Thursday, March 10, 2016

Top NonProfit Subject Lines: Personal, Fun, Thankful

The most effective e-mail subject lines for nonprofit and association marketers in 2015 had some key lessons for any e-mail effort: The best were personal, fun and expressed gratitude for loyalty and support, according to digital-marketing agency Informz's study of 80 million A/B tested e-mails and 58 million e-mails with 40%+ open rates. As reported by NonProfit PRO magazine, the study found that personalization continues to prove its worth. For example, the subject line "FirstName, Your Membership is About to Expire" delivered a 13% better open rate than the impersonal "Your Membership is About to Expire." Subject lines that used humor and informality succeeded in punching up response to ordinary topics. For example "It's a trashy party, and you're invited!" got a 35% open rate, higher than the staid "Join Us at the Red Clay Valley Clean Up" (28%). Of course, caution is advised in this area, since there can be a fine line between lighthearted and unprofessional or offensive. Finally, the high open rates of simple thank-you subject lines proved that you can't overappreciate donors and members. "Thank you for making a real difference" earned a 66% open rate, for example. For more on subject line trends, go to http://www.nonprofitpro.com/article/the-best-nonprofit-email-subject-lines-of-2015/

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

2016 Digital Spending Set to Rise; Direct Mail Steady

Online advertising and social media engagement efforts are forecast for the biggest surges in marketing spend this year, while direct mail holds its own, according to the annual Target Marketing magazine "Media Usage Survey." Of surveyed marketers, 54% plan to increase online advertising and 55% plan to boost social media engagement (brand pages, sharing updates, interactions), plus 49% also plan to boost social media ad spending. E-mail rules the roost as the most popular marketing channel, with 97% of respondents planning e-mail campaigns (and 49% planning to increase e-mail budgets). However, marketers sent mixed signals on mobile marketing, despite its supposedly "must-have" status, with the 38% who say they plan to increase outlays balanced by the 33% who don't even plan to use mobile in 2016. Amid the channel ups and downs, direct mail remains a steady choice in the marketing channel mix; although slightly more plan no direct mail (25% compared with 22% last year), most marketers, 69%, say they will either increase spending or hold spending steady. Television is the biggest channel loser for direct marketers, with 79% avoiding any DR TV ads and 76% nixing non-infomercial TV ads, too. For details of trends for all channels: http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/2016-channel-spending-trends/