At our December meeting, we discussed how to use functionality in our email marketing systems to help increase engagement. Presentation included a case study from Catholic Charities on how changes to their New Subscriber Welcome Series emails improved constituent engagement and a presentation from Loyola Presents on how a new enewsletter improved event attendance.

1. New Orleans
local.nten.org/new-orleans/

2. WELCOME
Welcome to the
December Meeting of the
Nonprofit Tech Club
New Orleans!

3. INTRODUCTIONS
What is a Nonprofit Tech Club?
Nonprofit Tech Club provides free, friendly events for
nonprofit staffers to learn about technology. Meet up with
your peers to talk about tech and program management,
fundraising and development, marketing and
communications, leadership, and, of course, IT.
NTC New Orleans is 1 of 22 local Tech Club groups located
across the US and Canada.

4. SPONSORS & PARTNERS

5. Community Programs
Ask questions, give advice, or share resources in one of NTEN’s online community
groups. Join one of the 20 Nonprofit Tech Clubs—just like this one—across the US
and Canada.
Reports & Articles
NTEN collaborates with partners worldwide to research reports about important
issues in our sector. New community- contributed articles come out each week.
Nonprofit Technology Professional Certificate
In this online program, participants take a 10-week core course and several electives
in the area most relevant to their careers.
Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC)
Each year NTEN gathers nearly 2,000 nonprofit professionals to talk about how we
can use tech for social change.
Learn more at nten.org

6. INTRODUCTIONS
Get Involved!
• Attend events and invite others
• Join our group pages
local.nten.org/new-orleans
Facebook group
• Share your ideas
organize or lead a presentation
• Become a Co-Organizer
We specifically need assistance with promotions and communications.

7. ● Help tell the story: #nptechnola
● Don’t be shy: All questions are welcome
● Help us improve: Event evaluation
● Venue logistics: Restrooms, Wi-Fi, etc.
● Upcoming Nonprofit Tech Club events
○ Google Analytics, February 19, 8AM-9:30 AM
o Meeting Schedule: Bi-monthly, 3rd Tuesday,
Feb, April, June, August, October, December 2019
8AM-9:30AM, Broad Community Connections
● 30 second community announcements
HOUSEKEEPING & NEWS

8. Email Engagement
Using Tech Tools to Help Increase Clicks and
Actions
TODAY’S PRESENTATION

9. Email Engagement
Presenters
Sara Johansen
Associate Director of Institutional Advancement
Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans
Flora Petterson
Director
Loyola Presents
Loyola University New Orleans

10. Email Engagement
Why does engagement matter?
1. Constituent support
2. Deliverability
Placement and Bounces
(more deliverability resources at the end)

11. Email Engagement
Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans
Case Study: New Subscriber Welcome
• Implemented 3 part Welcome Series for new subscribers. Ran for 2 years with
minimal changes.
• Revised Welcome Series with the goal of increasing engagement and gathering
interest information from constituents.
• Year later: Reviewed results of the revised series.

12. Welcome Series Case Study – Original Emails

13. Welcome Series Case Study – Original Emails
Email 1
Call to Action:
Follow us on Social Media
Clicks:
48% Website
17% Facebook
14% Donation Form
Email 2
Call to Action: Volunteer
Clicks: 82% Volunteer
Email 3
Call to Action:
Become a Monthly Donor
Clicks:
40% Sustainer Donation Form
(but no actual donations)

14. Welcome Series Case Study – Redesign

15. Welcome Series Case Study – Redesign

16. Welcome Series Case Study – The Results

17. Welcome Series Case Study – The Results – A Closer Look
Drilling down and comparing each message by performance indicators: Redesigned
email performed better across each message and indicator.
Also, examining click-throughs in the redesigned email. It held that the call-to-actions had the most clicks.
Message Call to Action Most Clicks
Email 1 Volunteer, Added
Contact Us link
39% Volunteer
31% Contact Us
Email 2 Select Interest 84% Program Links
Email 3 Learn more about
programs
40% Program Links

18. Welcome Series Case Study – Lessons Learned
Lessons Learned
• Specific, clear calls to action drive engagement
• Keep content simple and engaging
• Ask the constituent to do something
• Learn something about the constituent that you can use to communicate with
them
What’s Next
• Analyze effect on donations and long-term engagement
• Better utilize the interest information we have gathered – more segmented
communications
• Use what we learned to further drive engagement – increase Actions and long-
term engagement
• Redesign email 2 to get more selections – pair down list, use images
• Continue evaluating results

19. Email Deliverability Resources
Blackbaud Email Resource Center
https://docs.blackbaud.com/email-resource-center/overview
NP Engage Article
https://npengage.com/nonprofit-marketing/landing-your-emails-expert-email-
deliverability-tips/
NTEN 2018 Digital Outlook Report
https://www.nten.org/article/2018-digital-outlook-report/

20. Weekly Newsletter
Loyola University New Orleans Case Study:
Weekly Events Newsletter
• Implemented a weekly e-newsletter as a low-cost replacement for a print
calendar.
• Compared sales from Fall 2017 to Fall 2018.

21. Newsletter: Problem
• Patrons really loved the print calendar of
events (last printed in 2016).
• 80-100 events per semester, not possible to
create individual campaigns for each.
• Event information frequently changes last-
minute via website only.
• Events cover a variety of interests.
• Limited staff hours.

23. Newsletter Design

24. Newsletter Template
Structure:
1. Summary of
the week
2. Welcome
3. This week’s
event
summaries
4. Next week’s
event
summaries
5. Save the date
event.

25. Newsletter Results
• Average open rate is 24.84% (17% is M+R Benchmark)
• Average opt-out is 0.24% (0.14% is M+R Benchmark)
• Attendance at lesser known events is increasing.
• Increased engagement of audience: volunteering to
promote our events, suggesting ways to improve.

26. Newsletter Results
0% 50% 100% 150% 200% 250% 300% 350% 400%
A
B
C
D
E
REVENUE INCREASE FOR FIVE EVENTS
FROM FALL 17 TO FALL 18

27. Lessons Learned
• The perfect is the enemy of the good.
• Consistency and accuracy are key.
• Simple works.
• Measuring digital comms impact on offline
actions is not an exact science.
• Limited. Still need to grow the list.

28. Email Engagement
More Questions:
Sara Johansen, sjohansen@ccano.org
Associate Director of Institutional Advancement
Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans
Flora Petterson, flpetter@loyno.edu
Director
Loyola Presents
Loyola University New Orleans