The Cultivation Challenge
 
Successful cultivation of constituents is often difficult to achieve through traditional communication channels. Building relationships by sending out communiqués through direct mail campaigns or telemarketing programs typically has been cost-prohibitive for most nonprofit organizations.  In fact, most have not been able to engage in extensive cultivation beyond their major donors. Even less encouraging, a highly successful direct mail acquisition program -- by widely accepted standards -- only yields a response rate of 1 percent and a small positive net contribution. However, the Internet opens up a whole new world to nonprofits because email is a low-cost, high-impact outreach tool for cultivating constituents.
 
How Email Can Help
 
Email has surpassed the mail system as a channel for communication. More than 200 billion emails were sent in 2001, according to Forrester Research estimates. Americans increasingly are relying on email as the preferred medium of communications. The Pew Internet and American Life Project reports that Americans love email so much that 77 percent of users would "miss it" if email disappeared and 49 percent would "miss it a lot."(1) Email represents a powerful mechanism for reaching out to and cultivating prospects, and also for stewarding relationships with current donors. 
 
The following best practices are essential for ensuring that prospects actually read and respond to email communiqués. 
 
1. Communicate with permission
 
Permission marketing allows an organization to retain the trust and confidence of supporters.  In the context of email cultivation, permission marketing involves allowing people to opt-in (subscribe) and opt-out (unsubscribe) from communications. To read more about permission-based marketing, please refer to the article, "The DOs and DON'Ts of Sending Email Gaining Permission to Market Online," in Convio Monthly, June 2001.
 
2. Make content relevant
 
The more relevant and compelling the information an organization distributes, the better the response will be from email recipients.  The subject line for an email is critical. Along with the quality of the list, the subject line heavily determines whether recipients open the email, or the "open rate" (see this month's associated article on tracking for a definition of open rate). The quality and relevancy of content within the body of the email is a significant driver of the "click-through rate," or the percentage of people who click on a link in an email to take action or donate. Just like direct mail, segmentation of an organization's prospect file based upon factors such as a constituent's interest improves response rates. Effective e-marketing tools allow far easier and more granular segmentation than possible with direct mail.
 
3. Optimize format
 
The format of a successful email is substantially different than that of a successful direct mail piece.  Messages should be:

• Much shorter to fit into the browser window and because people expect shorter communications online.
• Punchier -- bullet-point-type language versus full text is commonly used online.
• Eye-catching with visual elements to encourage action.

In the commercial retail sector, response rates to rich format (HTML) messages are significantly higher than that of plain text, according to initial research.  In May 2000, Borders.com, the retail store, found that its rich format (HTML) email newsletter had a 15 to 20 percent click-through rate, which is well above the industry average click-through rate of 5.6 percent for plain-text e-mail.(2)   However, it is important to remember that some people are not able to read rich format messages on their computers, so an organization should select an email tool that supports the distribution of both rich and text format messages, automatically detecting when someone cannot accept HTML (graphical) email.

4. Relevancy drives frequency

How often should you send emails to prospects? While there is no "right" or "wrong" answer, the general rule of thumb is that relevance of the content which an organization can share should drive frequency of email distribution. The majority of nonprofit groups that publish email newsletters send them at least once a month, according to research conducted by Convio. Some groups with highly emotive causes -- such as The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (a Convio client) -- send out weekly email newsletters. Ad hoc communications, for example, to promote events and/or distribute news updates, can be more frequent. For instance, informing event goers of a scheduling, appearance or location change is relevant and important to communicate whereas an additional email promoting the event may be a turn off.  If in doubt, ask the question, "Is this information really useful to disseminate?" In most cases, the answer will be obvious. 

5. Optimize timing of email distribution
 
Distributing an email at the wrong time of day or even on the wrong day of the week can cause a low response rate. For instance, for some nonprofits, the weekends may not the best time to drop a communiqué, either by paper or email, but Thursday afternoons might produce strong response rates. Other organizations might find that the opposite is true. To maximize the effectiveness of your email communications with each set of constituents, test different drop days and times and consider the findings when building email schedules. 
 
Summary
 
By understanding how and when constituents consume and respond to information online, a fundraiser can maximize email response rates. Additional important strategies for nonprofits regarding online cultivation include: maintaining fresh content on the organization's Web site; engaging constituents through tools such as online surveys; and offering participation in advocacy activities as a no-cost opportunity to show support for the organization. Please watch for more in-depth coverage of these engagement strategies in upcoming issues of Convio Monthly.  

 (1) "The Pew Internet and American Life Project" http://www.pewinternet.org/, quoted in Lipman Hearne's email newsletter, "Stop the Presses? Direct Email," Net Results, Issue 23, 1999.

(2) "In May 2000, Borders's monthly e-mail newsletters have experienced a 15 to 20 percent click-through rate, meaning that every month roughly 200,000 customers follow the HTML e-mail links to Borders's website. That's well above the industry average click-through rate of 5.6 percent for plain-text e-mail, according to eMarketer, a New York-based research firm." Mark Borden, "Case Studies: Borders.com," Business 2.0, June 2001.