Email Case Studies
Arts Patrons Love Email Notices
The University Musical Society, a nonprofit arts organization affiliated with the University of Michigan, has been aggressively using email and online marketing for the past four years. In fact, says Sara Billmann, Director of Marketing and Communications, online marketing was already on everyone’s mind when UMS began collecting email addresses eight years ago at the organization’s many performance events.
The active email distribution list now holds 10,000 names, 6,000 of which have joined the UMS Email Club promoted on the organization’s home page, www.ums.org. These users have not only opted in, but many have completed a profile form indicating what types of information they would like to receive, from a weekly e-newsletter to notices about specific types of performances (jazz, chamber music, classical, family, folk, world music and dance, etc.).
According to Ms. Billmann, this permission-based approach has yielded a very responsive audience. “We know that the people who fill out the form and tell us their interests have significantly higher click-through than people who don’t complete those fields,” she explained. “ Twenty percent of those who’ve signed up for our newsletter through the form click through to our Website. And we get click-throughs from 30 to 35 percent of the people who’ve indicated that they want emailings on specific types of performances. We're continuing to work on building the size of the email list, as well as encouraging those who currently receive our weekly event bulletins to customize their profiles so that the emails they receive are relevant to their interests. ”
UMS lacks the ability to track how many of those click-throughs convert into ticket sales because not everyone chooses to buy online. Thirteen percent of current-year ticket sales were purchased online. The rest are phone sales handled through UMS' Ticket Office, which licences ticketing software from a third-party whose system cannot link back to UMS’ Relevant Marketing email system. Only a major investment in an arts software solution that combines customer relationship management (CRM) and ticketing, says Ms. Billmann, would enable UMS to get the total picture.
But that hasn’t prevented the organization from getting good mileage out of its online outreach. At one event last season, audience members who attended the opening night of a four-performance run of a largely unknown contemporary theater piece were asked via email for their comments about the performance. The request was sent to them at 11:00 pm on opening night. By the next morning, UMS had received 15-20 rave reviews, which it published in an email to the rest of the online database, generating tremendous interest in the remaining performances.
“The audience comments were more powerful than anything the reviewers – or we, for that matter – could say,” said Ms. Billmann. “The final performance had a line stretching from the ticket office into the lobby of people wanting to buy tickets, and the last two performances sold out. People told us later that they would not have attended one of the most incredible theatrical experiences they've ever seen had they not received that email with audience comments. We could never have generated that kind of response with direct mail or advertising."
University Development Office Reaches for Young Alumni
The University of South Florida (USF) is a major school offering multiple degree programs to over 42,000 students. In August, USF’s development office will launch is first email effort with the help of email software provider Kintera.
The first mailing will test the organization’s ability to combine email and direct mail with the University’s core alumni base. The campaign will incorporate Flash video showing the school’s marching band into a special appeal for support for the band. Other efforts on the boards include mailings segmented by degree, class year, age, donor behavior, school programs and clubs attended, whether alumni work for a matching gift employer, and if they received a scholorship while attending USF.
A longer-range goal for all of the office’s outreach is to cultivate recent alumni, and email is expected to be a big help here. Said Development Coordinator Kelly McCarthy, “We expect the younger alumni to be highly attuned to this medium, so our outreach to them will be extremely interactive. We’ll focus on educating them on the possibilities of their alumni relationship, and will appeal to their connection to the campus with photographs of spots they’re familiar with and the Bulls’ team icon.”
The development goals for e-marketing will be established as a separate budget from traditional outreach efforts. As of now, the overall working goal is $12,000, which could change depending on the introduction of other projects. The email budget had not been established as of this writing.
The development effort is handled completely in-house by a team of five people. Everyone is excited about gaining the ability to market online. Said Ms. McCarthy, “The biggest challenge will be learning how to speak through this medium.”
Public Broadcaster Cuts Communication Costs
WFWA PBS39, the public broadcast television station for Fort Wayne, Indiana, made its first foray into email marketing out of financial necessity. In November 2005, alarmed by the escalating paper and postage costs to send out monthly program guides to its members, the organization began migrating the guide to email. The learning curve from that effort is expected to greatly help the fledgling online fundraising effort launched in March, called “Pledge Online.”
Said Jan Crary, director of the Pledge Online effort, “The online Program Guide” gives us a model for how to deliver information to people who want it electronically. Over time, email and online will play a bigger and bigger role.”
Notifying members and viewers that electronic options exist is a key first step. For the Program Guide, this communication takes place on-air, in the program guide pages and on the station’s website, www.wfwa.org. As part of that effort, visitors to PBS39's website have the opportunity to sign up for the electronic guide as well as several affinity/genre lists, so that they can receive e-notices on particular programs or topics that interest them, as well as updates on station news and events.
Creative Services Director Mark Ryan was charged with redesigning the Program Guide for electronic delivery and managing its email distribution. He also manages the listserves for the affinity lists. He noted that prior to January 2006, WFWA was printing 6,000 guides and mailing 5,800 of them. Currently, WFWA mails up to 550 printed program guides on a per-request basis to members of the station. Delivering the program guide electronically and on-demand is anticipated to save WFWA between $30,000 and $35,000 annually.
Said Mr. Ryan, “We’ve worked hard to be true to our mission, reassuring people that their online information will only be used to communicate with them and won’t be traded with any third parties. We’ve had to overcome the whole deliverability issue with SPAM filters, which is an ongoing problem.
But in the long run, the effort has yielded insights into the audience that could be as valuable as those cost savings. Said Mr. Ryan, “Everytime someone has a problem or a complaint about the email effort, we respond by email personally. In the course of that online dialogue, we learn a lot more about the people who are watching our station. It’s opened up a line of communication we’ve never had before.”
Covenant House Increases Average Donor Dollars
Covenant House, a charitable organization offering help to abused or abandoned young people through 21 locations in North and Central America, has discovered that the Internet offers real fundraising power. Since starting its online fundraising and email communications 2-1/2 years ago, the organization has built a mailing list of 30,000, increased overall giving dramatically, and the average $35 donation size to $100 from online donors.
The online communication program involves up to 15 blasts per year, and is supplemented by an annual direct-mail program of 22 pieces. Twelve of the online emails are monthly e-newsletters and three are straight fundraising requests. New potential donors are sought online through investment in keyword marketing and in email appends to the organization’s house list.
Joan H. Smyth Dengler, Covenant House VP of Direct Response, advises organizations to consider online fundraising outreach a “net new effort.” She suggests caution in ramping up frequency while learning what recipients want and will respond to. She also advises getting professional help and trying multiple things.
“We took our content straight out of our direct mail campaign,” she explained. “We set our goals as broadly as possible, but have been pleased to surpass them. Our donations have been growing 40 percent per year online. Our fiscal ’06 goal was $290,000. We will actually raise $700,000 through 15 appeals to about 30,000 email recipients.”
For more information about email and online marketing, contact CBA at 914-761-2800, or send us email.
