Email in a Social Media/ Mobile Device World

Sophia Latto Principal, UX & Design Sophia helps nonprofits develop internet strategy around building constituent relationships, delivering compelling messages, and online fundraising. Prior to joining Blackbaud, Sophia worked as a Creative Director at a design and marketing agency in New York City that specialized in online marketing and communications for the non-profit, utility, beverage, and financial sectors. @sophialatto

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Quick Quiz How many times have you… Checked your email today? Checked your email in the last half hour? Checked your email since you entered the room? (Are you looking at it right now?)

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On any given day, the average customer will be exposed to 2,904 media messages, will pay attention to 52 and will positively remember only four. Source: Marketo, Definitive Guide to Email Marketing

Email Habits and Trends •  72% of respondents read email when they are bored. 67.1% check it at

their desk, and 57% when they are at lunch.*

•  38% of respondents have two personal email accounts, whereas 21% have three accounts. 57% have one business email account.*

•  Nearly 49% have email accounts for messages they rarely intend to open. That most likely includes marketing messages from senders they don’t trust or care much about.^

•  Email volume rose by 15.6% in Q1 2014 compared to Q1 2013.+

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*Acxiom "Email Marketing and Mobile Devices: A Survey of Consumer Habits and Perceptions" (2013) ^Ascend2 "Marketing Strategy Report" (2013) +Experian "Q1 2014 Quarterly Benchmark Study”

Why send email?

Gen Y Gen X Boomer Mature

E-mail is an acceptable and important way to engage with supporters. This channel is less effective for donation appeals and transactions.

70%

34%

30%

12%

65%

29%

33%

12%

53%

26%

31%

16%

39%

26%

35%

17%

E-mail from a charity you know is very or

somewhat acceptable  

Receiving e-mails is important to stay in

touch with charity  

Receive e-mails from charity(ies)  

Gave a donation in response to an e-mail

appeal in the last 2 years  

Eng

agem

ent

Tran

sact

ion

Source: Next Generation of American Giving

2013 Key Benchmarks •  Email list size for grew by 14%. Small organizations saw the

highest rate of list growth at 26%.

•  Average open rates were 13%. This is a decline of 4% overall from 2012.

•  Click-through rates for email fundraising messages were down 13% from 2012.

•  Response rates were driven down by lower open and click-through rates, averaging 0.07% for fundraising messages.

•  Nonprofits received $17 for every 1,000 email messages delivered. Overall, email accounted for about one-third of nonprofits’ online fundraising revenue.

Source: 2014 M+R Nonprofit Benchmarks Study

Segmentation & Targeting

Source: Marketo Email Benchmark Study

Driving Engagement

Key Attributes of Engaging Email

•  Set expectations •  Keep your house-file clean •  Be consistent

Trustworthy

•  Segment your messages •  Personalize messages •  Offer good content

Relevant

•  Test •  Utilize analytics tools •  Make sure your email is readable

Strategic

Build Your House File

Source: Marketing Sherpa Email Marketing Benchmark Survey

Prioritize Email Sign-up

Prioritize Email Sign-up

Best number of fields?

Source: Dan Zarzella analysis of 40,000 landing pages

Sign-up Form Best Practices

2. Set Expectations + Communicate Value

3. Overcome Objections

1. Connect to Mission

4. Short form

Possible Additions: Link to Samples

Sign-up Form with Interests

Confirmation Email Best Practices

2. Set Expectations

1. Connect to Mission

3. Added Value 4. Engage

Further

Paring Housefile Helps Deliverability

Take the non-openers out of your email sends to improve the chances of your message reaching the inbox.

http://philanthropy.com/article/Paring-Email-Lists-Ensures/145181/

“We needed to get rid of people who were not engaging with us at all… We didn’t see really big improvement in deliveries until we culled down

to just the active people.”

- Colleen Hutchings, director of online fundraising and engagement at the Environmental Working Group

Case Study: From Spam Folder to Inbox: How Unicef Solved Its Big Email Problem •  100% of Gmail and 90% of Yahoo

addresses were landing in spam folders which identified Unicef as a possible spammer.

•  Unicef removed 850k inactive addresses from their email list and now 95% of their emails are being delivered to supporters’ inboxes.

Be Relevant What does your constituent want from you? What are they interested in?

Segmented Content E-mails and appeals need to be customized in any way possible. Donors should be recognized and thanked for past giving and have their support acknowledged. It is the most basic way of segmenting appeals.

Geo-Based Communication Find ways to make an e-mail more relevant and meaningful to the recipient; the more personal the communication, the stronger the response.

Behavioral Based Communication •  Personalization should go beyond

first name and geographic location.

•  It should reference and acknowledge the relationship between the organization and constituent.

•  Most important, it should reference past behavior and actions taken on behalf of or as part of the organization’s community.

Behavioral Based Communication •  References past activity and

engagement with organization

•  Educates constituent on advocacy program

•  Creates opportunity to engage on a variety of issues and topics

•  Received “passionate” response

•  Regardless of results / feedback, this is proof that making communications personal is more likely to capture attention.

Quick Survey Communication •  A quick way

measure interest. •  A way to create

further segmentation.

Single Theme Messaging •  Single message

e-mails draw special attention to campaigns and highlight/emphasize targeted asks

•  Make sure to include alt-text and text copy that explains ask (for those who block images)

•  Greater chance entire message will be seen and read by user

Single Call to Action •  Multiple links to a single call to action •  Brief messaging •  Mobile-friendly •  Emphasizes brevity of the action the

recipient is asked to take •  Both visual and textual prompts to

call to action

Video Helps Drive Conversion •  Including the word ‘video’ in an

email subject line can improve the open rate of that email between 7% and 13%,

•  Video in an email drives an average 21% higher conversion rate.

Source: Marketo

Lapsed Response Communication •  References past email/

advocacy action

•  Offers the recipient a way to control their email preferences

•  Good overall tactic for house-file maintenance

Robust Unsubscribe Page •  Associate emails with

campaigns so they can opt-out from that campaign instead of unsubscribing altogether.

•  Offer them a break and let them unsubscribe for 90 days

•  Promote social media as another channel through which to stay connected

Mobile Impact on Email

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Email Engagement Has Evolved People are using multiple devices to read their email at different times. In a day, a person can check their email in a number of ways: •  Their mobile device first thing in the morning •  Desktop or laptop computer at work •  A mobile device while

waiting in line at the store •  A tablet while sitting

on the couch relaxing after dinner

Mobile Trends in Email •  75% of consumers are 'highly likely' to delete an email that doesn't render

correctly on a mobile device.

•  85% of Millennials (ages 18-30) and those aged 30-39 open, email via mobile, 50% say a smartphone is their 'primary' email device

•  79% say they'll reopen emails on PC that they've already opened on mobile

•  49% say they'll click mobile links

Source: “Make or Break Mobile E-mail”, Constant Contact and Chadwick Martin Bailey, August 2013.

Mobile Trends in Email Mobile devices account for 50% of opens, and 40% of clicks. Yet, mobile devices account for only 13% of transactions.

Source: Quarterly Email Benchmark Study, Experian Marketing Services.

Mobile Trends in Email In addition to having the highest click-to-open rates, mobile-combo and other categories had higher revenues per opener than any of the single platform groups.

Source: Quarterly Email Benchmark Study, Experian Marketing Services.

Include Two Kinds Of Email in Your Toolbox

SCALABLE &

RESPONSIVE

Scalable vs. Responsive

Pros Cons True mobile-first design Doesn’t work perfectly

everywhere Requires two designs Coding is complex

Responsive

Pros Cons Works everywhere Not a “true” mobile design Single design Limited layout Easy to code Readable & clickable

Scalable (or Mobile Friendly)

What Makes an Email Scalable •  Single column design in narrow width •  Larger font sizes

(body copy: 18-20px; headlines: 22px+) •  Touch-friendly links and buttons •  Includes a clear call-to-action •  Uses short, direct copy •  Key information at top of email.

What Makes an Email Responsive The layout changes to accommodate the device in which it’s being viewed.

Media Query Devices The good news: your responsive email will look great on devices that support media queries.

The bad news: not all mobile devices support media queries.

Email Reader Market Share Your not going to be perfect in every reader, but you can be really good in a lot of readers. Focus on the top readers and do your best with the ones used less often.

Source: Litmus.

Testing Will Help You Get it Right There are third party tools available that help you test for all kinds of readers and devices and can also supplement your email reports. They work with your current email service provider tools. Emailonacid.com — a paid service available for all ESPs Litmus.com — a paid service available for all ESPs.

Email Testing Tools Email on Acid and Litmus allow you to check emails in all readers and in different mobile devices.

Add-on Email Analytics Tools These tools work with all ESPs and can give you a little more information about how your emails perform.

Engagement Reading Environment

Pre-Header Text Affects Open Rate The first 120 characters of your email appear as a preview. Make them count.

Provide A Consistent Message Through Conversion

Provide A Consistent Experience Through Conversion

Email Landing Page

Confirmation Page

Thank You Email

Elements of an Optimized Landing Page 1.  Limit, or better yet… eliminate

all links on the page. 2.  The headline should reference the

positioning & style of the email message.

3.  Use compelling images or videos 4.  Break up text with subheads & bullets 5.  Tell your audience what you want

them to do. 6.  Include testimonials from beneficiaries.

Photos make it personal. 7.  If you want the visitor to make a

donation, make sure they can start the process on the page.

8.  Donation button should be big and bright.

9.  Make it urgent & relevant to time & goal

Robust Confirmation Page

Projections for the Future

*Source: Litmus + Marketing Trend Watch: 2014 Planning Edition

•  Inbox organizers will change subscribers’ view of email: Organizers automatically organize & display content based on default rules and detection.*

•  Symbols in subject lines are here to stay: Hearts, stars, airplanes, and snowmen were one of the biggest trends in 2012 and continue to be popular.*

•  Visualization will reign supreme: Content that incorporates graphics, images, and videos will continue to add visual impact and share-worthiness to emails.*

•  Marketers will continue to invest in email: Email continues to be the most popular marketing channel.+

•  Video email will finally take off: HTML5 video will finally deliver on the video in email experience.*

Thank you!