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Your association’s emails don’t have to get left in the spam folder for no one to see. If you can assess your current email campaign open rates and get down to the bottom of your email campaigns, you can see your emails hit home for members.
Emails: They’re the communication tool of every marketer’s dream. That’s right, using email marketing in tandem with your current marketing strategy can prove to be seriously useful. Email is a low-cost source of engagement, and there is quite the wide audience to be engaged through email. In fact, 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.
But if your emails aren’t making it as far as the inbox, it could spell trouble for your engagement rates and marketing efforts. Having your association’s emails get sent straight to the spam folder can ruin any best practices and hard work you put into your campaigns. So, if you want your emails to reach audiences and further engage them (and hopefully attract them to join and renew their membership), you need to know how to keep your association’s emails out of the spam folder. Let’s talk about a few different ways to make sure your emails get sent directly to the inbox of your audience. With these tips, you can no longer worry about your messages getting lost in translation.
When it comes to email, it might seem like the Wild West out there. No rules and no consequences can make for a tricky shot at getting your audience’s attention. How can you know exactly why your emails get sent to spam?
Well, while there may be a multitude of different reason, here are a few that you may not know are affecting your email’s placement. Since email is, at its origin, a method of communication that was best designed for one on one communication. So with that in mind, once larger groups get added to an email message, things can get trickier. If your association uses an email list or a bulk email platform, it can run the risk of having your messages be sent to the spam folder. Another factor to take into consideration is the reaction you get from your email list. Your emails could be causing your recipients a serious case of email fatigue, forcing them to flag your emails as spam right on the spot.
However, sometimes automatic filters set up by email platforms decide for email recipients whether or not they’ve received too many unwanted and unread emails from a specific organization. If your emails fall into this category, you may only be reaching ¼ of your actual email list. Talk about frustrating! Now that we know some of the reasons behind your spam list nightmares, it’s time to see what you can do to avoid this happening in the future.
Are you an association that sends out maybe one or two emails more than necessary? It’s alright to admit, and chances are you’re not alone. We’ve all been guilty of trying to get our message across a bit too hard in one form or another. But the danger that comes with overloading your email list’s inboxes is a lifetime of mail sent to the spam folder. So what can you do? Simply cut back on the amount of emails you send out. As we mentioned before, an overflow of email information can cause your members some serious email fatigue. In fact, it just might be enough to get them to stop opening and engaging with your emails altogether- which may even be worse than having them in a spam folder!
But, if you cut back on the messages sent out during the day, week, month, etc. you can still reach your members without overwhelming them. Consider compressing your multiple email messages into one weekly update email. This way, you keep yourself out of your members inboxes, but you also deliver them the latest in news and updates within your association and its industry. It’s an email members will love receiving!
However, if it’s a case where you desperately need to get ahold of your members (think renewal and late due payments), don’t be afraid to send over an extra email or two. It’s important to reach your members when time-sensitive topics come up so that they can respond accordingly. Stray away from being flagged as spam by only sending out the necessary information.
If you don’t want your emails ending up in spam, there is a simple solution: Ask your members to keep your emails in mind. Reaching out to your members with other forms of communications can help with this. You can send out social media posts, letters, and even reach out through a phone call to get your members attention. Remind them about your email updates, and convince them that they don’t want to miss out on the important information!
Conversely, if your members are consistently not opening and engaging with your emails, it may be time to remind them to unsubscribe. You don’t want to waste the time of both your association’s team and your audience by sending out emails that do not get answered. Therefore, if you see members struggling to keep engaged no matter how hard you try, it may be time to convince them to unsubscribe and cut them from your list. In a similar fashion, you can also ask larger teams of members (such as companies or organizations) to have their IT providers whitelist your association. This way, anything containing your domain or a subdomain (like an email) will go straight to the inboxes of your members. If you can level with your members and communicate to them why your emails are important, you can save your messages from going to spam.
Your association’s emails don’t have to get left in the spam folder for no one to see. If you can assess your current email campaign open rates and get down to the bottom of your email campaigns, you can see your emails hit home for members. Use these tips to analyze your own email marketing strategy, decrease the emails ignored, and increase your engagement rates.
