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CASE All Districts Online 2023
How to Create Mass Emails that People Want
How to Create Mass Emails that People Want
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<b>Hello everyone, Welcome to the session</b> <b>How to create emails that people Read.</b> <b>We'll be getting started shortly, but</b> <b>first I have a few housekeeping notes for</b> <b>you. On the right hand side of your</b> <b>screen you'll find a window with a Chat,</b> <b>Q&A, Feedback, and Notes tab. You</b> <b>can use the chat to chat, the Chat box</b> <b>to chat with other attendees, but please</b> <b>use the Q&A box to send questions for our</b> <b>presenters. You can also upvote these</b> <b>questions in the Q&A panel if you would</b> <b>like to see these questions answered. And</b> <b>at the end of the session, we'll answer</b> <b>as many questions as we can. There's also</b> <b>Notes tab for you to keep your own notes</b> <b>during the session if you would like. We</b> <b>ask that you complete a brief evaluation</b> <b>found in the feedback tag By the end of</b> <b>this session. We use the session feedback</b> <b>to continue improving what we offer, so</b> <b>we truly teach. Appreciate you taking the</b> <b>time out to do so. Without further ado,</b> <b>please join me in welcoming our</b> <b>presenter, Ashley Budd.</b> <b>Thank you, Lauren. Hi everyone. This is</b> <b>exciting to be back online</b> <b>speaking to all of you, but I can't see</b> <b>you and I'm not looking at the chat. So</b> <b>please do use that question and answer</b> <b>tool and upvote the good</b> <b>questions that you have today. We're</b> <b>talking about how to create</b> <b>emails that people want. I just want</b> <b>to take the time while people are joining</b> <b>to introduce myself a little bit more.</b> <b>I am the Director of Marketing.</b> <b>Operations at Cornell University and the</b> <b>Division of Alumni Affairs and</b> <b>Development. I work from my</b> <b>hometown of Saratoga Springs, NY which</b> <b>is a little over 3 hours away from the</b> <b>university I've been. I'm a remote</b> <b>employee and have been</b> <b>one since 2014, so I feel like</b> <b>the remote OG of our now</b> <b>hybrid work environment</b> <b>and. And I</b> <b>have a daughter who is finishing</b> <b>kindergarten today. It's my last day of</b> <b>school. I write</b> <b>a newsletter where I talk about</b> <b>my peach</b> <b>trees and lack of fruit this year</b> <b>and other industry marketing</b> <b>trends and you can find that at</b> <b>my website ashleybudd.com. I've</b> <b>been talking about e-mail for a</b> <b>while now and I've been writing these</b> <b>newsletter emails and it's inspired me</b> <b>to now write a book about e-mail. So</b> <b>that's my next project. I'm writing a</b> <b>book with my co-author and friend Day</b> <b>Kibilds, so that is a whole lot about me.</b> <b>I want to kind of switch our presentation</b> <b>over to you. So if you would all join me</b> <b>over on this tool called Slido,</b> <b>you can use your browser to go to </b> <b>slido.com or you can</b> <b>also pull out a second</b> <b>device and I find it's handy just</b> <b>to use my phone. Make sure I get</b> <b>you on the right screen there. So</b> <b>if you have a phone handy, pull it out,</b> <b>scan the QR code and you'll go right to</b> <b>my poll. Or you can go to slidell.</b> <b>com and type in CASE to</b> <b>enter and the first question up</b> <b>for you. Is.</b> <b>I want to know what your biggest e-mail</b> <b>marketing challenge is. So</b> <b>that I can hopefully address it.</b> <b>And are now 40 minutes</b> <b>left today, so hopefully you're</b> <b>finding your way over to slideo.</b> <b>com. Again, you can use the</b> <b>QR code and I'll get you right to this</b> <b>poll, or you can enter.</b> <b>Case in the in the code over on your</b> <b>browser. It looks like we got people</b> <b>typing now. Thank you all for</b> <b>participating. I always try to look</b> <b>for 100% . participation</b> <b>So I'm just going to go through and read</b> <b>back to you some of what you're saying</b> <b>here about e-mail marketing challenges</b> <b>and slide is doing this really nice thing</b> <b>where it's going to kind of group what</b> <b>the themes are here. But I'm seeing open</b> <b>rates and click through rates and getting</b> <b>a response rating, creative</b> <b>content personalization,</b> <b>response rate engagement, getting people</b> <b>to read and click through, creating</b> <b>visually engaging content. Getting people</b> <b>to engage, answering the call to</b> <b>action. Lots</b> <b>of really good ones for jumping around</b> <b>here. Open rates, hardly any and</b> <b>unsubscribe standing out from the</b> <b>competition.</b> <b>Getting an action, most often the ask.</b> <b>Our marketing department once used the</b> <b>same layout for all emails. They become</b> <b>stagnant and a bit pouring.</b> <b>OK. Lots of really good</b> <b>184 people participating right now.</b> <b>We're on overload.</b> <b>Getting to gifts. Trends.</b> <b>Centralization. Getting alumni to</b> <b>open lots of the same themes here.</b> <b>Finding quality content. How much is too</b> <b>much? We're going to answer all of these</b> <b>questions so happy creating a sense of</b> <b>urgency. Boosting click rate.</b> <b>Keeping it short and sweet. e-mail</b> <b>fatigue.</b> <b>OK. Emails going to</b> <b>spam. People are getting an</b> <b>onslaught of messages from all over the</b> <b>university. Yes they are. Having users</b> <b>Scroll down in the e-mail to interactive</b> <b>content further down we've got some</b> <b>boring writing.</b> <b>Get Now people are getting honest. What's</b> <b>the most important information out of a</b> <b>lot of news to share?Getting people to</b> <b>open again. Yeah, OK, we're having, we're</b> <b>having problems with opens.</b> <b>Providing great templates.</b> <b>OK, I I'm getting a good sense of what</b> <b>the themes are here and I want to make</b> <b>sure we get through more questions. So</b> <b>next question for you. Want to know a</b> <b>little bit more about you and who in</b> <b>this in this audience? Who are you</b> <b>writing emails for? Do I</b> <b>have a lot of advancement folks in the</b> <b>room? Anybody communicating with current</b> <b>students or prospective students?</b> <b>Yeah. Mostly my target audience here, so</b> <b>this presentation is tailored to you.</b> <b>A lot of the examples are from the</b> <b>Cornell alumni and annual giving</b> <b>programs. So</b> <b>7073%, yeah, a</b> <b>lot about.</b> <b>About 3/4 of you are working in that</b> <b>alumni and donor space. And then we've</b> <b>got also folks who</b> <b>are communicating, parents, other</b> <b>community members, current students, few</b> <b>of you doing perspective student work</b> <b>here. Thank you so much.</b> <b>Last question, this is going to give us a</b> <b>word cloud. I want to know</b> <b>what you think about e-mail newsletters.</b> <b>And when you hear the word e-mail</b> <b>newsletters, what words come to your</b> <b>mind?</b> <b>And as you populate responses, if there's</b> <b>another response that you see up</b> <b>here in the word cloud that you agree</b> <b>with that you want to emphasize. You</b> <b>can type that in and it'll make the word</b> <b>bigger.</b> <b>OK, I've got your really warmed up here.</b> <b>You're telling me how you feel. You know,</b> <b>newsletters. Boring, long,</b> <b>annoying. Unread too</b> <b>many. Unsubscribe.</b> <b>There's no love. Is there any love at all?</b> <b>Have I seen any love at all for any</b> <b>e-mail newsletter?Little</b> <b>return. Sleepy, unexciting</b> <b>trash bin.</b> <b>Static and stagnant.</b> <b>Really. Seriously. No, like.</b> <b>Best e-mail I open every morning.</b> <b>Makes me smile. No,</b> <b>we hate the newsletter. We hate the</b> <b>newsletter. I get it. I get it. OK, as</b> <b>someone who?</b> <b>Absolutely adores e-mail newsletters.</b> <b>You're breaking my heart and I'm going to</b> <b>change your mind, so thank you. This is</b> <b>exactly what I was expecting. So. I'm</b> <b>going to stop us there. I'm going to make</b> <b>a really lovely screenshot of that so</b> <b>that we can um. Share that back and</b> <b>remember our hatred for newsletters.</b> <b>After the presentation, but let us get</b> <b>into this now I've got lots to share with</b> <b>you. First, a little bit of data level</b> <b>setting. Um, I just want</b> <b>to recognize that e-mail is not going</b> <b>away. If you feel like you are getting</b> <b>more emails than you ever have before, it</b> <b>is because you are on. The amount</b> <b>of e-mail that we're sending is on the</b> <b>rise and is projected to continue to</b> <b>be on the rise. So this data set here is</b> <b>showing the number of sent and received</b> <b>emails every day on This includes</b> <b>personal and business emails</b> <b>and worldwide through projected through</b> <b>2025. And we're looking at a giant</b> <b>number, thinking about the population of</b> <b>this planet and the amount of emails that</b> <b>I've sent to</b> <b>living aged people who are receiving</b> <b>these emails. This is a whole lot and</b> <b>we're all feeling it and we can expect</b> <b>this volume to just simply increase. This</b> <b>is the world that we're living in. Next</b> <b>level setting moment is that</b> <b>our behavior with e-mail has . changed</b> <b>When I first started writing e-ma</b> <b>l newsletters, I iwas working in.</b> <b>The admissions office at rat writing</b> <b>perspective and parent newsletters</b> <b>and it was the time. It was pretty</b> <b>smartphone. It was the time when you</b> <b>were going to sit down at your desktop</b> <b>and read your e-m. ail</b> <b>as a behavior, as an activityWe would go</b> <b>into work and have a part of our morning</b> <b>would be sitting down and checking e-mail</b> <b>and reading through this stuff. And it</b> <b>was dedicated time and you had the time</b> <b>because you didn't have the same volume</b> <b>and the designs. Much like a newspaper</b> <b>structure and many of</b> <b>the e-mail newsletters thatI see now,</b> <b>much like a newsletter structure, we</b> <b>haven't changed our behavior and</b> <b>our the way, our way of thinking, how</b> <b>we're designing these things.</b> <b>Along with how reader interactions</b> <b>are changing, so this data set is showing</b> <b>situations in which the US workers check</b> <b>their personal e-mail and they're doing</b> <b>it while they're watching TV, while</b> <b>they're on the toilet, while they're on</b> <b>vacation, while they're eating, while</b> <b>they're talking to someone else, while</b> <b>they're on the commute. And then the</b> <b>really fun colors are in the bar graphs.</b> <b>Here is how that changes by generation.</b> <b>And it really what the generational data</b> <b>is telling us is that younger</b> <b>generations. Millennials are much more</b> <b>comfortable checking their e-mail on the</b> <b>toilet. And the older</b> <b>generations, the baby boomers, they'll be</b> <b>there soon. They're catching up. So</b> <b>I younger generations are kind</b> <b>of taking this kind of</b> <b>communication with them anywhere</b> <b>and and and our older</b> <b>generations will. Be doing the same thing</b> <b>soon enough. So that's where we are</b> <b>in e-mail behavior and consumption.</b> <b>I also in the description of this</b> <b>presentation says that I would boast</b> <b>about Cornells</b> <b>open and click rates and so here's my</b> <b>moment to boast about what we're doing.</b> <b>First data set I just want to share is</b> <b>a comparison that is a little dated at</b> <b>this point. We haven't done this</b> <b>benchmarking. I haven't seen</b> <b>updates on this benchmarking in a little</b> <b>over a year, but</b> <b>this is benchmarking with.</b> <b>Three other peer institutions in the Ivy</b> <b>League who use the same e-mail platform</b> <b>we do trying to. Make sure we have</b> <b>those same technical constraints that</b> <b>we're working within and and you can see</b> <b>that we're doing, we're doing something</b> <b>different. Our open rates on</b> <b>average over 60% and our Click</b> <b>to open rates close to 15%.</b> <b>Also want to look at other.</b> <b>Benchmarks. So compared</b> <b>to other industries that we compete with,</b> <b>that other kinds of e-mail that our same</b> <b>alumni base is opening, other nonprofit</b> <b>peers, industry newsletters,</b> <b>political emails that we're receiving on</b> <b>the open rate front, still doing.</b> <b>Bucking the trends and performing really</b> <b>well. And then this is</b> <b>what I'm tracking against now.</b> <b>Looking at the click rates and these same</b> <b>industries killing it,</b> <b>who compared to those political emails</b> <b>really outperforming our nonprofit peers.</b> <b>But the industry news is what we're</b> <b>chasing. And I'm typically when I'm able</b> <b>to pull the audience again. At this point</b> <b>I would ask the question, but now I'm</b> <b>just going to give you the answer. What</b> <b>is it about industry news that they can</b> <b>get these incredible click rates? How are</b> <b>they up over 20%? It's because</b> <b>these. These newsletters are</b> <b>usually career oriented if you think</b> <b>about subscribing to a specific industry</b> <b>and they're packed with valuable</b> <b>information. And so not only are you</b> <b>opening these, you're clicking through to</b> <b>learn something and it's the the intent</b> <b>around the subscription is that it's</b> <b>going to give you a ton of value. And so</b> <b>that's a little bit about what we're</b> <b>chasing in the benchmarking world. So how</b> <b>do we get these results? What are we</b> <b>doing? What is different? The secrets</b> <b>of successful e-mail?Programs</b> <b>really roll up I think into into these</b> <b>three factors. We're choosing quality</b> <b>over quantity of content</b> <b>especially and we saw this in some of the</b> <b>struggles in the beginning polls.</b> <b>There's so much information. How do you</b> <b>get your, the, the message that you</b> <b>really want in front of people while you</b> <b>have to decide and you have to</b> <b>prioritize. And so we</b> <b>want to provide some constraints on some</b> <b>standards of quality to ensure that.</b> <b>Our readers are getting the highest</b> <b>level of quality each time they open</b> <b>their e-mail, and that that consistency</b> <b>is their consistency is another word on</b> <b>the slide, A conversational</b> <b>voice. This medium really</b> <b>calls for conversational tone.</b> <b>We are. It's not like that</b> <b>newspaper anymore where you're</b> <b>reading an article, absorbing the</b> <b>information, and like deleting and</b> <b>setting it aside. Emails are</b> <b>received on devices. Where we have</b> <b>conversations and expect to</b> <b>a communication. So we want to use a</b> <b>conversational voice to help our readers</b> <b>kind of stay in that same mindset and not</b> <b>have to switch to a a different form of</b> <b>communication. And then lastly</b> <b>consistency and frequency in the e-mail</b> <b>program. So while those marketing</b> <b>templates might seem really stale and</b> <b>stagnant, we have to make sure that</b> <b>we're not changing things up in every</b> <b>single e-mail to the point where there's</b> <b>no consistency or brand and you can't</b> <b>recognize. One e-mail from the</b> <b>next and the amount of frequency, volume</b> <b>is really something that I'm finding</b> <b>across our industry. Part of our</b> <b>challenge that we actually can't keep up</b> <b>with the frequency that's needed to keep</b> <b>our alumni engaged. So those are our</b> <b>secrets. I'm going to tell you a little</b> <b>bit more about how exactly we're tackling</b> <b>it, starting first with quality.</b> <b>And quality for our</b> <b>team really is based in</b> <b>in these building blocks of building</b> <b>trust with our audience.</b> <b>This is a model that I discovered in</b> <b>2020, doing some professional</b> <b>development, some organizational</b> <b>development and and</b> <b>so it's meant for</b> <b>individuals and</b> <b>for for you to think about how you</b> <b>interact with anybody.</b> <b>When you have all three components,</b> <b>authenticity, empathy, and trust</b> <b>together, you're going to have our logic</b> <b>is the last one. You're going to have a</b> <b>really trusting relationship. So at any</b> <b>point in a relationship with someone</b> <b>else, if they're coming off not</b> <b>authentic, if they're not empathizing</b> <b>with you or if you just simply can't</b> <b>follow their logic, you're going to be</b> <b>less trusting of that individual. And so</b> <b>we applied the same thinking, these core</b> <b>drivers of trust, to our e-mail</b> <b>marketing. And this is how we do it. So</b> <b>this is the Cornell Trust Triangle.</b> <b>In the authenticity piece we're</b> <b>asking. We're making sure that our</b> <b>writers are</b> <b>thinking about the voice, that</b> <b>conversational voice. But having a voice</b> <b>and keeping it real, keeping it really</b> <b>honest, we're making sure that.</b> <b>We're not saying that something is</b> <b>exciting if it's not, we're</b> <b>not going to tell you to take this quick</b> <b>survey if it takes 20 minutes. So we're</b> <b>doing that gut check that we're being</b> <b>real and honest and that we're showing</b> <b>some emotion. You will see that we're</b> <b>using emojis and we're using</b> <b>puns and expressive words to</b> <b>show a little bit of personality in our</b> <b>communication. And that's that's our</b> <b>voice and we try to stay true to it.</b> <b>In terms of empathy, empathy is hugely</b> <b>important in not</b> <b>only earning readership,</b> <b>but maintaining it. And So what we try to</b> <b>do is anticipate what the reader needs</b> <b>and making sure that we're investing in</b> <b>their success. And this is something that</b> <b>I think those, those industry newsletters</b> <b>that we're chasing do really, really</b> <b>well. So we try to be timely and</b> <b>relevant with the content and</b> <b>also just try to think about how we can</b> <b>lend a helping hand if it's preventing a</b> <b>resource. Or even just making somebody</b> <b>smile that day. And then the last piece</b> <b>is the logic piece. We're trying to be</b> <b>really, really consistent in our</b> <b>communication of when things are being</b> <b>sent and what kinds of things we're</b> <b>asking people to do.</b> <b>And also making the information really</b> <b>easy to follow. So when we're</b> <b>introducing a call to action, we want to</b> <b>make sure that those steps are really</b> <b>clear.</b> <b>A few more notes about conversational</b> <b>tone.</b> <b>I referenced this book that</b> <b>is linked here, nicely said</b> <b>all the time, and</b> <b>on their website that I'm linking to,</b> <b>there is a free chapter on writing</b> <b>basics that covers conversational tone.</b> <b>But the keys to conversational tone are</b> <b>this. If there is a shorter way to say</b> <b>what you mean, use it.</b> <b>Avoid abbreviations and</b> <b>acronyms, even if it's a common</b> <b>abbreviation or acronym for your</b> <b>audience. Spell it out</b> <b>because it helps with clarity and it</b> <b>helps people read faster. Even if it's a</b> <b>common acronym, they still have to unpack</b> <b>it in their brain. Make your</b> <b>e-mail scannable.</b> <b>Poll related ideas together and</b> <b>use simple sentences.</b> <b>Be honest. Being honest means</b> <b>being self aware. So again, don't say</b> <b>something as quick or exciting if it</b> <b>isn't. Be considerate.</b> <b>When I think of being considerate in</b> <b>e-mail, it's mostly like not wasting the</b> <b>person's time. We're we're against a time</b> <b>clock. How much time has someone</b> <b>dedicated dedicating to looking at their</b> <b>e-mail right now? Probably minutes,</b> <b>and they want to get through as many as</b> <b>possible, so you've got seconds of their</b> <b>time and you don't want to waste it. You</b> <b>want to get right to the point. You want</b> <b>to be polite. You want to be inclusive in</b> <b>your language. Avoid jargon,</b> <b>avoid cultural references that could trip</b> <b>people up. And you remember,</b> <b>using that conversational tone is writing</b> <b>how you speak. You're going to talk to</b> <b>your readers, not at them.</b> <b>Next, I want to introduce you to our</b> <b>newsletter.</b> <b>In the slides that are shared, they're</b> <b>already in the community, I believe</b> <b>are you'll be able to kind of click</b> <b>through and interact with these emails</b> <b>and scroll and see some examples. I've</b> <b>got three different newsletter examples</b> <b>available in a screenshot of 1 is up</b> <b>right now. So our our</b> <b>alumni newsletter strategy is to serve</b> <b>people what they need to do it every</b> <b>Tuesday and to do it with</b> <b>emoji, but to do it with</b> <b>with some heart. And you'll</b> <b>see that in our headline. In the</b> <b>snapshots here, we're using emojis to to</b> <b>call attention, to clarify a little bit</b> <b>what it is the content is.</b> <b>Umm. A lot of times</b> <b>in our newsletters we are we're after</b> <b>clicks. So I want to describe some ways</b> <b>to click bait. And you might be saying</b> <b>like, wow, that's a hack. That's how your</b> <b>click rates are so high. Why is this</b> <b>meaningful? What we're trying to do with</b> <b>the newsletter is create a habit. We</b> <b>are trying to create a habit of when</b> <b>Cornell sends you an e-mail, it has</b> <b>something good in it that you want to</b> <b>open and click. So we are serving.</b> <b>People, the things that they have told us</b> <b>are click worthy and here are</b> <b>some of the things that we're doing that</b> <b>work really well. One of them is</b> <b>adding in line links.</b> <b>So in your copy in your</b> <b>text, if you've got kind of a little</b> <b>solid paragraph of text</b> <b>providing links in line, they could be</b> <b>helpful in line links or</b> <b>sometimes we link to things that are</b> <b>funny. And a good example was we had a</b> <b>newsletter drop on Groundhog Day.</b> <b>Groundhog Day happened to be a Tuesday,</b> <b>it was a newsletter day and we decided</b> <b>to, throughout the newsletter had</b> <b>gifts that went out. To giphy</b> <b>. com of the Groundhog Day movie. And so</b> <b>they added a little bit of expression.</b> <b>They made people laugh when they clicked</b> <b>through and it peaked curiosity and what</b> <b>is behind these links that Cornell is</b> <b>sending me. And so those kinds of</b> <b>tricks can boost your click through rate</b> <b>going forward. We can do we do things</b> <b>like quizzes. This example on the</b> <b>newsletter that's up right now is it an</b> <b>example of a quiz The</b> <b>question was about how many apples.</b> <b>Cornell had helped</b> <b>produce and when you and</b> <b>every single button here is very basic</b> <b>HTML, there's no fancy design happening.</b> <b>Every single link goes into the same</b> <b>exact spot, which is the answer of how</b> <b>many apples is something over</b> <b>70 that Cornell</b> <b>created Really hard not to click on a</b> <b>quiz and see if you're right. So those</b> <b>are a lot of fun, and we'll definitely</b> <b>boost click rates. Umm.</b> <b>When we first started ramping up our</b> <b>e-mail program in 2020, we</b> <b>found that the top click thing and every</b> <b>single newsletter was our digital</b> <b>download that we offered. And he used</b> <b>that term a little bit loosely. Some</b> <b>digital downloads are things that we</b> <b>created on our own, some</b> <b>are. Digital download</b> <b>adjacent, like a link</b> <b>to the campus webcam during a</b> <b>snowstorm. I would consider that a</b> <b>digital offer, and those are really</b> <b>popular. But other downloads that we've</b> <b>done are things like zoom</b> <b>backgrounds, desktop</b> <b>backgrounds we've done.</b> <b>Bullet journals and like little calendars</b> <b>and a lot of other printables, I've got</b> <b>this little craft behind me on my</b> <b>window sill. That's a little bear that</b> <b>you could print out and pull together.</b> <b>Those are the kinds of things that we</b> <b>found that. Alumni were clicking on the</b> <b>most, and so then we tried to</b> <b>incorporate more and more of of those</b> <b>digital downloads in each newsletter.</b> <b>Again, we're trying to create this habit</b> <b>of there's something inside this</b> <b>newsletter that I want and so next</b> <b>time I see Cornell send me an e-mail, I'm</b> <b>goingto keep it for a time when</b> <b>I can open and click it and and</b> <b>interact with the content. The last</b> <b>note before we move on from this slide is</b> <b>asking for instant feedback. So when</b> <b>we try a new feature in our newsletter or</b> <b>when we're simply just trying to boost</b> <b>engagement, we will add a</b> <b>question with these little thumbs up and</b> <b>thumbs down emojis. I've</b> <b>seen us do things like around the holiday</b> <b>season saying Are you ready for the</b> <b>holidays, yes or no and</b> <b>sending people out to funny</b> <b>holiday gifts.</b> <b>We've added new features</b> <b>like student quotes to our newsletter,</b> <b>and we were curious whether people wanted</b> <b>to hear. More from students or see more</b> <b>student quotes and they could give us</b> <b>some instant feedback by clicking on the</b> <b>yes or No. And those were</b> <b>easily tracked through trackable</b> <b>links and</b> <b>provided really good feedback and</b> <b>boosted our engagement rates at the same</b> <b>time. There</b> <b>was a question that was or a challenge</b> <b>that was in the slide. Oh, and I'm happy</b> <b>to say that I can answer that one now.</b> <b>How do you get the content together?</b> <b>We have a few different practices that we</b> <b>use to make sure that we have enough</b> <b>planned to be able to send an all alumni</b> <b>newsletter every single Tuesday.</b> <b>First, we'll brainstorm quarterly</b> <b>themes. We get out a quarter ahead and</b> <b>kind of decide what the high overarching</b> <b>theme is going to be. For those next</b> <b>three months. And so we can kind of map</b> <b>against the calendar what's going on</b> <b>in alumni lives during those times and</b> <b>how can we insert ourselves into their</b> <b>life, how can we be helpful in those</b> <b>moments, how can we provide support. And</b> <b>so we do that kind of on a quarterly</b> <b>pace. Then we'll select the</b> <b>news stories that are the most relevant</b> <b>and the most relevant. News story is not</b> <b>always the most recently published one.</b> <b>That is a habit that</b> <b>a lot of teams get in is that here are</b> <b>the most recent news stories. We need to</b> <b>make sure people see what's new. When you</b> <b>might have a new story that is</b> <b>sometimes over a year old but suddenly</b> <b>is in the current</b> <b>conversation, it would be really</b> <b>relevant. To share. So think about</b> <b>the news stories and the stories that</b> <b>you're telling other stories that you're</b> <b>telling. In terms of their relevance.</b> <b>And don't be afraid to repeat stories</b> <b>that you've already shared. Chances are</b> <b>not everybody read that story. So don't</b> <b>be afraid to repeat. And you'll find</b> <b>that when you do choose the stories based</b> <b>on relevance, those click rates are going</b> <b>to go up. We're also sharing</b> <b>upcoming events. They're timely.</b> <b>They're relevant because they're having</b> <b>in a in a in a</b> <b>defined timeline and then</b> <b>on. The last bit of of advice is having a</b> <b>go to store source for stock</b> <b>photography and digital downloads</b> <b>and I'm offering up Free Pick</b> <b>and Etsy ads recommendations. Today Free</b> <b>pick has a.</b> <b>Really affordable subscription model</b> <b>and stock photography that is not super</b> <b>cringy. They have.</b> <b>I remember in the example I just showed</b> <b>we were looking for. An</b> <b>image to show with the apple quiz. Well,</b> <b>we don't need a Cornell scientist in a</b> <b>lab holding an apple. We just need to get</b> <b>our e-mail out so we can use stock</b> <b>photography and show some beautiful</b> <b>apples and and still</b> <b>have the high quality visual</b> <b>imagery that we need. Again, I see</b> <b>teams getting stuck in needing to use</b> <b>campus photography for everything and</b> <b>it ends up being a real challenge and and</b> <b>limiting and what you can show</b> <b>and then. Etsy has been a really great</b> <b>source for digital downloads for us.</b> <b>We've searched what really good</b> <b>printables are and what it's trending in</b> <b>the digital download world there, and</b> <b>we've also reached out to artists on Etsy</b> <b>to help us customize their work to make</b> <b>it Cornell branded.</b> <b>OK, so that is the e-mail newsletter</b> <b>strategy. The next strategy I'm going to</b> <b>share is our single call to action</b> <b>strategy.</b> <b>Are all of my newsletter goes out every</b> <b>Tuesday? Every Thursday we send</b> <b>another e-mail. Every Thursdayis a</b> <b>single call to action. It typically</b> <b>also will go to all alumni or another</b> <b>priority segment depending on what the</b> <b>offer is if we feel like we need to</b> <b>segment it. So those go every</b> <b>Thursday and then we're going to</b> <b>speak to the audience in these,</b> <b>not at them. So we're using that same</b> <b>conversational voice and tone. This</b> <b>single action e-mail</b> <b>template from my friend and</b> <b>co-author Dave Kibbles, is something I</b> <b>reference all the time. What</b> <b>it is showing you here is where to place</b> <b>information in your call to action</b> <b>e-mail, and it's also highlighting</b> <b>exactly how people are skimming. Those</b> <b>emails. So it's emphasizing where to put</b> <b>the important words based on where the</b> <b>readers eye is going to go. In an</b> <b>emails, it goes in an F pattern. They</b> <b>look straight down the e-mail scanning</b> <b>all of those words first, and then</b> <b>they'll go back and read across.</b> <b>It looks like that there is the pattern.</b> <b>So how much content is too much content?</b> <b>Really, if you're skimming</b> <b>that e-mail for morethan 10 seconds,</b> <b>you've got a long e-mail. I think Dave</b> <b>would argue 3 to 5 seconds. I'm going to</b> <b>give you 10 to get through the whole</b> <b>thing. Ways to kind of</b> <b>shorten the e-mail content is to take the</b> <b>details that you're trying to share and</b> <b>get them on a website. It's a</b> <b>really good practice to keep the core of</b> <b>your messaging. All of these like really</b> <b>specific details living on your website</b> <b>and not in your e-mail communication,</b> <b>especially if it's detailed information</b> <b>that could change in the future. I always</b> <b>think about event details if you're</b> <b>sharing all of the parking information</b> <b>and what time registration opens and all</b> <b>of these. This specific details in your</b> <b>e-mail and then those times</b> <b>change. You can't go back and change</b> <b>your e-mail and people have this bad</b> <b>information in their e-mail inbox</b> <b>when if you had said all of the really</b> <b>good information is going to live on this</b> <b>landing page. Here's the e-mail that you</b> <b>need with the link to the landing page.</b> <b>Then you can update the information on</b> <b>the website and people always have the</b> <b>right information if they're referencing</b> <b>their e-mail. And again, it's</b> <b>helping you keep that e-mail shorter,</b> <b>tubing them kind of like skim through.</b> <b>Ohh, I see what this is. Yes, it's my</b> <b>information. OK, it'll be on the link.</b> <b>And so again, trying to decide how much</b> <b>content you need, you can pay attention</b> <b>to a couple metrics that will tell you</b> <b>if I'm things at the bottom of</b> <b>your e-mail are not getting clicked</b> <b>through, you probably have too much</b> <b>content in there. If you</b> <b>are experiencing high unsubscribe</b> <b>rates, there's probably too</b> <b>much content in there or some kind</b> <b>of a relevance to the reader. The</b> <b>message that they're receiving and what</b> <b>they were expecting.</b> <b>And so now you might ask, how do we do it</b> <b>with giving solicitations? I saw a lot of</b> <b>people who are sending emails to donors.</b> <b>Well, we do it the same way.</b> <b>Same exact strategy. We write the</b> <b>same way and we try to inspire</b> <b>people through</b> <b>our e-mail to make gifts to the</b> <b>university. So I've got a sample of one</b> <b>of our giving date emails here, and</b> <b>another sample that you'll be able to</b> <b>click through and interact with and you</b> <b>can see. That our engagement rates</b> <b>in these giving emails are just as</b> <b>strong as those</b> <b>engagement emails on</b> <b>55% open rates.</b> <b>Very low unsubscribe rate</b> <b>for these emails and</b> <b>just from our e-mail program alone on</b> <b>giving day we raised $2.26 million</b> <b>through. Having</b> <b>a really strong e-mail program, building</b> <b>that habit with our readers, that when</b> <b>they get something from us, it's going to</b> <b>be fun, it's going to have a</b> <b>conversational voice, it's going to be</b> <b>something that you're going to want to</b> <b>interact with.</b> <b>And one of the ways we keep our</b> <b>unsubscribe rates so low is</b> <b>again leaning on that empathy</b> <b>pillar of the triangle.</b> <b>And and we use something</b> <b>that we internally refer to as our soft</b> <b>opt out to help us</b> <b>kind of soften the blow of the massive</b> <b>e-mail volume that we send out during</b> <b>giving days and then also throughout the</b> <b>rest of the year. So our soft opt out and</b> <b>our giving the e-mail would look</b> <b>something like this. It would show up</b> <b>above the footer. So it's not going to be</b> <b>buried all the way down where we have our</b> <b>our other Unsubscribe and Manage your</b> <b>references link. It's actually going to</b> <b>show up more towards the top and the body</b> <b>of the e-mail and then this one. It was a</b> <b>PS message that said is giving day not</b> <b>your thing. That's OK too opting out of</b> <b>giving the emails from the university.</b> <b>It's quick and easy and should keep your</b> <b>inbox clear. Very few people</b> <b>click on this and.</b> <b>When they do, it sends them to a</b> <b>form that we are managing outside of the</b> <b>e-mail service provider environment. So</b> <b>we're manually managing these</b> <b>unsubscribes and our soft opt outs</b> <b>much of the time because we want</b> <b>people to be able to take a pause and not</b> <b>unsubscribe from e-mail altogether. I've</b> <b>got two more examples of us doing this in</b> <b>our newsletter. It would say something</b> <b>like too much for your inbox. Let us</b> <b>know here if that you'd like to get less.</b> <b>E-mail and we'll remove remove you from</b> <b>this newsletter until June 30th so that</b> <b>when they click on that they have the</b> <b>option to opt out for six months or a</b> <b>year. Another example</b> <b>from a solicitation outside of Giving day</b> <b>Are you unable to support Cornell</b> <b>financially at this time? We understand</b> <b>opting out of giving emails should</b> <b>minimize how much you hear from us. You</b> <b>can opt out of these communications at</b> <b>any time.</b> <b>And I've got a couple more notes about</b> <b>emailing with empathy, which really is,</b> <b>again, just like anticipating what the</b> <b>audience needs are. My</b> <b>colleague who runs our e-mail program</b> <b>wouldsay a good way to do this is to</b> <b>look at the e-mail you're about to send</b> <b>and ask yourselves what inbox you're</b> <b>replies you expect to receive</b> <b>from sending that e-mail. And if there's</b> <b>something that you can catch ahead of</b> <b>time, that's where you're meeting the</b> <b>audience with empathy. So this example is</b> <b>from. Our trusty election</b> <b>where when readers Click to</b> <b>vote, they were going to be asked</b> <b>for their school net ID and</b> <b>so we anticipated that need. And right</b> <b>under the button we said you'll need your</b> <b>net ID. It's this like here it is for</b> <b>you. It's right there for you.</b> <b>Another good example is</b> <b>when we send out big event</b> <b>communication. One of the first responses</b> <b>we will get is Is my friend coming?</b> <b>Did you see him? This person registered?</b> <b>And so we will add a See Who's Coming</b> <b>link in the e-mail. That</b> <b>alwaysgets a really</b> <b>high click rate first of all, but it's</b> <b>also just serving them what we know</b> <b>they're interested in and getting it</b> <b>right in front of them ahead of time.</b> <b>And last example for this is that you</b> <b>might have stories that you're sharing</b> <b>with multimedia components. And so if you</b> <b>have a long form article, a really good</b> <b>story that was written up that also has a</b> <b>video component with it, think about</b> <b>offering both modes when you're</b> <b>presenting it in an e-mail. And so here's</b> <b>an example. Of a mummy bird</b> <b>mystery. I would click on that. But now</b> <b>you have the option to click on whether</b> <b>you want to watch the video or read the</b> <b>full story. And depending on whether</b> <b>someone was scrolling their e-mail</b> <b>in bed or on their commute, they might</b> <b>choose one mode over another.</b> <b>I've just got one more slide, which is</b> <b>how the heck do you do all of this?</b> <b>On just a little note about Cornell</b> <b>'s e-mail operation, we do have a shared</b> <b>calendar that we use. We</b> <b>have a full e-mail support team that is</b> <b>cranking out these emails twice a week</b> <b>and we use an intake form and a</b> <b>pretty sophisticated project management</b> <b>process to manage our workflow and keep</b> <b>everything running, that is.</b> <b>Everything I wanted to tell you. I hope I</b> <b>answered a lot of questions, but we've</b> <b>got time for more,</b> <b>so I would love to turn it over to you</b> <b>all and see what else we can pack in</b> <b>here. Awesome. Thank you so much Ashley.</b> <b>Let's get right into it. We have so many</b> <b>questions. What</b> <b>the first one is? What are the best</b> <b>practices for getting our community</b> <b>members, for example, alumni, students,</b> <b>parents to give us their updated contact</b> <b>information?Yeah, if you</b> <b>contact information is a good one. You</b> <b>usually have to go multi channel with</b> <b>this because if you have bad contact</b> <b>info. Where you might not</b> <b>be reaching them at all. So when I think</b> <b>about people who are truly off the grid,</b> <b>we have no good contact information for</b> <b>them whatsoever. There are two places</b> <b>you could go. One would be to purchase</b> <b>contact information. There are services</b> <b>that will do data appends to</b> <b>your database and give you some</b> <b>information that's available.</b> <b>The other is social media and paid media</b> <b>and trying to rally</b> <b>people by word of mouth or by paid</b> <b>advertisement to come back to you. A</b> <b>lot of times you have to provide an</b> <b>incentive to give people,</b> <b>an incentive for people to give give you</b> <b>their information. So think about what</b> <b>would be enticing enough or compelling</b> <b>enough for someone to want to resubscribe</b> <b>and opt back in to your communication.</b> <b>Present the value that they're going to</b> <b>receive once they do. Left back in and</b> <b>show them what they could be missing in a</b> <b>way that sounds meaningful</b> <b>to their needs. Aside</b> <b>from, just stay connected with your alma</b> <b>mater. And</b> <b>um, yeah. And so thinking about the</b> <b>multiple modes, if you know you have a</b> <b>good mailing address, maybe you can get</b> <b>in front of them with a postcard and a QR</b> <b>code to get them back online if you know</b> <b>you've got a phone number. Make a</b> <b>call, send a text and think</b> <b>about kind of blinking at it in a multi</b> <b>channel way and if you can</b> <b>think about one big incentive that</b> <b>can like tie that up into a a</b> <b>reengagement campaign that might actually</b> <b>help others.</b> <b>Others help you spread the word if you</b> <b>could, You know, leverage some</b> <b>ambassadors to get their classmates to</b> <b>tell them about a new reengagement</b> <b>program. But it's a</b> <b>challenge. It's not impossible, but it's</b> <b>definitely a challenge. Thank you.</b> <b>How do you manage scheduling when every</b> <b>program, department or college, etc sends</b> <b>emails?Yes.</b> <b>Great, great challenge, great question.</b> <b>The way we've tackled this is</b> <b>by providing a</b> <b>calendar, first of all, providing a</b> <b>resource. We use air table</b> <b>for our calendar</b> <b>and we like that tool because it</b> <b>provides a calendar view, it provides a</b> <b>database view and it provides</b> <b>intake form. So the simplest</b> <b>way to get your communication on the</b> <b>calendar. Is by submitting it through the</b> <b>form you put the name the send date.</b> <b>Details as much detail as you can.</b> <b>Um. That you want in that record</b> <b>and boom, it's on, it's on the calendar.</b> <b>And so providing it, providing that as a</b> <b>resource just to start,</b> <b>shows people that we can plan</b> <b>together and everybody has like a shared</b> <b>a shared interest in that. We don't want</b> <b>to have to fight each other for space.</b> <b>We don't want to send our e-mail on the</b> <b>same day that a whole bunch of other ones</b> <b>are going out. So if everybody's using</b> <b>the same tool, then we can stay out of</b> <b>each other's way and each e-mail then</b> <b>kind of has its own. Chance to actually</b> <b>work. Otherwise it's going to be a.</b> <b>Unfilter able mess</b> <b>so everybody can benefit</b> <b>from shared calendar tool. Also,</b> <b>is there a suggested frequency of mass</b> <b>e-mail communication to alumni?</b> <b>Yes, yes, really, really good question.</b> <b>There's a technical component to consider</b> <b>here. Your e-mail sender</b> <b>reputation is reviewed every month by</b> <b>the big e-mail service providerslike</b> <b>Apple Mail and Gmail and all of these</b> <b>places. They are</b> <b>looking at your sender's IP</b> <b>address and deciding how</b> <b>reputable it is. So they're the ones who</b> <b>are deciding whether this should go into</b> <b>junk or spam or promotions or</b> <b>what have you. And</b> <b>so sending just one e-mail a</b> <b>month. Is not great.</b> <b>Um, to your large constituency, because</b> <b>it's you're you're showing that. Well,</b> <b>depending on how well that e-mail does,</b> <b>if that one e-mail does really well,</b> <b>great. You might end up with a solid</b> <b>tender reputation. But</b> <b>thinking about. The the</b> <b>consistency and frequency of.</b> <b>Um, good emails opening</b> <b>over a 30 day period.</b> <b>That is really what is.</b> <b>That that's what's translating to whether</b> <b>you're getting put into junk and spam.</b> <b>So, um, so I look at</b> <b>our. Weekly</b> <b>newsletter signs as being the</b> <b>consistent drum beat that all</b> <b>alumni are getting. That's really keeping</b> <b>our IP reputation healthy.</b> <b>And it helps balance some of these</b> <b>other single call to action emails that</b> <b>might not perform the same way</b> <b>or other kind of pilot initiatives that</b> <b>we're not sure how they're going to go.</b> <b>But if your calendar is structured in a</b> <b>way where you do a lot at certain times</b> <b>of the year and then you go quiet. Other</b> <b>times of the year, that's going to hurt</b> <b>your senator reputation, and I saw so</b> <b>many. So</b> <b>many schools go really quiet during the</b> <b>pandemic and totally pull back and that</b> <b>sends things for a long time and they're</b> <b>still kind of like climbing their way</b> <b>back out of of that. So</b> <b>instead you have to lean in during those</b> <b>times, figure out where you can provide</b> <b>value, keep the connection strong. But</b> <b>really super awesome question and I think</b> <b>we're at time, so if anybody wants to</b> <b>still connect with me, really easy to</b> <b>find online, I'll also be on the</b> <b>faculty for CASE Summer Institute for</b> <b>Communications. Marketing. It's not too</b> <b>late to sign up and come learn more from</b> <b>me and Day, she'll be there too.</b> <b>Awesome. Thank you, Ashley. Please don't</b> <b>forget to submit an evaluation on the</b> <b>right hand side. It's under the feedback</b> <b>tab. Have a great day. Thank you so much</b> <b>for joining. Bye everyone. Thank you for having me.</b>
Video Summary
In the video, Ashley Budd, Director of Marketing Operations at Cornell University, discusses how to create effective emails that people want to read. She starts by discussing some housekeeping notes for the session, such as using the chat for discussion and the Q&A box for questions. She introduces herself and talks about her experience working remotely since 2014.<br /><br />Ashley then transitions into the main topic of creating engaging emails. She emphasizes the importance of building trust with the audience by being authentic, empathetic, and consistent. She mentions the need for quality over quantity of content and highlights the importance of using a conversational tone in emails.<br /><br />Ashley shares examples of Cornell University's newsletters and solicitation emails, explaining the strategies they use to boost engagement and click rates. She mentions the use of in-line links, quizzes, and digital downloads as effective tactics.<br /><br />She also discusses the importance of managing email scheduling and suggests using a shared calendar to coordinate communication efforts. Ashley advises against sending emails too infrequently, as it can negatively impact sender reputation.<br /><br />Finally, she addresses questions from the audience, including how to obtain updated contact information from community members and the suggested frequency of mass email communication. Ashley recommends a multi-channel approach for obtaining contact information and emphasizes the importance of maintaining regular communication to keep sender reputation healthy.<br /><br />Overall, the video provides insights and strategies for creating effective emails that resonate with the audience and drive engagement.
Asset Caption
CASE Career Level: 3
CASE Competencies: Industry/Sector Expertise
Keywords
Ashley Budd
effective emails
engaging emails
building trust
conversational tone
boost engagement
email scheduling
sender reputation
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