Posts tagged with "Campaigns"
Email Deliverability: (Part 2 of 2)
How You Can Fix It
In my last post, I took a quick spin through some email deliverability stats and explained how to judge how much deliverability should matter to you. Today I'd like to share some quick ideas about exposure to deliverability issues and what you can do to diagnose and treat the problems, if you have any. If you are using an email provider you're probably okay, but it's always good to know about deliverability to make sure that your vendor is on top of it.
State of SPAM Filtering by Email Providers
You may wonder why your email could be filtered or blocked in the first place. Well, back in the day most SPAM filtering was based on keywords in your email. That's no longer the case, and now ISPs are paying much more attention to the behavior (reputation) of you as a sender or more accurately the reputation of the IP address that your email is sent from. Ken Magill explains in Direct what he identifies as the three biggest factors leading to deliverability problems:Spam complaint rate: the percentage of people complaining that that a marketer's email is spamUnknown user rate: the percentage of the mail going to email addresses that no longer existHitting spam traps: ISPs often turn unused addresses into spam traps - hit these, and there is going to be troubleThe first and second issues are functions of your opt-in policy. If you are making sure that your users actually sign up for your emails, have a solid opt-in list, and are clear to prospective signups that you are going to email them on a regular basis, then you should be good to go. If you are just subscribing every email address you come across or don't clearly tell users that you are going to email them, then you are going to get a lot more complaints. If this sounds like you, it's time for a new opt-in policy.
The last issue - the unknown user rate - is even easier to control. First, check to make sure that your email software isn't repeatedly sending messages to addresses that bounce. If there is no way to prevent this, that means you'll need to clean your list after every send. This will be fairly time-consuming, but it is something you should do (or signup with a more robust email system). Really it comes down to a math problem - cost of lost revenue/action/education and manual cleanup vs. subscription fees and transition costs). Your answer may vary depending on your needs.
Email Deliverability: Why Do I Care? (Part 1 of 2)
In a World Where ISPs Hate Your Email Campaigns...
I was at an open house for Nonprofit Tech Geeks last week and had a great discussion with Charles from Wired for Change about email deliverability. Since we know and have worked with a lot of nonprofits that don't use a full-service email provider to handle their deliverability, I thought it would be helpful to write about why email delivery matters and what to keep an eye on to make sure your emails show up at their intended destination.
There have been a number of reports released in the last year about email deliverability, or the lack thereof. Mindshare Interactive's Ongoing Study - most recently released in September 2006 (contact info required for download) - found that up to 24% of email coming from nonprofits goes directly into a spam filter or is blocked by an email service. On the other hand, Dr. Bill Pease from Convio pointed out last year that the average number doesn't reflect users of systems like the dearly departed GetActive, where he only saw a 5% non-delivery rate.
Corporate reports tend to show a higher incidence of non-delivery, which is to be expected given the nature of commercial email. For more information on that I recommend reading Media Post's article on the topic, statistics from the Email Stat Center, IAB’s 2006 White Paper (PDF Format), and Lyris’ most recent Email Report card (PDF).
The Bottom Line
If you use email to raise money and spur advocacy (if you don't, drop me a line, we should talk), there is an easy way to estimate how much poor email deliverability hurts your efforts. Say you send a monthly email fundraising appeal to a list of 10,000 people that gets a 1% average conversion rate, and your average online gift is $50. In order to calculate your total revenue, just multiply it all together.12 sends * 10,000 members * .01 donation rate * $50 = $60,000 annual gross revenueSo, if your emails aren't getting to 24% of your subscribers (or conversely, you ARE reaching 76%) you just add that term to the math above.12 sends * 10,000 members * .76 deliverable rate * .01 donation rate * $50 = $45,600It is entirely possible that your deliverability issues will cost you $14,400 in a year. Add to that the lost advocacy/engagement of your non-fundraising emails and it probably makes sense to either pay a professional firm to handle your email sending or spend some quality time fixing the problem. In my next post, I'll describe how you can fix the issue yourself.
On the other hand, if you are only losing 5%, or less, you probably can get a much better return on your investment by implementing a testing regime and spending more time on your landing pages. Those kinds of programs can significantly improve your bottom line. Feel free to contact me about how to do that too.
Stay tuned for more on deliverability next week. In the meantime, feel free to add your horror/success stories in the comments – I would love to hear your experiences!
Almost every hand shot up in the crowded auditorium when Zack Exley, a chief organizer of Roots Camp, asked, "How many of you have been to an election recap meeting?" It was close to 11:00 am on Saturday morning, and 400 progressive political junkies had descended on Washington from all over the country for a different kind of election recap. This time we were just looking at what happened online and what we can learn from each other as we move into the national election.
Ian, Jeff, and I joined the crowed. We weren't sure if it was going to be the official kick off to 2008 campaign planning or if it would simply reveal that there is no break between elections. By the end of the day the energy in the room clearly showed that it was the latter and that everyone was fueled with the momentum of the huge Democratic win and looking for the tools to take it up a notch.
One of the biggest battles in this year’s midterm elections isn’t between Democrats and Republicans – it’s over women’s reproductive rights. Next week South Dakotans will vote on whether to keep the state’s blanket ban on abortions. There’s no question that this vote will play a major role in many other states’ policies on abortion. So you want to know the results, right? It just got easier for you to get them without being chained to your television or computer next Tuesday.
In a little more than a week In February Haiti is scheduled hopes to hold its first election since Aristide was ousted almost two years ago. So campaigning is in full swing. NPR reported that “the campaigning season has gotten under way, with posters, political rallies and candidate jingles flooding the streets and the airwaves. In a country where more than 50 percent of the people are illiterate, election jingles are one of the most powerful campaign tools.”
On one hand, it makes complete sense that in a country where an estimated 80 percent of the population lives in poverty and with such as high level of illiteracy, that these means would dominate campaigning. But at the same time I can’t believe how untechnical that is. I wonder, are any candidates using the internet or cell phones in their campaigns, and if not, why?
Iraqis have seen a lot more campaigning and advertising for tomorrow’s elections than for the previous one, and the candidates have gotten more sophisticated too. Not only are they using typical media sources like television and newspapers, but some candidates have been sending text messages to try to bring voters to their side. ABC News reports:
In a unique twist for a newspaper and as far as I know the first time one has tried this, a Colombian newspaper announced that they will host blogs for all candidates in the May 2006 presidential elections. El Tiempo said candidates can write whatever they want in their blog whenever and they won't edit them -- but they won't allow aggressive attacks on other candidates.
It will be interesting to see how, and if, the candidates use the blogs and how they effect the election.In a unique twist for a newspaper and as far as I know the first time one has tried this, a Colombian newspaper announced that they will host blogs for all candidates in the May 2006 presidential elections. El Tiempo said candidates can write whatever they want in their blog whenever and they won't edit them -- but they won't allow aggressive attacks on other candidates.
Green Media Toolshed has an open blog thread talking about environmental sites capitalizing on the movie The Day After Tomorrow. I posted the following to their blog today:
Here's a newer example of a public health campaign coupled with television advertising, and backed by a website. (SEE BOTTOM FOR ARTICLE FIRST) This article from the NY Times discusses how the Face the Issue ads are different from those of previous generations, and specifically seek to target the youth of today in America. The ads were purportedly developed without focus groups. The article, appropriately titled "The New Public Service Ad: Just Say 'Deal With It'," discusses how these newer ads shift from the scare tactics of 1980's Anti Drug ads and other PSAs, to instead, telling the individual they have the power to educate themselves, and lead their own way.