Best Practices

Proofing & Testing

When & How to SendWho to Send to

We have a calendar to keep track of all National emails that go out

You can view it on Clubhousehttp://clubhouse.sierraclub.org/communications/convio/emailcalendar.aspx

Blackout days are days when National is doing a big fundraising push and we cannot

send other messages

We have an even larger calendar for all emails – including chapter and field

The sooner you let us know you want to send an email, the sooner we can reserve a spot for you on this calendar

We suggest 2-3 days

We can do rapid response, but reserving a space guarantees you a slot

Don’t forget to check for blackout days

• But by using the calendar we make sure we don’t hit people too often, preserving the effectiveness of our emails

• Once you’ve set up several good emails we can give you the send button so you can send without going through us, but still respecting the calendar, of course.

How often can I send?

• The goal of the e-policy is to keep the number of Sierra Club emails in our constituents’ inboxes between 1-2 per week – this includes both National and chapter emails

• These are emails that people get simply by being in our database

• If you have a group of people who have asked to be kept informed on an issue you can hit that list more often.

• If you already have a list like this, let us know and we can get it in Convio.

• We suggest that only the chapters develop this type of list. Programs and field offices have other means of getting their message out (ex: getting a program alert in a National email)

No really, how often can I send?

• The e-policy allots 2 spots in your constituents’ inbox for your emails

• This includes everyone in your region, both members and nonmembers. As long as they have not specifically asked to be removed from the list, you can send them 2 messages a month.

• This may not sound like a lot, but 2 good emails are better than 5 rushed emails.

So I only get 2 emails?

• No – You can segment your emails so you only send to the people most likely to respond. The rule is that no one should receive more than 2 emails per month from you unless they ask to.

• Some examples that only count as 1 email are:– A message to the northern part of your state and a message to

the southern part– A message to donors, non-member excluding donors, and

members excluding donors– A message to 3 congressional districts and a message to the

rest of your state

What if people want to get off our e-list?

• Every email has links that allow the recipient to unsubscribe or update their email preferences

• Regular emails like the Insider or a chapter newsletter have specific links that allow the recipient to unsubscribe from that particular email

• The links in other emails unsubscribe the recipient from all emails they have not specifically requested

Tracking: Convio Stats

The Basics

Start with the Message Performance Report to get a snapshot of how your email performed.

Then run the Clickthrough Summary Report to determine what people clicked on.

The Unsubscribe Details Report will tell you how many people opted out of your email list, and out of email entirely.

To get an accurate picture of the health of your email campaign, there are three basic reports you will need to run………..

Message Performance Report

Understanding your NumbersHard Bounced: Once a contact has 3 hard bounces, Convio will not send mail to them, so keep an eye on this number.Soft Bounced: Should stay low, if you notice sudden increases there might be a problem related to a certain domain.Delivered: This should stay very close to 100%, if it dips below 97%, there might be a deliverability problem.Opens: Your open rate will vary, anything below 10% might indicate you want to take a different tactic with your audience.Clickthroughs: Again, this number will vary, between 2 and 6 percent is average.Actions Taken: Actions completed from email.TAF Sent: Number of Tell a Friends sent using the TAF feature in the email.Unsubscribes: The meaning of this statistic can vary, it usually reflects the people who click on the “Manage my email preferences” in the footer of your email. To find out how many people are unsubscribing from your specific campaign, you will need to run the clickthrough summary report.

Clickthrough Summary Report

Here you can see that 15 people unsubscribed from getting the Green Life, and 1,485 people clicked on the terressentials.com link.

Unsubscribe Details Report

Here, we can see that 19 people opted out of ALL email, while 3 changed their preferences. It is often helpful to export this report to an excel file to more easily analyze.

Reporting on your emails

Open rate = Emails opened/Emails Delivered

Clickthrough rate=Clicks/Emails Delivered

Unsubscribe rate=Unsubs/Emails Delivered

Takeaways• Keeping a record of your Open Rates, Clickthrough Rates and Unsubscribe Rates is an important way to monitor and judge the successfulness of your email campaign.

• Making changes that result in a 3% increase can mean 300 more signatures, actions, etc.. In online organizing, numbers are critical!

Growing Your Email List

Whenever you are getting info from anyone get their email address

• Petitions

• Phonebanks

• Events/Sign in Sheets

• We were involved in a campaign in which we were collected thousands of petitions, so we made sure when we asked people to sign the petition that we asked for their email address as well.

• If they didn’t write their email address down we made sure to ask for it.

• We did the same thing when people filled out a sign in sheet at Sierra Club events.

• When phonebanking we have also made it a rule to ask for people’s email addresses on phonebank scripts and in trainings.

In NH we went from an email list of 2,000 to 11,000 in 6 months because we made it a priority

to ask people for their email addresses.

Best Online Tactic

– When sending out petitions/action alerts/event invitations, etc. ask coalition partners to send an email to their list too. When people click to take action have them opt in to your email list

Another easy way to grow your list is to ask coalition partners to send action alerts to

their lists

• We asked NH for Healthcare to send out an action alert asking their members to sign on to our petition. They had an email list of 10,000 people. When they sent out our petition we got 500 new people signed up to our list.

Questions