Email Marketing: Nonprofits are Working to Catch Up
We heard back from many of you through your participation in our recent Email Usage Survey. Interestingly, most of the respondents were just starting email fundraising or had done so within the last six months to a year. Those that have been at it for two or more years had many valuable lessons to share. Check out the Email Case Studies.
The CBA Email and Electronic Marketing Survey was distributed in the Winter issue of Test Patterns and is still accessible here. Results gathered and analyzed between February and May 2006 revealed that:
Experience
For the most part, nonprofits are fairly new to email marketing. Less than a third have been doing it for more than two years. 30% haven’t yet begun, but are planning to become involved shortly. Another 40% have been using it only in the past year.
Goals
Newer email marketers are primarily seeking to build relationships and strengthen brand awareness. They tend to start with e-newsletters or email blasts containing program information or special announcements.
Organizations that have been sending email for some time tend to use it for numerous purposes, including acquisition, renewals, lapsed reinstatement, special appeals, and relationship-building through e-newsletters.
CBA’s Advice: If you’re not including email as a vital part of your marketing efforts, it’s time to start. Our dependence on electronic communications will continue to grow. All media is important to a campaign and direct marketers should be practicing integrated marketing. It's prudent to learn how all sources work in tandem. Don’t get left behind.
Formatting
Many organizations send HTML email messages that can resemble web pages, and include navigation, colorful images, and stylized text. Other organizations are still sending standard text messages. For those who do send HTML versions, the norm is to also include a text-only version of the content to ensure readability by those who prefer text or are not able to view HTML.
CBA’s Advice: While the tendency is to start small, mission-critical uses of email communication should become a priority. If an organization sends direct mail to its prospects and members, email should become part of an integrated approach to fundraising. Simultaneous direct mail, email, and Website traffic support each other.
Collecting Email Addresses
Although three out of every four respondents said they have been collecting email addresses for six months or more, only one reported capturing email addresses for a majority of the house file. More typically, 50% of respondents reported having email addresses for only 10 to 20% of their house files.
Many organizations are trying multiple methods to collect email addresses, including events, telemarketing, fundraising and promotional mailings, as well as their websites. Special offers and incentives prompt people to share their email addresses and they like the idea of getting something in return.
CBA’s Advice: Building good email lists takes time, planning and patience. A sign-up form on your home page simply isn’t enough. Organizations that depend on their website to do the work should unerstand that they must constantly drive traffic to the site by promoting it in any way possible. Consider all the ways you communicate with your constituents and make sure you ask for email addresses in each one of them.
Permission
Only a small percentage of respondents use confirmed opt-in or double opt-in techniques for getting permission to send email. Most use passive opt-out or simple one-step opt-in to get permission.
CBA’s Advice: Always provide a link or directions for removing oneself from email distribution lists. This is so important that internet-based emailing software providers automatically add a line of text with a link to “unsubscribe.”
Deliverability
A sometimes overlooked, often confusing, but nevertheless major consideration in email marketing is deliverability. Only 10% of respondents follow the Direct Marketing Association’s Guidelines for Responsible Email.
CBA’s Advice: Spam filters vigilantly monitor email. Pay attention to the subject lines as well as the content. Certain words will cause spam filters to move messages into the “junk” folder or, in some cases, not deliver at all. File attachments also affect your message’s deliverability.
Personalization
Many nonprofits use basic personalization techniques in their emails to improve click-through and conversion rates. But most that responded to our survey lacked the software, staff, or sometimes the strategy to do so. Over half do personalize with the recipient’s name. But none are trying any dynamic personalization, such as content based on a recipient’s interests or past giving.
CBA’s Advice: Service providers such as Convio®, GetActive™, and Kintera® offer products that design, personalize, and send messages, in addition to tracking response generated from the messages and subsequent Web traffic. CBA is working successfully with clients to develop and implement strategies facilitated by such software solutions.
Success
Despite all the potential pitfalls of email marketing, many respondents report having some successes in their efforts so far. Read what some survey respondents had to share with CBA.
CBA’s Advice: What is success? It’s when email, direct mail, and other fundraising techniques work together to increase response, membership, overall revenue, average gift, retention levels, and brand recognition across your entire fundraising program.
For more information about email and online marketing, contact CBA at 914-761-2800, or send us email.
