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

2. Welcome
Overview
• The current landscape
-Association case studies
-Implications
• Challenging the status quo
- The member experience
- Segmentation
- Process and discipline
2

3. Case Study
Association A
An internal issue…
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
3

4. Case Study
Association B
An external issue…
136 Emails sent in the past three months
11 Average number of emails sent per week
12% Average open rate
7% Average bounce rate
4

5. These issues are not unique.
5

6. Sent Why Pricing Hurts
6
100% of total

7. Opens Why Pricing Hurts
7
34% of total

8. Clicks Why Pricing Hurts
8
7% of total

9. Conversions Why Pricing Hurts
Is it worth it?
9
1% of total

10. Cost-Benefit Analysis – The ROI of Email
Costs Benefits
Labor Sales
Email is free!!!
Copywriting Event Registration
Editing Products and Services
Proofing
Design Advertising
List Management
Distribution Awareness
Systems
Email distribution
Database
?? Brand Perception ??
10

11. The Brand Touchpoint Wheel
Source: Building the Brand-Driven Business; Scott M Davis, and Michael Dunn
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12. What about the 99%?
Occupy the inbox!
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13. Building new habits
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14. 1. Think like a member.
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15. 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.
15

16. 16

17. 2. Segment, segment, segment!
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18. Importance of Segmentation
60% 58%
Open Rate
50%
Click Rate
40%
36%
31%
29%
30% 28%
25% 24%
23%
21%
19%
20% 18% 17%
16% 15%14% 16%
14% 13% 14%
12%
10%
0%
<50 50-100 100-250 250-500 500-1000 1k-5k 5k-50k 50k-100k 100k-250k >250k
Number of recipients
Source: The Informz 2012 Association Email Marketing Benchmark Report
18

19. 3. Be disciplined
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20. 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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21. First Steps
-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.
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22. Tracking System and Tools
Email Performance Dashboard:
1) Performance Metrics
- Open rate, click rate, bounce rate, unsubscribe rate
2) 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
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23. Tracking System and Tools
Performance Score Content Score Survey Score
E-Newsletters Legend:
(range 25-100) (range 25-100) (range 60-200)
Email 1 85 91 175.60 Top 20th
Email 2 65 76 141.40 Percentile in
Email 3 45 76 121.35 category
Email 4 70 93 163.25 Bottom 20th
Email 5 85 93 177.60 Percentile in
Email 6 70 70 140.00 category
Email 7 80 84 164.00
Email 8 80 80 160.20
Email 9 60 96 155.57
Email 10 70 72 142.00
Email 11 65 83 148.40
Email 12 75 80 154.53
Email 13 85 82 166.60
Email 14 65 67 132.14
Email 15 80 65 145.28
Email 16 - - -
Email 17 65 79 144.40
Email 18 65 60 125.00
Average 71 79 150.43
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24. 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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25. Discussion
Your experiences
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26. Thank you.
Karli Kasonik, MBA
(202) 333-6250 x300
kkasonik@mckinley-advisors.com