No one email strategy will work for every association. Therefore, it’s important to understand which types of communications and cadence work best for yours.
Whether you are just getting started or need a few pointers, these four tips will help you to hone your email campaign planning:
1) Segment and Personalize
Segmenting and personalizing go hand-in-hand, allowing you to go beyond the usual “Hi {FirstName}.”
Companies who excel at personalizing emails are successful because they have defined – with the help of good data – member segmentation to create profiles allowing them to deliver relevant communications that recipients want to read. On a side note: with a good AMS system in place, segmentation and personalization should be part of the platform.
Segmentation isn’t an option you say? Well, these types of emails can still make it personal.
- “Happy Birthday, Jane” – Everyone likes to feel special on their birthday
- Member Feedback – Asking members for their input can be the best way to foster engagement and understand what kind of communications they prefer. On average, feedback emails receive a 19% read rate.
- Loyalty – These emails are a great way to acknowledge milestones, like membership anniversaries.
Get even more tips for improving your association’s
email open rates. It’s worth the read…we promise.
2) Mobile-friendly Design
Certainly, it’s important to know your members’ preferences on how they consume information. More than likely, they will thank you (silently) every time they open up the email app on their mobile device and are able to easily read your communication without having to struggle or enlarge it. Mobile Email optimization continues to be a top investment for companies this year. Don’t miss the mark.
3) Conversational Tone
This type of tone may not be useful in every communication you send, but for emails, using a conversational tone has proven to give emails a more personal feel, providing a genuine interaction between members and the association.
4) Effective Subject Lines
Don’t underestimate the power of writing an enticing subject line; it can make or break the open rate for your email campaign. High-performing subject lines tend to be descriptive, or personal providing members a good reason to open your email.
The new member welcome email is the most important email you’ll send.
Learn how to write it in our guide, The Power of the Welcome Email.
Whatever your approach with email campaigns, it’s important to know your audience, and test keywords and phrases to see what they prefer. Hint: For even better results, try pairing your “It’s time to renew” emails with a direct mail piece repeating the message. With paper, there is some type of action required by the recipient. They must scan the piece to decide if they want to keep it or throw it away. Direct mail is one way to overcome the oversaturated email inbox if you don’t see the results you want digitally.
SEE ALSO: October Social Media Themes for Associations