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How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Email
- 1. How I learned to stop worrying and love email Dave Dawson @dwsn Erin O’Neil @erinlauraoneil McMaster Alumni Association #Sizzler16
- 10. McMaster University Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Founded 1887 by Senator William McMaster Ranked among top 100 universities in the world 30,000 current students 185,000 active alumni in 140 countries 2014-15 fundraising fiscal year: $38 million
- 11. McMaster University Advancement Advancement Services Alumni & Annual Fund* Communications & Public Affairs Development Major & Planned Giving Stewardship *Where Dave & Erin work
- 12. Why Are We Obsessed With Email? • we have 14 alumni & annual fund email authors and several decentralized email authors • we sent 931 emails in 2015 and 885 so far in 2016 • email is our best communication channel with alumni • customizable lists and tokens • measurable and trackable • email can be so beautiful and compelling (flip side: email can be so boring and alienating)
- 13. Managing Workflow
- 14. Email Creation Workflows A Central control B Individual C Hybrid Scheduling Email manager Individual staff Email manager Content creation Individual staff Individual staff Individual staff Design Email manager Individual staff Individual staff Release Email manager Email manager Email manager
- 15. Email Creation Workflows A Central control B Individual C Hybrid Scheduling Email manager Individual staff Email manager Content creation Individual staff Individual staff Individual staff Design Email manager Individual staff Individual staff Release Email manager Email manager Email manager
- 16. Scheduling • individuals enter upcoming emails in shared calendar • information entered includes: staff person, office, date, purpose, content, audience description and list size • email managers review calendar regularly • individual staff members know not to schedule an email on a day when a similar list is receiving a message • conflicts managed by email managers
- 17. Content Creation & Design • majority of emails written by individual staff person (i.e. alumni officers write copy for event invitations, development officers write copy for solicitations) using templates created by email managers • team members work together in collaborative approach to writing copy if individual wants help • email managers provide resources and support for individual team members • senior managers approve each email going out & email managers release
- 18. Tools for Managing Multiple Email Creators
- 19. Admin-Only Reference Page iModules Professional Services Meetings
- 23. Meetings • bi-weekly “Digital Hour” with alumni & annual fund team • new releases, metrics, tutorials, discussions • bi-annual iModules User meeting with centralized and decentralized teams for major updates and tutorials on new templates or tools • ad hoc personal tutorials with staff who require it
- 24. iModules Professional Services • quarterly (can be annual, bi-annual or monthly) data load of email metrics to customized dashboard • allows us to see what constituents receive and if/how that affects email metrics • gives us hard data to show category email authors
- 25. Designing Emails
- 26. Design Challenges • visual consistency • usability for all skill levels • technically sound • no external tools necessary
- 32. Don’t be afraid to use images. I used to be. Images are shown automatically in: Apple Mail Thunderbird Gmail (Web) Gmail (Android & iOS) iOS Mail Yahoo! Mail Images are NOT shown automatically in: Lotus Notes Outlook AOL Mail (Web) Yahoo! Mail Android’s native mail app AOL Mail (Android & iOS) Outlook.com (Android & iOS) Windows Mobile & Phone Yahoo! Mail (Android) Source: Robert Berinti http://berinti.com/
- 33. Roughly 50% of our alumni are using clients that accept images automatically. (as of May 2016) Alt text should be used as well.
- 34. Starting the Modular Template • Where do we even start?! • A collection of ready-made collection of content blocks • Reliance on email frameworks.
- 37. Put the CSS in Build out Saved Content
- 39. Build it. Save it. Drag it. Drop it.
- 42. Where we’re at with our new template • Some folks use saved content, but many don’t. That’s OK! • Stuff still breaks. That’s OK! • Our template is always improving. • It’s saving us time!
- 43. 5 Key Takeaways
- 46. 3 challenge the “email don’ts” list
- 48. 5 don’t worry!
- 49. Thank you! Dave Dawson dawsonod@mcmaster.ca Erin O’Neil oneilel@mcmaster.ca