Sixty two percent of non-profits in a recent study sent new e-mail subscribers a welcome message, according to Return Path.
The figure far surpasses commercial mailers’ track record in this most basic of best practices, according to Return Path.
Just 40% of commercial mailers send welcome e-mails to new registrants, according to the e-mail deliverability consultancy.
Sending a “welcome” message is considered a key tactic for getting new registrants engaged in the marketer’s e-mail program.
Welcome e-mails are also considered to be a key way to limit spam complaints from new subscribers who may not have supplied their address or who may forget they supplied their address if they don’t hear from the mailer shortly after signup.
But moving beyond the basic welcome message, non-profits aren’t so stellar, according to Return Path.
For example, while more than half of the non-profits in the study asked for geographic information during the signup process, just 12% used it to tailor messages to recipients, according to Return Path.
“They’re not taking the time to maximize the channel the way they should,” said Bonnie Malone, director of response consulting for Return Path.
Malone also said the study revealed many non-profits change their “from” lines from mailing to mailing, a practice experts recommend against.
Multiple studies over the years have shown that most people decide whether or not to open an e-mail based on who is in the “from” line and whether or not they have found messages from the sender valuable in the past.
“Overall, we were happy to see that non-profit advocacy and arts organizations have embraced the power of e-mail marketing,” said Malone in a statement. “They’re following many best practices. However, we think they’re missing out on the ability to make e-mail an even more-powerful 1-to-1 marketing tool by customizing their messages – targeting geographically with local-specific news or providing contact information for local politicians, segmenting content based subscribers’ varied interests, and so on.”
The study evaluated the e-mail practices of 50 non-profit advocacy groups and arts organizations, according to Return Path.
