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10 Email Marketing Best Practices for Account Based Marketing

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Ever wonder why your email marketing campaigns see low click-through rates or CTORs? In the age of Account Based Marketing (ABM), personalization reigns supreme. Your email marketing strategy has to ensure that it’s relevant enough to the recipient. On the other hand, your team must also find your personalization strategy manageable.

Start by Understanding Your Audience

Before learning the best practices for email marketing, it is important to understand the underlying principle. Any ABM strategy relies on effective personalization. Personalization comes from understanding your audience. Wealth Screening is a way for you to understand a customer’s wealth status, assets, and their ability to spend.

However, it’s important to understand your audience beyond their wealth. For instance, WE Insights, a free report built based on your data, can give you a broader view of your audience. The report includes insights on interests, purchase patterns, political inclinations, and of course, ownership of other luxury goods.

Personalize Your Communication

Once you have gained deeper insight into your audience, you can start to segment them based on their interests and communication preferences. As customers start to open and click certain types of emails, your email marketing strategy can become more refined.

Follow these Top Email Marketing Best Practices

Set up your audience and craft your email for maximum effectiveness with these email marketing best practice tips.

  1. As a foundational best practice, filter emails in your WE Prospect list to identify verified email addresses. Remember, email addresses are constantly changing, so don’t be surprised or worried if an address bounces. Simply remove it from future mailings.
  2. One of the most important email marketing strategies is choosing the right subject line. Use one that will attract attention, but doesn’t overtly sell. An ideal title is between 40 and 45 characters long.
  3. Open rates for email marketing range between 10-15%. The subject line is the primary driver for high open rates. Therefore, you need to ensure that your subject is enticing yet relevant.
  4. Personalize your message in the body of your email by including your prospect’s first name. This is a simple trick that does not require a lot of effort. Yet, an email addressed to a person rather than generic greetings such as “Valued Customer”, is bound to have more of an impact on the reader.
  5. Email servers automatically block images or send certain graphic-heavy emails to your customer’s spam folder. With this in mind, make sure you include a text-based version of your email as well. This practice in email marketing helps increase readability, especially on mobile phones.
  6. If your message is highly relevant but does not include a clear call to action, your customer will not know what the next best step is. This may lead to an immediate drop in engagement.  So, a clear CTA is a must. Clearly stating what action they must take makes it easy for your customer to understand how best to reach you if they are interested in the contents of your email.

Bonus Tips to Ensure that Your Email Reaches Your Audience

Use these additional email marketing best practices to increase delivery success and generate higher open rates.

  1. If you use a bulk email tool, be sure to include an opt-out link, or button, in your email marketing campaigns. If you send one-off messages from a provider such as Gmail, use an email tracking plug-in so you can see who opened your message.
  2. Further, the best times to send emails are early weekday mornings from 6:30am – 7:30am, mid-afternoon from 3:30pm – 4:30pm or Sundays 6:00pm – 7:00pm.
  3. Similarly, the best days of the week to send emails are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday for business messages, and Thursday, Friday, and Sunday for consumer messages. Thursday and Friday afternoons work well for weekend events.
  4. Use a multi-tiered approach in your outreach efforts. This means that your email marketing strategy cannot adopt a “one and done” approach. Execute two or more marketing tactics for maximum effectiveness.
  5. Consumers have become more fragmented in their media consumption habits. Try direct mail, phone outreach, social media or out of home campaigns to reinforce the message from your email campaign. This will help ensure sure that your message reaches them on their preferred medium.

Learn More

Learn more about how you can use Wealth Screening and WE Insights to personalize your campaign. Start Now.

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3 Keys for Creating a Sustainable Fundraising Program: Your Most Valuable Asset

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WealthEngine works with nonprofits across the spectrum, from the largest universities, hospitals, and international aid organizations to local and regional arts and social service agencies.  Many of those who reach out to us are startups who have a passion, a vision and willing hands, but lack fundraising expertise and have few or no resources to hire trained staff members. In this three part blog series we offer three keys to help make your fundraising program more sustainable.

Welcome to the second of our 3-part series on creating a sustainable fundraising program. In last week’s blog post, Who’s on Board? we addressed the impact board members can have on fundraising.  While addressing board expansion is critical to future success, there are other considerations of nonprofit governance and fundraising for a young board to consider when developing plans to expand or develop a sustainable organization.  This post will focus on one of the most important considerations, which also happens to be your most valuable asset – your fundraising list.

Some organizations have a natural constituency ideal for fundraising.  Colleges and universities have alumni, theaters have ticket buyers, and hospitals have patients.  However, many nonprofits fill niches in our social fabric that serve many that don’t have a large, affluent natural constituency.  For these organizations, the need to build a strong house list for fundraising purposes is critical.  Without a list of donors and a consistent inflow of unrestricted dollars, they will not be able to achieve a sustainable source of monthly giving.  

In today’s digital world, there are two important channels in which to grow your list:

Website:  Your website is the hub of all your activity. The majority of your outreach will drive individuals to visit your website. Therefore, it must have the ability to capture attention, make a good impression, and most importantly, capture information from your visitors so you can communicate with them in some way.

Some ideas for website optimization could include:

  • Add a ‘Donate’ or button to each page and make sure it’s easily found to increase list signup and donations.
  • Capture email signups on each page of your site; add an offer to each of these links to increase the likelihood that people convert.
  • Create premium gated content, such as a white paper or e-book, on your site that gives more information about your cause, clients, or success stories. Collect email addresses to allow users to download.

Do you notice a theme here? You are including calls to action throughout your website to make it easy to capture information. Don’t make your visitors search around on your website to donate or subscribe to your content. Your website should be easy to navigate so visitors can find what they are looking for in as few clicks as possible. After all, you’re looking to gain advocates – not lose them!

Social Media:  Using social channels is a great way to build community. Some options include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and many more. While the channels may differ, your strategy should be similar. The posts and content that you share should invite dialogue and feedback. Including calls to action in your posts to drive people to your website to capture names and addresses will be a good way to potentially increase your list. 

Examples posts could include: 

  • Do you think it’s harder to be a teen today than in the past? Why or why not?  Do you have a story to share?  How did you find your way out of a difficult situation?
  • Have you or a friend or loved one been in need of family services only to be told “there’s a two week waiting list,” or “We don’t have room?”.  What services do you think our area is lacking?  How would you address those needs if you could?
  • Did you know: One in ten teens in our area lives in fear of abuse from a parent or guardian? Find out more (link to your website)
  • We’re filling a gap in mental health services in our community.  If you believe that every teen deserves the chance to find peace and faith in a safe, secure and professionally run home, join our mailing list to receive updates and opportunities to become involved.
  • How does a house become a home? LOVE.  Follow along as we transform House of Hope into a home for troubled teens.  Visit our website for photos and progress updates!

Use images wisely throughout your social posts. While text contains the content that your visitors will engage with, pictures help draw them in and get your initial clicks.

Web and Social tactics aren’t the only ways to build a list. There are some other things you can do to increase the size of your audience: 

  • Your board members can contribute. They may include some of their personal contacts, but the purpose is to build your major program/prospect list. 
  • Events can be an excellent way to get attention for your mission and cause. They can also work to grow your list and bring in substantial funds as well. At your events, think of mechanisms that will allow you to collect the names and addresses (email or physical) such as ticket purchases or sign-ups for a giveaway/raffle.  
  • Partnerships with organizations that have complementary missions, civic groups, or corporate sponsors can help provide additional names to your list. In addition, you could also obtain budgetary support, speaking opportunities to share your story directly with their members of employees, volunteers, or advocates for the mission within the larger community.
  • WealthEngine has a unique prospecting tool called WE Prospect. You can build a custom audience with criteria such as geography, net worth, charitable interests, and more. Check out this exceptional list-building tool.

Finally, you should define what you think your “perfect” supporter looks like.  Are there different types? Can you develop several personas to help describe the audience you want to reach?  This could help as you write fundraising letters or newsletter articles, and also as you develop ideas for special events, advertising, and other list-building activities. Discover how to create personas in five simple steps. 

Building a solid list of supporters and potential supporters is essential for any nonprofit.  In fact, many would argue that your list is your most valuable asset. But building a list without having a plan in place to communicate with your new friends, steward them, and involve and educate them is a wasted effort.  

Do you have a story to share about how you’ve grown your list? Share in the comments below.

Tune in next week for the final post in our series, Planning to Excel. We will share the tools you need to develop a solid donor communications plan.

 

 

 

 

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Luxury Marketers: Don’t Forget About Boomers

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Want to market more effectively to the 50+ Luxury Consumer? Download the full report from Forbes Insights here.

Luxury marketers are able to engage with Millennials in ways they were never able to before thanks to technology. However, this laser focus may result in missing out on a key market segment that still appreciates traditional relationship marketing.

Continue reading “Luxury Marketers: Don’t Forget About Boomers”

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Predictions for Data-Driven Marketing in 2016

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We know that data-driven marketing is becoming more critical to marketers and fundraisers. One doesn’t need a crystal ball to know it will continue to influence what we build and execute in 2016. Let’s be clear, it’s not about more data, but data that can drive business decisions. Company leaders, especially within the C-suite, are considering how they will define their own vision of a data-driven company, the metrics required and how to adopt predictive prospecting as a strategy.

In a recent webinar, Cool Perspectives about Data-Driven Marketing, three of Gartner’s Cool Vendors in Data-Driven Marketing came together for a panel discussion. Here are some of their predictions of what’s to come in 2016.

“There are three big trends affecting data-driven marketing that will accelerate through 2016. Big data technologies combining open source and commercial advances are making new types of data available at scales and speeds marketers couldn’t imagine a few years ago. As a consequence, marketing itself is able to deliver more and more personalized insights and messages, rather than averaging experiences. And there is a third shift toward synchronous experiences, where what is happening now or in the very recent past can inform things like offers, messages, content, and analytics.”

Martin Kihn, Research Analyst, Co-author of Cool Vendors of Data-Driven Marketing
Gartner

“Taking a data-driven approach starting with pre-engagement will continue to be instrumental. For years, our non-profit customers have been using predictive analytics for fundraising to determine who to ask and what to ask and when to ask. While marketers have used analytics to determine buyer behavior, they’re now incorporating wealth intelligence to determine what offers and upgrades they can present in a very personalized way. The results are pretty outstanding. Marketers are seeing higher conversions and more loyal customers. While privacy around what personal data is collected and how it is used is still a valid concern for consumers, I think we’ll start to see a higher level of trust being earned by the companies who use their data to focus on how they can create an exceptional experience for the customer through smart segmentation and customized messaging.”

Mike Lees, Chief Marketing Officer
WealthEngine

“Google is the modern operating system for digital marketing.  Adobe, Oracle and Salesforce may get the press, but Google dominates in terms of marketer’s mindshare, marketshare, and ultimately execution.  Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics and Google Adwords have created digital marketing’s data layer and the standard analysis engine to understand, optimize and execute on digital marketing investments.  Next up for Google is to help marketers build a truly enterprise marketing data warehouse and analytics engine in the cloud.  

Google Cloud Platform & Google BigQuery deliver on this next piece of marketing infrastructure today, creating the first end-to-end data-centric marketing cloud. It’s clear now that CMOs will own the tech marketing stack and Google will be their go-to provider. Other marketing tech vendors will need to be interoperable with the Google Cloud and deliver their own unique value in this ecosystem.  Only a data-centric company like Google can deliver this new kind of marketing cloud.”

James McDermott, Chief Executive Officer
Lytics

“Few CMOs will argue that they don’t own their brand anymore. We have lots of user data thanks to social media, but social media is changing consumer purchasing behavior far faster than companies are translating social data into useful insights. Businesses must begin to iteratively add data tools if they are to overcome this challenge.

Office cultures don’t change overnight. Many companies fear that data will require a top-to-bottom cultural overhaul, which causes them to hesitate instead of adding new data tools. Fear barriers only begin to lower when people begin to iteratively embrace a new concept. With these iterations, change starts to take hold, and companies begin to find the equilibrium between what’s always worked and what’s necessary to remain competitive as the uncertain future unfolds.

In 2016, I believe the fear barrier around data-driven marketing will finally begin to lower as people recognize that they don’t need to eliminate the old ways of doing things, and instead need merely to augment their existing toolbox with new capabilities. On-demand data-driven marketing tools will give CMOs new options as to what they discard, what they keep, and most importantly how they can better use the tools and processes that their company cultures can handle.”

Malcolm De Leo, Chief Evangelist
Quantifind

Interested in learning more about how data can be the critical element that drives your company’s success? Request a demo now.

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Opposites Attract: Hot Topic, Cool Vendor

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There’s a lot of hype around data driven marketing – and there’s certainly a lot of companies that claim they have the services you need to drive a data driven marketing strategy. But what does that really mean?

We know it’s about using unique data to remove the guesswork so you, as marketers and fundraisers, only engage with people most likely to buy, invest or donate.

Bottom line – it’s not just about data either. It’s about powerful insights that allow you to deliver value by engaging customers and prospects more effectively. Whether fundraising, marketing a luxury brand, or targeting affluent investors, you should be able to answer these core questions…

  • Do they have the money to buy, donate, or invest?
  • Do they have the affinity & lifestyle to align to the product or cause?
  • Is now the right time to engage them?

Technology and solutions are moving at a warped speed, so it’s critical that you don’t look in the rear view window, but focus on the signals of what’s coming in the future. What type of analytics should you use? How can I integrate new data it into my current platform? How do I leverage the insights to develop a strategy that drives ROI?  

Well, we have news for you.  WealthEngine has some pretty cool solutions and we’re not the only ones who think so. According to a recent report published by Gartner, the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company, WealthEngine is among five vendors named a “Cool Vendor in Data-Driven Marketing”.  We know we were recognized for approaching the data-driven marketing landscape with innovative technologies and unique data analytics warranting attention from prospective customers like you.

*Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.