Successful Email Marketing  

Successful Email Marketing  

Email marketing remains one of the most popular, practical, and cost effective ways in which to communicate with current and potential members. In fact, though it may not get as much buzz as marketing through social media, use of email marketing is on the rise. According to the 2016 Association Email Marketing Benchmark Report, associations across the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom sent over 1 billion marketing emails in 2015. Another report, the 2016 Email Marketing Insights Study, finds that roughly 75% of organizations plan to increase time spent on email production and 25% plan to send multiple emails a day.

Given the staggering number of emails being sent and received, how can you ensure your organization is using them to full advantage? Below are some tips on how to improve your overall email marketing strategy (and those pesky click-rates, open rates, and unsubscribe rates).

  • Be holistic. What is your overall communications plan and how does email marketing factor into the bigger picture? Consider using marketing automation, or software platforms and technologies, to assist you in finding a holistic approach to communicating with your audience through multiple channels – social media, emails, websites, etc. Email marketing should not be treated as separate from everything else.
  • Choose quality over quantity. Customization and segmentation is of utmost importance if you want to engage your members through email marketing. Instead of sending frequent general emails to your entire list, send only relevant emails to a select group. Your audience will open, read, and share the things they care about. Analytics firm Litmus cites that smaller audiences are far more apt to forward emails to friends. It’s worth noting here, too, that one of the main reasons people unsubscribe from lists is that they feel they’re receiving too many emails.
  • Know that your audience is going mobile. In 2015, only 32% of emails were opened on a desktop computer; the rest were opened on a mobile device or tablet. Design your emails so that they look attractive and are accessible on these platforms and be aware of two things: first, mobile readers engage with emails longer than desktop readers by nearly a full 10 seconds on average and second, more than 25% of readers will abandon a website or email it if isn’t optimized for their mobile device.
  • Other things to know:
    • 88% of readers prefer HTML format over plain text
    • 65% prefer mostly images in their emails
    • The highest click rates occur when emails are sent at midday
    • The highest open rates occur when emails are sent at night
    • People open emails but don’t tend to click through them on weekends
    • More people unsubscribe on a Tuesday than any other day of the week

How important is email marketing to your association? What techniques work best for you?