4 Essential Emails Every Association Needs to Send

Email is every association’s best friend. Think about it, what can’t email do? It’s cost-friendly, easy to manage, and able to reach the mass audience that is your association’s membership. There’s no denying email use has been a problem solver for many organizations.

‍However, if you aren’t using email to the best of your abilities, you could be missing out on opportunities for member engagement and recruitment. As stated in Radicati’s 2016 Email Statistics report, by the year 2020 the expected amount of people using email will reach 3 billion. That’s right- 3 billion people will be reachable through email by your association. Additionally, by the year 2019 the number of emails sent per day is expected to reach 246 billion. If you think that’s impressive, there were already 205 billion emails sent per day in 2016. From these statistics, it’s easy to see there are plenty of opportunities to reach both new and current audiences through email. But, how do you do that? What kind of emails will effectively reach your association’s members/potential buyers?

‍If your association is looking to enhance its email marketing and outreach efforts, you should think about what type of emails work best to send out. You want emails that members will open, engage with, and share with others. Here are 4 types of emails your association should send to members in order to increase member engagement and retention.

1. Warm welcomes

Welcoming new members to your association is vital. Without a warm welcome, members could feel as if your association is giving them the cold shoulder. You want your members to feel comfortable with you association, so start them off on the right foot with a welcome email. Sending out a welcome email is an important task, so you don’t want to send any old welcome email. Your email needs to have everything new members need to start their journey with your association. Start by personalizing your email. You want unsure members you know who they are and you’re excited to get to know more about them.

‍A personalized email can also drive up your email engagement rates. According to Econsultancy, 74% of marketers claim personalization and direct targeting increases customer engagement. On top of that, Campaign Monitor reports that emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened. A small touch such as personalization can have a larger impact on your email’s open and click through rates! Make sure to include all information members will need to know about your association and its benefits. If your association sends out a new member packet, you can highlight its content in your welcome email. If not, make sure to provide helpful links to anything new members may need.

2. Event invitations

Almost everyone enjoys getting an invite in their mail. So, why not switch things up and invite members to events via email?

‍While a mail invitation to events is also a great way to reach out to members, it may not be  the best to rely on. Mail can get lost, misplaced, or even thrown away. Reminding your members about events via email ensures they will be ready to attend. Send out invites with enough time for members to make plans for travel or anything else that might be important. You don’t want to remind members about an event for the first time if it’s in a week. Schedule your event invitations with a proper email schedule.

‍You can schedule invitations for  long-term and short-term planning. For instance, it could be beneficial to send an email both a month and a week out from your event. Hitting members with a direct mail and email event invitation is the perfect way to combat any roadblocks between members and event attendance.

3. Weekly/Monthly newsletter

According to Content Marketing Institute, 83% of B2B marketers use email newsletters in their content marketing strategy. If your association isn’t, it’s time to get on board. Why do so many marketers utilize the newsletter for content engagement? Well, Nielsen Norman Group reports that when asked which medium consumers would like to receive updates from, 90% preferred an email newsletter. It’s clear that people are looking out for news via email.

‍Plan out your newsletter effectively before including it into an email schedule. There are many different ways to do this. One way is to create a newsletter checklist. Creating a checklist ensures your email newsletter will be full of important information, therefore making it valuable to members.

Once you plan out your newsletter, create a draft and make sure it is both easy to read and time-friendly. We all know how valuable time is. Therefore, you want to inform members without taking up all of their spare time. Give your members the information they wait for through the platform they enjoy best with an email newsletter.

4. Membership surveys

Sending surveys through an email is essential for proper member feedback for associations. Why is this? It’s all in the form of communication. According to FluidSurveys,  the average response rate for an email survey is around 24.8%. While this number seems low, the response rate for telephone surveys is only around 8-12%. And that’s not all, a lot of response rates depend on the quality of a survey.  SurveyGizmo reports that response rates can increase all the way to 85% depending on the quality of both the participant and the survey. Now we know sending an effective member survey through email is one of the best ways to get the feedback your association needs. So, what are the best practices for sending an email survey?

‍First, you want to make sure your survey is accessible on a mobile device. About 64% of American adults own and actively use a smartphone alone. If there’s a mobile audience, you want to appeal to them with mobile-friendly surveys. Another way to ensure survey success is creating an interactive survey. Interactive research done by SurveyAnalytics shows interactive surveys scoring a 30% greater success rate than traditional static surveys. If your association want to see those results, an interactive survey might be for you. Whichever method you choose, incorporating a membership survey email into your email marketing strategy can help member engagement numbers soar.

‍Enhance your association’s email efforts with a few (or all) of these types of emails. Once you create a strong and steady email schedule filled with important email types, you can watch your members become more involved with your content. Your member engagement and recruitment numbers can see a change for the better.