<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>

Ashley Budd

effective emails

engaging emails

building trust

conversational tone

boost engagement

email scheduling

sender reputation