8 Email Marketing Best Practices for Associations

Email marketing is an essential approach for driving member acquisition, engagement, and renewal. It’s also a great way to get job opportunities in front of job seekers and grow your association’s career center.  

But are your email communications getting the response you need? Is your audience even opening your emails? 

Here are eight best practices to help ensure your email messages grab your audiences’ attention and inspire the action you want them to take: 

1. Create concise subject lines.
Developing the right subject lines can be the trickiest part of email marketing. It’s the one shot you have to drive someone to open your email. Make the subject a summary of the email in as few characters as possible. And be sure to test your subject lines with A/B testing to find out what works best. For example, do questions work best for your user base? How about data points? 

2. Be brief.
Too much information can be a turnoff. Include only as much information as you need to get your point across. Use descriptive headlines, bullet points, and images as much as possible in place of longer text.

3. Don’t forget pre-headers.
Pre-headers are text on the line after the subject line of an email notification on your mobile device or even some desktops. You can use this space to get readers off their seat with a compelling message that makes them want to read more. 

4. Design for mobile.
Make sure your emails are mobile-responsive so mobile users don’t have to zoom in and out to piece together your message – a sure way to lose readers. Also, use white space, larger fonts, and high-contrast colors.

5. Make it personal.
Readers respond more to a personal email that’s directed to them specifically. For example, put first names in the subject line to grab attention. Use other information you have about your users to make your message more tailored to the recipient. And don’t forget to make a default value for those users you may not have that specific data piece for. That way, your email won’t have any blanks.

6. Automate when you can.
Use auto-responders when you can. This is hands-free email marketing for your already-busy team. For example, generate automatic emails when someone completes a task such as registering, purchasing, or attending a webinar.

7. Develop target groups.
Use your organization’s programs and services to develop target groups. For example, when offering webinars, require users to enter their contact information on the registration form. Then, you’ll know not only these users’ contact information, but also that they are a) interested in your organization and b) interested in the material you are presenting. Then, you can send them highly relevant email messages.

8. Be action oriented.
Write a compelling call-to-action (CTA) for each message to entice users to click through. Put the CTA at the top and the bottom of your email message so readers can’t miss it. Use colorful buttons and bold text. Be short and concise, using strong verbs.   

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The YM Careers team is ready to help you develop and implement a strategy that includes these best practices. Request a personalized demo today get started.