Getting to the InboxTIPS ON EMAIL DELIVERABILITY & REENGAGING THE DISENGAGED

Maria Shanley, Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida

Maureen Wallbeoff, Practical Wisdom for Nonprofit Accidental Techies

Mark Becker, Cathexis Partners

Mark Becker

@cathexispartner

FOUNDING PARTNER,CATHEXIS PARTNERS

@ feedhopenow

DIRECTOR OF MARKETING & DIGITAL STRATEGY, SECOND

HARVEST FOOD BANK OF CENTRAL FLORIDA

@meetmaureen

NONPROFIT DIGITAL STRATEGIST & TECHNOLOGY COACH

Maria Shanley Maureen Wallbeoff

Our AgendaAVOID THE SPAM FOLDER: Tips To Address Issues & Improve Email Deliverability

NONPROFIT CASE STUDY: SECOND HARVEST FOODBANK

DEALING WITH DISENGAGED EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS: Reengagement Tactics that Work

OPEN Q & A

EMAIL DELIVERABILITY:GETTING TO THE INBOX

YES, OUR TEAM UNDERSTANDS HOW TO MONITOR AND ADDRESS

DELIVERABILITY ISSUES!

SAID NO NONPROFIT TEAM, EVER

SAD FACT: One quarter of your messages will not hit the inbox.

Email delivery = an email is successfully delivered to the receiving server.

Email deliverability = an email successfully arrives in the person’s inbox.

It’s possible to have good email deliverybut poor deliverability, because the email landed in a person’s spam folder rather than their inbox.

25%

WARNING: TECHNICAL JARGON AHEAD

https://docs.blackbaud.com/email-resource-center/

AUTHENTICATION CAN EFFECT EMAIL DELIVERABILITY

Before your email can successfully reach the recipient, a few email authentication methods need to run behind the scenes:

• Specify which mail servers are authorized to send email in their name.

• Verifying an email wasn't tampered with during transit.

If these methods aren’t set up properly, your emails could be flagged as untrustworthy by the recipient.

AUTHENTICATION PROTOCOLS

SENDER Authentication

What it Is: Mailbox providers use authentication methods to evaluate whether messages that appear to be from your organization are legitimate so they can block or filter email from fraudulent senders. For example, a scammer could craft an email that looks like it comes from your organization and solicit donations to a site they own. If the mailbox provider can’t verify whether the email is from you, the scammer could receive gifts donors think they're giving to your organization.

How to Manage:

AUTHENTICATION PROTOCOLS

SPF – Sender Policy Framework

What it Is: An authentication method that enables receiving mail systems to verify the mail servers that are authorized to send email on behalf of a domain.

How to Manage: Access the DNS record for your domain through your domain name registrar — such as GoDaddy, Network Solutions, or Name.com — and add the following to your TXT record for SPF information:

+include:outboundmail.convio.net +include:outboundmail.blackbaud.net ~all

AUTHENTICATION PROTOCOLS

DKIM – DomainKeys Identified Mail

What it Is:An authentication method that digitally signs part of an email message so that receiving mail systems can verify it wasn’t altered after it was originally sent.

Luminate Online provides generic 1024-bit DKIM authentication.

How to Manage:Generic DKIM is provided, but a custom DKIM is available by submitting a Blackbaud support case.

AUTHENTICATION PROTOCOLS

DMARC - Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance

What it Is:A standard way for senders to establish policies for mailbox providers to use when email from them doesn’t pass SPF and DKIM.

How to Manage:

To use DMARC, your organization must configure SPF and use a custom DKIM signature.

https://docs.blackbaud.com/email-resource-center/

QUICK POLL!WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

This is my email service provider’s responsibility! ☺

This is a shared responsibility.

This is all on my organization.

Source: moosend

YOUR LIST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES CAN EFFECTEMAIL DELIVERABILITY

• Sending without custom authentication • Using single opt-in• Sending from a free domain email address • Using “spam flagging” email subject lines • Making it difficult to unsubscribe • Using URL shorteners like bit.ly• Sending emails with too many images

TWO BIG REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD CARE

1. Management of your subscriber list and email program directly influences whether the email is delivered to your subscribers’ inboxes, promotions folder, or is flagged as spam.

2. You invest too much time in your email program to lose up to 25% of your audience to deliverability issues! This becomes even more critical when your messages are fundraising appeals.

HOW CAN YOU TELL IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM?

• You’re experiencing a drop in your email performance rates (like opens and clicks).

• You see an increase in email bounces (a 3-5% bounce rate requires action).

• Your open rates vary between email service providers (Outlook and Gmail open rates are quite different).

• You’re being blocked at an email service provider (rut roh!).

UNDERSTANDING BOUNCES

Hard bounces: invalid addresses that don’t exist.

Soft bounces: temporary blocks by mailbox providers that can be related to things like reputation or volume.

If you send to a lot of bad addresses and your hard bounce rate is high, mailbox providers take this as a sign that you might be a spammer.

THE GOOD NEWS? THERE’S A LOT YOU CAN DO!

✓ Verify sender authentication settings

✓ Ensure unsubscribe option is available in every email…

✓ …and set up interest categories to offer up option to allow folks to unsubscribe from specific communications vs a complete opt out…

✓ Then tweak the styling of your default unsubscribe form to highlight interest unsubscribe

THE GOOD NEWS? THERE’S A LOT YOU CAN DO!

✓ Utilize Email on Acid during tests

• 5 free per month

• Can upgrade to unlimited (Approx $55/mo)

VISIT BLACKBAUD’S EMAIL RESOURCE CENTER

https://docs.blackbaud.com/email-resource-center/

NONPROFIT CASE STUDY:SECOND HARVEST FOODBANK

OF CENTRAL FLORIDA

Email Program end of 2016

▪ 24,000 email subscribers

▪ Open rate of 10-13%

▪ Set up 5 Engagement Tasks

✓ EF1 Email Click-through 180 days

✓ EF2 Email Open 180 Days

✓ EF3 Emails Received

✓ EF4 Emails Open 30 days

✓ EF5 Email Click-through 30 days

Email Program in 2017

▪ Waited 6 months of EF to work ☺

▪ Results: 14,000 email subscribers

▪ Went responsive: emails, autoresponders, everything!

▪ Created Basic Welcome Series

▪ Resending emails a week to anyone that didn’t open

Email Program in 2018

▪ 12,000 email subscribers (removed more emails)

▪ Created yearly email schedule

▪ Started segmenting through WS for our new Newsletters

▪ Added Donor and Monthly Welcome Series

▪ Added 4 monthly newsletters

▪ Birthday Emails

▪ Started re-engagement emails every 3 months

Email Program in 2019

▪ 9,000 engaged email subscribers

▪ Open rate 20-45%

▪ 4 WS: Email, Donors, Monthly Donor, Volunteers

▪ Birthday Emails

▪ 4 monthly newsletters

▪ Re-engagement emails every 3 months

▪ Thank you monthly emails to donors and monthly donors

Tips▪ Keep track of your engaged emails

▪ Make time to look at your reports

▪ Track on google analytics

▪ Look for SPAM Email in your WS query

▪ Clean your lists before imports

▪ Don’t be afraid to delete emails

▪ Have fun!

EMAIL SUBSCRIBER ZOMBIES:REENGAGING THE DISENGAGED

YES, OUR ORGANIZATION REGULARLY COLLECTS, ANALYZES AND RESPONDS

TO FEEDBACK ABOUT OUR COMMUNICATIONS !

HA HA HA! OH WAIT, THAT WAS A SERIOUS QUESTON?

SAD FACT: Up to one third of your subscribers are disengaged.

Common reasons:

• You only send fundraising appeals

• Your content is not relevant

• You send too many messages

• They had a different expectation

• Your messages look weird/bad

33%

EMAIL MARKETING IS IMPORTANT

• You own the channel.

• It’s the direct link into your supporters’ inboxes.

• You can fully control the messaging, from look and feel, to content and timing.

• Great return on investment if message performance is strong.

YOU NEED A REENGAGEMENT STRATEGY

• Segmentation

• Content

• Voice/Tone

• Personalization

• A/B Testing

• Timing

WHAT CAN YOU SEND TO GET PEOPLE TO REENGAGE?

• Remind them of your mission story.

• Ask for feedback.

• Re-confirm permission to message them.

• Give access to special content or perks.

• Use humor.

• Keep the messages short and sweet.

TWO MESSAGES. TWO WEEKS. 90 DAYS.

• Send two messages, two weeks apart.

• Could try a FW: for the second message.

• Consider a Facebook Ad campaign with a custom audience.

• It can take up to 90 days for people to click (?!?)

After 90 days with no reengagement, you’ve gotta……

REMOVE THEM

WE KNOW - THIS IS SOOOO HARD TO DO

There are huge benefits to removing the disengaged from your list!

• Having an engaged email list will improve your sender reputation, which improves deliverability

• Your costs can go down.

• Your click and open rates will rise.

• You can focus on keeping current supporters engaged, especially new subscribers.

Engagement Factors - Beyond the catch phrase

Engagement Factors - Beyond the catch phrase

Data Management > Tasks > Task List > Create a New Task > Email Response Rate Segmentation

Engagement Factors - Beyond the catch phrase

Data Management > Tasks > Task List > Create a New Task > Web Site Engagement Segmentation

Engagement Factors - Beyond the catch phrase

Setup > Database Configuration > Transaction Information

Engagement Factors - Beyond the catch phrase

To learn more about what was included in this agenda, visit:

https://docs.blackbaud.com/email-resource-center/faqs/luminate-online

https://docs.blackbaud.com/email-resource-center/overview/client

https://docs.blackbaud.com/email-resource-center/

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