Revealed! The Secret Ingredient For Email Marketing
The secret ingredient?
Weekends!
Yep. According to Mediapost reporting on a study by Yesmail, emails seent on Saturdays generate 60% higher-than-average conversion rates.
Based on analysis of data from 7 billion emails sent from its platform in the 2nd Quarter, Yesmail also noted that Sunday posts the second-highest conversion rate with 40% higher-than-average sales.
The firm’s analysis suggests a ‘winning’ combination of email efforts is likely to involve sending the initial email on Thursday, with follow-ups over the weekend.
Of course, like all good consultants, Marie Honme of Yes Agency Service warns, “A single metric cannot and should not determine the perfect day for email deployment, but it can guide marketers in the right direction.”
According to other marketing execs the rising effectiveness of weekend email is attributable to the fact that folks seldom leave home nowadays without their mobile phone.
BUT BE WARNED: Don’t just set your email blasts on auto-send while you’re out camping, hiking or walking the dog. Why? Because some customers/donors will still require and expect customer and donor service lines to be open and on duty. There are negative consequences for not having a staff on hand to handle the inquiries that come from the weekend blast.
AND WHILE WE’RE ON EMAIL … The American Banker reports that banks aren’t doing well with customers over 50 years old? Not because the 50+ crowd isn’t email friendly. It’s because banks don’t have email addresses for more than half of their customers!!!
Wow! Shame on them.
Well, not so fast. Come to think of it, isn’t that also around the low end of the average age for donors?
For what percent of your donor file do you have email addresses?
Roger
P.S. Have a good weekend hitting the ‘Send’ button. Better yet, have a good weekend figuring out how to get more donors on your email lists.
5 responses to “Revealed! The Secret Ingredient For Email Marketing”
Behavioral Science Q & A
Integrating an individual giving appeal with other communications from a charity can have both positive and negative effects, and the outcome largely depends on how it’s executed. Advantages of Integration Brand Consistency: Maintaining a consistent appearance and messaging across all communications can reinforce the org’s brand identity and strengthen brand recognition and trust among your […]
Read Full Answer
I’m not aware of any in-market tests specifically comparing recurring vs. gift frequency language. I suspect the answer might not be the same with all gift frequencies, nor with all people. It sounds like a great opportunity for you to test and find out what works for your audience. Based on the literature, here’s a couple […]
Read Full Answer
Based on what we know from existing data, those renewal notices can actually be pretty effective in getting people to donate. They tap into our psychology – creating a sense of urgency, reminding us of past support, and using personalization to make the message hit home. They’re playing on our natural tendencies to feel obligated […]
Read Full Answer
Interesting question. I had a quick look at the testing done on this topic. On the positive side, in all cases, over half of donors decide to cover the fee. In some cases, it goes as high as 65%. Not a negligible percentage at all. Here’s another test from iRaiser showing consistent results (see point […]
Read Full Answer
There’s just one thing to consider when designing a supporter journey: the supporter. More specifically, you need to take into account: Who the supporter is i.e. their identity, which is the reason they support this cause, and their personality, which describes the way they “see” and process the world. These will determine the kind of […]
Read Full Answer
I’m not an expert in this but a quick search surfaced this article on the effect of tax reforms on 2019’s charitable giving. The researchers didn’t find a reduction. Actually, they observed an “increase in charitable contributions in 2019, even with the lower tax rates and the dramatically smaller number of taxpayers who itemize their […]
Read Full Answer
60% higher conversion rate! 40% higher conversion rate! WOW.
Then, my question is, “Higher than what?”
Yes, I know email is now irrevocably part of a good DM campaign. But let’s not forget we’re in the measurement business. Whether your a business or a non-profit, that measurement is usually dollars.
Wendy’s asked “Where’s the beef?”
I want to know “Where’s the ROI?”
Hi Cindy,
Many thanks for your question. I could have been clearer.
The report in MediaPost I cited in the post indicates a 40% higher “sales rates.” To me that means sales rates higher than the senders average sales rates. And thus, in all probability 40% higher than the sender’s average sales rate, and by extension a greater ROI on the weekend campaign vs a campaign at another time
Check out the MediaPost article. There are a number of folks quoted. Perhaps you could track one of them down and share what you find out with the rest of us. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/283760/are-weekends-the-secret-ingredient-for-email-marke.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline&utm_campaign=95957
Great question, Roger! Too many organizations have home addresses for some of their donors and email addresses for others.
Some top of mind suggestions:
– During your next thank-a-thon, ask donors for their email addresses
– At every event, collect email addresses
– Call your largest donors to make sure you have the best email address for them
– Ask for email addresses in your next survey (yes, you should be surveying your donors)
While you’re at it, collect cell numbers too. Won’t be long before you’re texting your donors, (if you’re not already doing so) especially millennials.
Roger: you asked a question in your post. “Dear Charity: For what percentage of your donor list do you have email addresses?”
I asked that same question to a webinar with about 200 paying attendees recently. 41% of my attendees said they had email addresses for about a third of their donors. 19% said they had it for “maybe a half.” 27% claimed they had email addresses for three-quarters of their donors. (Liars.) And 14% said they had email addresses for all. (Pants on fire.) Some kinds of fundraising, such as the model method for Facebook fundraising developed by Pareto for Soi Dog and other clients, cannot function without email addresses.
Roger,
We work in a field based on results. Yet information on digital ROI is still nearly impossible to come by. Following your suggested link led me to another paper, “The State of Marketing Technology 2015: Cost of Ownership and Return on Investment” by Stewart Rogers.
While I’m not willing to pay $799 to answer my question, they did have one chart in the executive summary that showed ROI of advertising channels. And yes, email was #1. However. The other channels didn’t include direct mail…affiliate, paid search, display, video, social, radio and TV…but no mail.
Daniel Burstein’s “Marketing Experience Blog” from Nov. 2, 2015 gets me closer, but the figures are still “last year’s”. “The exact number varies based on where you look. The DMA has one of the most-quoted numbers I’ve seen about email marketing ROI — that it generated $43.52 for every dollar invested. But this well-known number is from 2009.
In 2011, the DMA found email bringing in $40.56 for every dollar invested. And more recently marketing consultant Jordie van Rijn found email (in the UK) to have an average ROI of $38 for every dollar spent, up from $24.93 in 2013, as reported in the National Client Email Report for the DMA UK and Email Hub.
Vendors have their own data as well. In 2014, Experian reported that the average ROI for a dollar invested in email was $44.25. Perhaps the most ambitious number I’ve seen is from Epsilon, which claimed, back in 2009, the DMA’s number was actually low if you take into consideration “the action that email drives offline and directly to Web sites, email marketing’s ROI is probably closer to $130 — about three times the DMA’s estimate.”
He then goes on to say: “While these numbers can be a starting point when making the case for your budget, don’t focus too closely on them. In fact, the sagest data I’ve seen about email ROI comes with a very vague data point.”
The search continues…