So your nonprofit organization could use some sprucing up in the marketing department, and you’ve recognized untapped potential in email marketing. Perhaps you already send regular email blasts to your constituents, but you aren’t getting as many bites as you’d like, considering all of the efforts you put into crafting and sending emails. In fact, the work is pretty tedious for what you get out of it.
Well, you aren’t the only one, and there’s a solution: automation. For your limited staff and tight budget, automating your email marketing will not only make your job easier but more efficient at nurturing leads and strengthening your connection to constituents. Here are just five ways current research demonstrates the power of automated email marketing and offers solid reasons to invest.
Research shows that personalized emails increase click-through rates by 14%, and conversion rates by 10% , and emails pertinent to the viewer’s interests sent with marketing automation software bring 18 times more revenue than general email blasts. As for winning more qualified leads, research compiled by Capterra reveals that organizations using marketing automation to foster connections with prospects experience a 451% boost in leads.
The average working professional gets 121 emails per day in his inbox, making your subject line one of the most important hooks you forge for email marketing. In fact, studies show that 64% of email recipients open emails because of the subject line. With automated marketing, customizing subject lines to reach your audience at just the right time becomes easier than ever, which is good, because emails with personalized subject lines are 29% more likely to be opened.
Email content personalization is also key, delivering an average of 6x higher transaction rates. Automated email sending will not only streamline this process for you but help keep human error out of the timing equation, enabling your emails to have the strongest possible impact on subscribers.
According to a report published by Experian, the average open rate for welcome emails is 4x that of other emails, and the average click-through rate 5x greater. Automatically send your subscribers welcome emails to enable them to delve deeper while their interest is peaked and your cause still fresh in their minds.
In fact, according to some research, email prompts 3x the number of purchases made over social media, translating to higher ask power for nonprofits. Email is also 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook or Twitter, and that’s before taking into account the boost automation brings to those numbers. Before you install your next social media guru on your marketing team, discuss implementing better email marketing software.
According to research conducted by ClickZ, as of 2013, 25% of Fortune 500 B2B companies used email marketing automation, and research compiled by Email Monday indicates that, as of August 2015, automated email marketing is utilized by 82% of companies overall. If you want to keep up with the pack, reap the benefits of using automated email marketing software for your nonprofit.
Automating your email marketing clearly comes with a lot of benefits, but remember: not all automated email marketing software is equal. 44% of marketers say they are not fully satisfied with their marketing automation systems due to the software being time-consuming and difficult to implement, and/or the cost of the software itself being too steep. Doing your research before investing to find the right system for your organization will pay off big time.