Email MarketingConstant Contact

Case StudyMilton Historical Society

Email Marketing

Form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience

Permission-based Email

E-mail sent to recipients who have opted-in or subscribed to receive e-mail communications from a particular company, website or individual.

Permission is an absolute prerequisite for legitimate and profitable e-mail marketing.

Decision for MHS to adopt email marketing

ProsCheaper than printing/postageGreenerImmediacyFlexibility—create from home

ConsNot everyone uses email

Constant Contact

• MHS using since January 2009• Average of 2 program emails/month plus reminders• Easy import of contacts from Outlook & Past Perfect• *Follow professional practices (ie anti-spamming

issues)• List management requires less work than DIY programs• Ease of use—templates and professional look and feel• Measurable results—reports show new subscribers, click

throughs, spam reports, bounces, bad email addresses, open rate

• Sign up box on your website and Facebook page

• Auto responder messages (Welcome! Thank you for joining the Milton Historical Society mailing list….)

• Unsubscribe or opt-out ability

• Templates offer coupons, ability to link to other websites

• Donation and membership options

Constant Contact

SPAM!

Email not getting through?

Among the biggest concerns for permission email marketers today are email bounces, spam filters and blacklists - all of which affect email deliverability.

ISPs have been forced to employ various email blocking and filtering techniques. As a result, a spam filter could bounce your legitimate, permission-based email back to you, or your mail server might be flagged as a potential spam source. In either case, your messages won't make it through to the intended recipient.

Avoiding SPAM-land

• Taboo keywords (such as sale, free, guarantee, credit card, no charge, etc.)

• Excessive punctuation • Subject line is written in all-capital letters• Design no-nos (red text, white versus colored

backgrounds, low ratio of text to images)• In your initial newsletter communication or

welcome email, ask your customers to add your address to their contact list –the ”white list”

From and Subject Line: Make it recognizable

The number-one reason permission-based email gets reported as spam is because recipients don't immediately recognize the message as something they asked for. Use a name subscribers will instantly recognize in the From field -- either your business name or your own name. Make sure your subject line identifies you as well. If you send a weekly newsletter, use a consistent name for that newsletter in the first part of your subject line.

Frequency: Don't overcommunicate.

If you're sending out email campaigns more than once a week, you need to have a very good reason for it

Set the expectation for how often you'll be emailing subscribers when they sign up for your mailing list. Something such as "Get our monthly newsletter along with program updates" would do it effectively.

Don't email subscribers every day. Annoyed recipients may simply unsubscribe. Angry ones are more apt to hit the "spam" button.

Relevancy: Send subscribers what they signed up for

What did you promise subscribers when they signed up for your permission-based email list? They're expecting content that's valuable and relevant to what they want and need. If people think they're signing up for one thing, and you send them something else -- they might get frustrated and report your email as spam.

You can even remind them of where/how they signed up by using a permission reminder at the top of each message.

Quality over Quantity!

• Focus on building reputation not your list size

• Have good permission based practices– Don’t purchase/rent lists– The CAN-SPAM law says its OK to add

someone to your list if they purchased something, BUT

• People Prefer to Be Asked – Sign up box on website/facebook page– Sign up at your museum, guest book

Pricing

Other alternatives

• YourMailingListProvider (free for up to 1,000 addresses)• iContact• Contactology• YESMAiL Direct• Newsberry• ReachMail• ennectMail• MailerMailer• Emma (customize• PatronMAIL• Do it yourself! Outlook/ Publisher templates

(All have free trial periods)