail communications. Avoid the trap of doing the same thing over and over, even when you have had a successful campaign.
- Analysis and reporting is critical for measuring the success of communications goals. This will help determine what is /is not working and inform making adjustments to campaigns. Most associations’ databases and email systems have reporting capabilities that the IT team can tap into and capture data for campaigns. Website tools, such as Google analytics, are also available. It is critical to establish expectations with departments to capture, translate and report out on this data – or, assign this responsibility to a designated staff member to support all departments.
Keep in mind that including all of these elements versus picking and choosing is what makes a disciplined approach effective. What is your association doing that works? Tell us about your successes with communication and the approach that has worked for you.
~ Post by Tania Galarza, Managing Consultant
We deployed a survey recently for a client around the topic of communication. The organization was interested to learn what sorts of messages resonated with their members, what types of communication vehicles they preferred, and how much was too much when it came to delivering the information. One of the amazing statistics from the survey was that 75% of respondents said they read every email they received from the organization. While this is an impressive number, open rates tell a different story: the highest open rate for any particular email was about 25%.
So what does that mean? Were the respondents lying, or did they actually believe they opened everything they received? While it is possible that some respondents are playing the role of loyal supporters, the more likely scenario is that they honestly thought they opened everything they received, especially considering the circumstances. The organization did not have a consistent and transparent e-blast schedule, nor did it have a comprehensive e-newsletter to distribute to its members. In other words, it’s very likely that many members did not open some emails because they didn’t see them – and even if they honestly thought they opened everything they received, they still might have missed a considerable number of communications.
Every membership organization can take a lesson from these findings. While frequency in communications is important, so is consistency. If you send communications at the same general time (whether it’s weekly, bi-weekly or monthly), members can begin to expect a communication from you. And if they’re on the lookout for your email, the chances of them reading it go up dramatically.
Feel free to contact Mike to discuss this topic in more detail.
~ Post by Mike Norbut, Managing Consultant
