It’s easy to struggle with email marketing, not knowing what and when to send. Most email marketing fails because there isn’t a plan. Putting a plan in place keeps you focused, motivated, and accountable. We’ll show you how to put together a solid plan in 15 minutes or less to help you meet your organization’s goals.
In this free one hour webinar, we’ll show you:
- How to support your goals with email
- The types of nonprofit emails that get results
- 3 simple steps to plan your email marketing strategy
Here you'll find the questions asked by our attendees during the webinar. Want to view the recording? Click here to register and gain access!
Interested in our free, future webinars? Sign up here to stay informed!
Resources mentioned during the webinar:
[Guide] Do More For Your Cause With Email Marketing
Strategy
Q: Is it a better idea to send emails to all your contacts or should you categorize your email list?
A: It depends on your contacts. If you feel like the content within the email campaign is relevant to all your contacts, you can create and manage a master list and send the campaign to the entire list. However, if you feel that there is content within your email campaign that will be more relevant for one group of people more than others, then it will be wise to segment your database accordingly with lists. By having a master list and a different lists, you can be more flexible with the content of your mailings.
Q: If you’re new to email marketing with Constant Contact, how much information is too much?
A: A good rule of thumb is to only include as much information the person needs to take the action you want them to take.
Q: What are some great subject lines to hook readers?
A: You want to make sure that your subject line is short and descriptive, void of any spam-like characteristics, and enticing. For instance, asking questions is a great way to entice customers to open the email campaign. We have a great article from our Knowledge Base with some tips on how to optimize your subject line.
Q: Do you recommend against sending out a longer newsletter because of its length?
A: We suggest shorter, focused newsletters because they often perform better than long, text heavy newsletters. The average attention span is about 10 seconds, so you want to make sure that your newsletters are short, sweet, and to the point. This will also increase the possibility of getting contacts to click through your links and possibly help to drive traffic to your website, articles, and/or social media sites.
Q: What are the best days of the week and times to send emails?
A: This usually depends on what type of business you have. You can find some information by clicking here.
Q: What are your thoughts about monthly newsletters?
A: These are great for informational types of emails. In a future webinar, you'll see how we recommend sending a series of emails for specific time-based campaigns.
Email
Q: Is there an easy way to convert a legacy template to the new format?
A: You will need to manually recreate your campaign in our new Third Generation Editor. To create a new campaign, click on the Campaigns tab, then click on Create, and select Email. You will be able to select any template to recreate your email campaign. If you need assistance, our Support team will be happy to assist you! You can find their contact information and hours of operation by clicking here.
Q: Is there a successful way to file your campaigns in a folder or by categories?
A: There is certainly a way to easily organize your campaigns. Check out this Help Center article for more information.
Q: We use Constant Contact for our Electronic Newsletter. Is there a way to embed the newsletter to our website?
A: It is possible for you to do embed your newsletter to your website by using our Archive feature! For more information on this topic, please click here.
Q: Is there a way to make the buttons look more clickable? They often just look like colored rectangles with writing.
A: You can certainly change the background and text color to help your button stand out in your campaign. You can also insert an image for your call-to-action and make it clickable! Make sure to include text on the image as well. Check out this article from our Help Center by clicking here.
Q: The new editor doesn't offer a forwarding link. Will that be added?
A: At this time, there are no current plans for developing this feature, but as a workaround, you can use the email client’s forward option.
Contacts
Q: Can we combine segmented mailing lists into a larger segmented list?
A: Yes, it is possible for you to merge mailing lists. For visual steps and instructions on how to do perform this function, please click here.
Q: How do I develop insights into best practices and proper strategy for my list?
A: Check out the guide we made just for this webinar. It will give you a good place to start and then you can make adjustments based on what you learn.
Q: Can you customize the text for the Birthday and Anniversary fields, as we want to collect these for the businesses rather than the individual?
A: At this time, the text for these fields cannot be edited.
Sign-Up Forms
Q: I manage our website and I am having issues with my Constant Contact sign-up forms. Where can I get assistance?
A: You can contact our Support team and they will be happy to assist you with the issues that you may be experiencing with your sign-up forms.
Q: Is it possible to not have the Pop-up form appear for contacts who have already subscribed?
A: At this time, it is not possible for the pop-up form to recognize previous sign-ups and prevent itself from appearing to these types of contacts.
Q: How do we make sign-up forms comply with the new GDPR here in the UK?
A: All sign-up forms within your Constant Contact account are GDPR compliant. When a contact signs up for your mailing list using one of our sign-up forms, they will automatically be assigned as having expressed permission to receive emails from you. For more information on understanding the difference between expressed and implied permission contacts, please click here.
Reporting
Q: How do you resolve bounced emails if you know that the email address is correct?
A: There are many reasons why an email bounces. If there are email addresses that are bouncing as Suspended, you can bring them over to us and we will unsuspend them. For more information on what sort of bounce types exist and what to do with them, please click here.
Q: What is a good Open rate? What about Click rate?
A: Your open and click rate performance can be compared by the overall industry average and by your specific business industry. You can view how you compare to businesses in your industry and how you compare to all businesses overall by clicking here.
Q: What is the Click-Through Rate?
A: The Click-Through Rate is a percentage that shows the number of times links are clicked in an email by a contact.
Q: Is there a way to see if people are reading our emails on their phones or computers?
A: The Reporting tab in your account will show Opens By Device. For a better visual on this, please click here.
Event:
Q: I have about 10 events I need to get sign ups for. Is it better to send separate emails for each event or could I put all 10 events in the same email?
A: We typically find that less is more. You can have more people respond to specific events if you focus on them individually. Depending on the nature of the events, you may want to think about segmenting your list so you're sending only the types of events people are interested in. If you need to do more than one in an email, try not to do more than three.
Survey:
Q: How can we get people to respond to the Constant Contact survey?
A: You will want to make sure your survey invitation is effective in bringing contacts in to take your survey. Read our Help Center article for some tips by clicking here.
Social Share
Q: Is there a way to link the newsletter to social media?
A: Absolutely! Our Social Share feature allows you to easily share your campaign on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. For more information on our Social Share feature, please click here.
Billing
Q: How do I set up a payment method for my non-profit and get a discounted rate?
A: Non-profit organizations can receive up to a 30% discount when they prepay for their Constant Contact account and can also request to be exempted from US sales tax. Click here for more information about submitting your tax exemption information and applying for the non-profit prepay discount.
My Account
Q: How long do you keep sent campaigns?
A: Sent campaigns are kept permanently within the account while it is active. They do not get removed or disappear unless the account is cancelled. Once the account is cancelled, the data in the account will stay for 120 days and then it will be terminated.
Q: I noticed one of your samples used a person's name. Does a standard subscription to Constant Contact allow that personalization?
A: All plans include the ability to insert a greeting tag in your campaign. Also, you can add your contact's name into your subject line to make your email even more personalized. Read more by clicking here.
Q: Is there an online calendar within Constant Contact to plot future email sending dates?
A: We have a marketing calendar in Constant Contact that can help you plan out your email marketing. For more information on our marketing calendar, please click here.
Other
Q: How do I see the rest of the seminars you offer?
A: To access our entire listing of available seminars and webinars, click here.
