Maximsing email marketing

By Sue Fidler, Third Sector, 18 June 2008

Sue Fidler says charities need to get the maximum value from email marketing.

Email is the cheapest and fastest form of marketing most of us can afford. It arrives almost immediately, gets read within 24 hours, costs 1p per message and doesn't take expensive design and print agencies to produce. On top of that, we get instant reporting: we know who has opened, clicked and responded to our messages.

So it is disturbing to see the number of charities that still don't ask for email as a standard part of every data-capture contact with donors, campaigners, supporters and clients.

Whereas many have now added email to their donation forms, many still don't have email sign-up forms on their websites. Some have it on the web donation forms but not the paper ones. Many don't have it on petitions and sponsorship forms or include it in their telephone scripts.
Given the increasing pressure to raise the return on investment and maintain our income streams with less expenditure, and the pressure to become more environmentally friendly, email must be high on the list of cost-effective ways we can communicate.

Staff who say "it won't suit our donors; they aren't the right age" are ignoring the growth of the Saga social network and the fact that anyone who has retired from an office in the past 10 years will have used a PC - and the fact that these people are affluent professionals with disposable income.

Without in any way ignoring the potential importance of Facebook and Bebo for mass communication, or the trend among 15 to 21-year-olds for finding it "too slow", email is the most modern and up-to-date communication method available. Email addresses are valuable assets.

- Sue Fidler is an independent charity ICT and internet consultant.