October 9, 2005
5 Things I’ve Learned About Email Marketing for Associations
Posted by Kevin | Print This Article
This week, the 100th issue of our organization’s free e-newsletter will hit the streets. It’s very different from when it started because we didn’t know anything 100 issues ago! I probably still don’t, but having now generated hundreds of new members through email newsletters and sold tens of thousands of books, I think I’ve picked up a few things. (And yes, to the blog-faithful out there, I still am a huge proponent of email marketing, even over blogs.)
Here are five of the things I’ve learned:
1. Members and customers are not interested in hearing from an organization. They are interested in hearing from a person. And they should hear from the same person for each issue. They should recognize the person’s name so that they are more likely to open the email. And once they’ve opened it, they should recognize the person’s voice.
2. Clutter sells. Despite what a lot of people say about streamlining content in email newsletters, I’ve done it both ways, and newsletters with lots of stuff in the margins get higher click-thrus and, more importantly, higher conversions.
3. Send newsletters to non-members!
4. Email newsletters should be about content, not a mere litany of promotions for your seminars, books, and other navel-gazing/self-serving topics. If you represent widget manufacturers, then your primary articles should be about things that interest widget manufacturers. (Hint: your latest seminar series is not high on their list.) Then you can slip the promotional stuff in, although you still can’t overdo it.
5. Use your data. If certain subjects are not getting click-thrus, then stop writing about them. If certain subjects are getting click-thrus, then write about them lots more. Because if you keep writing about things that are of no interest to your readers, then they are going to stop opening your newsletter. If people quit reading the newsletter, you’ll quit selling membership and products!
Remember: As an association communicator or marketer, your job is not to tell your members what they want; your job is to give them what they want. The great thing about email and the web is that we now have this data. When people argue that their subjects are “very important” and should be featured frequently, show them the numbers. What interests your members is not determined by a vote at a staff retreat or a Board of Directors meeting.
Bonus Lesson #6. Only one department should be in charge of vetting and sending all email communications to members. Stand-alone email advertisements should be limited and, usually, eliminated. Integrate email communications into a single program to reduce email fatigue (and spam reports). And make sure you have an organization-wide system in place to ensure that people in all departments actually stop emailing people who don’t want to get emails from your organization anymore.
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