The Importance of Brand in your Email Marketing: 2013 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report shows email to be a primary promotion tool to increase awareness and drive member acquisition/renewals/reinstatements. So, Above or Below the Fold? Where do you place your logo?

The 2013 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report clearly shows the use of emails as a TOP 3 channel to promote association awareness, promote membership, fuel member engagement, and drive member renewal and reinstatement (see the data presented below).


Experience and research shows that the offer should be presented "above the fold" so it is one of, or THE FIRST, thing the recipient reads (do any of you remember "The Johnson Box" from direct mail?). However, given how small an amount of "real estate" it is, if push comes to shove, should you also place your logo or provide a brand element in the space as well?

The unwritten rule that I have always followed regarding this question is to include both branding/logo and a CTA/the offer above the fold/in the preview pane.

It is valuable real estate and you are quite limited with your space but it is important to incorporate both elements in this area.

Brand provides the reader with justification to read the email answering the simple, but very important, internal question the recipient asks themselves, "Should I really even bother with this email?"

Hopefully, your brand strategy successfully associates your association with the services and quality that the recipient wants - needs - and they say to themselves "YES, I've gotta read this now!" as the one time recipient and now engaged reader proceeds to devour the content of your email.

One of our e-Production leaders was asked recently by a colleague if emails are like mailed postal pieces – in that it is OK to create a different appearance for each campaign and allow for there to be some initial mystery as to who sent the email…that by doing this with emails could somehow increase engagement.

She indicated that in her experience, this is not the case with emails though – "recipients should be very aware of who the email sender is when the email is initially viewed. There are so many factors that contribute to an email’s success – a major factor is trust the email recipient has that the email they received is valid – from a source opted in to and recognize. The branding/logo included in this section reinforces the from line of the email and contributes to allowing for this trust."

I concur. In today's content-enriched market, individual's are looking for ways to perform "Attention Triage" so, similar to when you are first introduced to someone, you 10-seconds to prove that you are worthy of their attention and ENGAGEMENT.

If you have any questions concerning your brand or your e-marketing strategy, please feel free call me.

I look forward to your comments and observations.

MOST EFFECTIVE RECRUITMENT CHANNELS
                                     2013 (n=685)   2012 (n=685)
Word-of-Mouth                      58%               54%
Association Website             33%               34%
Email                                   31%               37%
METHODS FOR CREATING AND MAINTAINING ASSOC. AWARENESS                                     2013 (n=691) 2012 (n=683)

Association Website            33%               34%
Email                                  31%               37%
Word-of-Mouth                      58%               54%

*2013 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report

Email is loosing its effectiveness. So what's going on?

In the past 10 years, the use of email as a marketing tool has grown. But that continued growth is doubtful.

Tony Rossell, a dear friend, mentor and associate here at MGI, recently posted on his blog (http://membershipmarketing.blogspot.com/) some interesting information on email which prompted me to dig a little deeper.

In the April/May, 2011 issue of Chiefmarketer.com, editors stated that: "People were impressed with the idea that email was practically free and that they could communicate with people just by pressing a button. But the reality is that the open rates are steadly decreasing - we're ssing open rates consistently under 10%, and three or four years ago they were in the high 20%'s" (p.22).

The  2010 U.S. Digital Year in Review showed stated that "...email is waning: Total usage of web-based email dropped 9% in 2010 with more precipitous declines occurring among younger age groups, particularly teenagers. It’s clear that communication is shifting not only to other platforms, but to other devices."

Preliminary analysis of the results from the 2011 MGI Membership Marketing Benchmarking Survey indicate that respondents reported only a small increase in using email to build awareness among prospects and little change in using email to engage or onboard new members and support renewal efforts from the previous year.

So, what is happening and where is the budget money being reallocated?

If you have kids, maybe you already know the answer...other online marketing channels. My 17 year-old son does not check his email anymore, nor does he really talk on the phone, nor does he really go to the movies. Its all about FaceBook, YouTube and Skype. These "other online channels" are now the preferred choice over email.

The 2010 U.S. Digital Year in Review Report reports that "In Q4, Facebook widened the lead it took earlier in the year vs. Google and the three major portals, and now accounts for just north of 12% of time online—and it seems to be climbing. Three out of every 10 internet sessions includes a Facebook visit, and Facebook accounts now accounts for 10% of all pageviews in the US. “Facebook” was also the top organic search phrase in 2010 with nearly 2 billion searches on that term–3 times greater than the next most searched for term. In short, it’s a behemoth--and getting bigger."

Interesting point...YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world.
 
The report continues by stating that "Video adoption continues to climb, and online TV is now mainstream: More people watched video, and those that did watched more of it. The video audience grew by 32%, and time spent grew by 12%. The average American watched 14 hours of video in December. Hulu continues to be a big story, attracting twice as much viewing as the Top 5 broadcast sites (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and CW) combined. The proliferation of both publishers and platforms is contributing to changing behavior—creating not only more video users, but more and more ‘cord cutters’ (people who consume TV content solely online.) Based on activity in the back half of the year the rate of change is likely to continue or increase, making video an increasingly important part of the digital experience."

I reported earlier in this blog that:

• 1 out of 8 couples married in the US last year met via Social Media. 
• Years to Reach 50 Million Users: 
• Radio........38 
• TV............13 
• Internet.......4 
• iPod............3 
• FaceBook...9 MONTHS 
• 1 in 6 higher education students are enrolled on-line studies. 
• 25% of search results for world’s top 20 brands are links to user generated content. 
• 80% of companies are using LinkedIn as primary tool to find employees.

So there you have it. The money is moving to other on-line channels.

But is any of this really surprising? I don't think so.

As direct marketers we long ago realized the potential impact of those tools that EMPOWER our prospects.

100 years ago, people who lived in very secluded areas had little choice of stores to buy from. Montgomery Wards and Sears answered this call with their catalogs, EMPOWERING these people by giving them a greater choice in products and services.

10 years ago these catalogs were put on line and no longer did the prospect have to wait 30, 90, 180 or 360 days to get a catalog. They could go on-line to buy their products.

Today, prospects can go on-line to buy their products based upon the recommendations of their FaceBook "friends" and the recommendations of other people who have used the product. AND, if they don't know how to use the product, they can go on-line and find out. EMPOWERMENT!!

More associations are embracing Social Media to not only sell, but to educate and nurture. How are you using it? Do you have a Social Media plan? Let me know.

Saying "Nothing" may be more important than saying anything

We all have stories about the the contradictions we see in marketing and sales. We'll say "no one will ever respond to this" or "this will really bring in the responses," and then you get more responses than you can handle or no one responds and all you hear are crickets.

Well, here is one of those stories.

I deployed an email for a client of mine yesterday to approximately 1100 prospects. Only when the email arrived, there was NO TEXT. No message, no nothing. A really big silence, if you will.
My client immediately called me and I immediately started digging into what happened.

Well, my client called me this morning and told me that I "may be onto something new." You see, in the past 24 hours, he's received over 20 phone calls from people who wanted to let him know that they received his email without any text.

That's a 2% response rate.

My client, being the resourcful fellow that he is, actually sold a $600 membership to one of the 20. That covers his cost of the campaign.

Why did this happen?

I think it primarily has to do with his association's brand to the people on the list - in other words, this is a good list. They are familiar with, and believe in the quality of, the association. So much so that THEY will follow up, taking time from their lives to qualify a communication.

Did I say this is a good list!

So, when you are struggling with your messaging, while you most likely shouldn't do it, why not think about doing the same thing - send out an email saying "nothing" and see what happens?

Email Marketing Metrics

I am often asked if there are benchmarks for open, click and bounce rates, which we can use to evaluate the effectiveness of email as a channel to deliver our promotions and messages. I recently found a study published by Silverpop (www.silverpop.com) which presents a "...classic list of email marketing benchmarks..."

While I have not yet found anything relating directly to association marketing or membership marketing, I think that you'll find the following interesting and useful as a reference.

In a recent study published by Silverpop (International Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study, Silverpop, 2009), the acclaimed e-mail marketing company pulled a random sample of 7,000 email messages generated in July of 2009, which equated to approximately 50,000,000 emails delivered to 188 countries.

Here is a summary of those benchmarks.

1. Open Rate (Unique Opens)
	Average	Median
Overall	22.20%	19.40%
US	21.30%	18.30%
UK	22.50%	19.80%
Germany	24.90%	23.00%
2. Open Rate (Gross)
	Average	Median
Overall	42.10%	29.70%
US	41.20%	27.30%
UK	38.30%	29.70%
Germany	44.30%	35.70%
3. Click Through Rate (Unique)
	Average	Median
Overall	4.50%	2.40%
US	4.50%	2.30%
UK	4.80%	2.70%
Germany	5.00%	2.80%
4. Click-To-Open Rate
	Average	Median
Overall	18.50%	15.00%
US	19.10%	15.10%
UK	19.20%	16.20%
Germany	17.80%	13.80%
5. Bounce Rates
	Average	Median
Overall	5.50%	2.40%
US	4.10%	1.80%
UK	3.60%	1.30%
Germany	4.40%	1.70%

In regard to methodology, the authors write:

"This study examined messages generated in July 2009 by Silverpop's Engage client base. Researchers pulled a random sample set of 7,000 email messages, delivered to a minimum of 50 recipients in the United State, United Kingdom and Germany. Approximately 50 million emails were delivered across the messages to 188 countries."

"A broad set of email message types was included in the study, from promotional to content-based newsletters sent by companies in a variety of industries. Email campaigns and newsletters comprised the message content examined for the study."

"...researchers analyzed various metrics for bothe the Overall category (all 188 recipient countries, including the US, UK and Germany) and country by country for the US, UK and Germany. We did not perform individual country analysis for any of the 185 remaining countries."

As always, the best benchmark to measure YOUR current programs against are YOUR previous programs. However, we're often asked if there are industry standards that we can at least include in our evaluation of a campaign. In light of that reference, I hope that you find the above useful.

This was only a brief summary of the results. If you are curious, I recommend that you go to www.silverpop.com to learn more.

The "Right Mix" of Direct Mail and E-Mail and Frequency Produces Incredible Results

In the October, 2009 'Tipster," my good friend Tony Rossell, Sr VP of MGI, wrote about the incredible results we're seeing when we combine both direct mail and email together. In Tony's words, here is a quick review of the program and the results.

Working with one client organization that offers institutional membership, we put these principles to the test. We found that when we appropriately integrated these components, response rates and program economics really popped.

In the first test, we developed a split test and measured results using channel integration, connecting with prospective members through multiple media. We split our audience into two segments. One received only a direct-mail solicitation. The second received the same direct-mail package, and then a follow-up email with a link to an online microsite that provided more details about the benefits of membership. The combined mail and email group produced an 87% lift in overall response.

In a subsequent campaign, we based our control on the “winning” mail and email effort. Then, as a test, we added two additional emails to the mix with links to microsites containing exclusive and useful content.The first content microsite featured specfic answers to frequently asked questions prospective members might have on how to access funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.The second content microsite offered a webinar sharing a detailed explanation of how the Act could help prospective members.In addition to providing content, each element of the campaign focused on moving a prospect to a decision to join.The test group that included the additional online content was the decisive winner. Allowing for a statistical margin of error, the test group outperformed the control group by over 300%.

What did we learn? First, just as in an exercise program, intensity is an important component in a marketing strategy. More touches delivering valuable content over a short period of time gets prospects' attention and helps convert them to members. In addition, it is key to have all of the communications push toward a membership sale and not simply provide good information. The proper integration of frequency with content, channels, and intensity clearly produced the greatest ROI.

Please feel free to contact me if you'd like a little more detail.

All E-mail Addresses R Not The Same! A New Variable When Selecting Your Promotion Lists?

There is no doubt that a multi-media approach to membership acquisition is the preferred methodolgy. Here at MGI we've found that the use of e-mail in conjunction with direct mail, increases overall response rate by as much as 50%.

That's why its interesting to note a recent post by Don Dea, Co-Founder of Fusion Productions and the Chairperson for the ASAE Membership Section, on DigitalNow Community.

In short, he cites a recent study by MailChimp (aren't these names great?!) that points out that the users of specific email services have greater open and click-thru rates than teh users of other email services. He writes that..."A study of success metrics for marketing e-mails sent throughMailChimp’s distribution service showed that Gmail users were most likely to open and click on e-mails."

He continues "Open rates varied from a low of just over 20% for e-mail sent to AOL users to a high over nearly 31% among Gmail users. The click rate on e-mails sent to Gmail accounts was more than 7.4%, compared with rates between 4% and 5% for Yahoo!, AOL and Hotmail users. "

The implication is obvious...all email addresses are not the same! While some of you may be saying that this is nothing more than a "blinding flash of the obvious," have any of us actually started looking for different response metrics by email account in our email campaigns or are using different response metrics by email account in your forecasts? And, if we are using email in conjunction with direct mail, are we selecting lists by this new variable? I believe the answer is obvious as well...most likely not.

While this is simply one more thing on our plate, I believe that it will turn out to be somewhat important. Not so much as the actual number of members generated, but in helping us to better understand our markets and refine our overall on-line tactics to maximize awareness and support our association's membership acquisition and marketing strategy and ultimately its mission.