Breaking Bad Habits: Transitioning to Intentional and Thoughtful Member Communications

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Breaking Bad Habits: Transitioning to Intentional and Thoughtful Member Communications McKinley Advisors Breakfast Series Karli Kasonik, MBA, Senior Consultant November 8, 2012

Transcript of Breaking Bad Habits: Transitioning to Intentional and Thoughtful Member Communications

Page 1: Breaking Bad Habits: Transitioning to Intentional and Thoughtful Member Communications

Breaking Bad Habits: Transitioning to Intentional and Thoughtful

Member Communications

McKinley Advisors Breakfast SeriesKarli Kasonik, MBA, Senior Consultant

November 8, 2012

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Overview• The current landscape-Association case studies- Implications• Challenging the status quo

- The member experience- Segmentation- Process and discipline

Welcome

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Association AAn internal issue…

Case Study

27 Discrete member e-newsletters

35 Average number of emails sent per week*

9,000 Average size of email distribution list

16,290,745 Emails sent to individual contacts in 2011

*does not include emails relating to chapters, membership, transactions, customer service and others

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Association BAn external issue…

Case Study

136 Emails sent in the past three months

11 Average number of emails sent per week

12% Average open rate

7% Average bounce rate

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These issues are not unique.

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Why Pricing Hurts Sent

100% of total

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Why Pricing Hurts Opens

34% of total

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Why Pricing Hurts Clicks

7% of total

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Why Pricing Hurts Conversions

1% of total

Is it worth it?

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Email is free!!!LaborCopywritingEditingProofingDesignList

ManagementDistribution

SystemsEmail

distributionDatabase

Cost-Benefit Analysis – The ROI of EmailCosts Benefits

?? Brand Perception ??

SalesEvent

RegistrationProducts and

Services

Advertising

Awareness

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The Brand Touchpoint Wheel

Source: Building the Brand-Driven Business; Scott M Davis, and Michael Dunn

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What about the 99%?

Occupy the inbox!

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Building new habits

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1. Think like a member.

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The member’s perspective

-Shift the internal discussion from “what do staff want to say?” to “what do members want to hear?”- Review opt-in procedures; allow members to self-select their content.-Are they sitting at a desk? Out in the field? Tailor your communications to best suit their needs.

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2. Segment, segment, segment!

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<50 50-100 100-250 250-500 500-1000 1k-5k 5k-50k 50k-100k 100k-250k >250k0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60% 58%

36%

31%

28%24%

21%17%

15% 16%12%

19%

29%

25%23%

18%16%

14% 14%13% 14%

Open Rate

Click Rate

Number of recipients

Importance of Segmentation

Source: The Informz 2012 Association Email Marketing Benchmark Report

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3. Be disciplined

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Discipline

- What is your email philosophy? What are your goals? How do you know if you are meeting them?-Track everything that goes out and to whom, and then track the results- Set policies and limits- Assign a gatekeeper

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-Testing: segment a large email list into groups, try different subject lines, calls to action, etc

-Tracking: keeping tabs on all outgoing emails will quickly show what is working and what is not working.

First Steps

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Email Performance Dashboard: 1) Performance Metrics

- Open rate, click rate, bounce rate, unsubscribe rate2) Content Audit

- Percentage of emails made up of news and stories, versus association promotions and advertisements

3) Survey response data- Readership survey asking members their perceived value of association emails

Tracking System and Tools

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Tracking System and ToolsE-Newsletters Performance Score

(range 25-100)Content Score(range 25-100)

Survey Score(range 60-200)

Email 1 85 91 175.60Email 2 65 76 141.40Email 3 45 76 121.35Email 4 70 93 163.25Email 5 85 93 177.60Email 6 70 70 140.00Email 7 80 84 164.00Email 8 80 80 160.20Email 9 60 96 155.57Email 10 70 72 142.00Email 11 65 83 148.40Email 12 75 80 154.53Email 13 85 82 166.60Email 14 65 67 132.14Email 15 80 65 145.28Email 16 - - -Email 17 65 79 144.40Email 18 65 60 125.00

Average 71 79 150.43

Legend:

Top 20th Percentile in

categoryBottom 20th Percentile in

category

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Summary

The present: • Low barriers + instant gratification = abuse of email• Ratio of negative impacts to positive is high

The future:• Shift in organizational philosophy• Honoring member and customer preferences• Diligent in testing, tracking, and improving

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Discussion

Your experiences

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Thank you.

Karli Kasonik, MBA(202) 333-6250 x300

[email protected]