How E-mail Impacts Society
A nonprofit that helps women break out of poverty was in need of an e-mail marketing makeover. The Email Experience Council offered a helping hand.
A nonprofit that helps women break out of poverty was in need of an e-mail marketing makeover. The Email Experience Council offered a helping hand.
This week I wanted to share something inspirational happening in the e-mail industry — and some best practices! It’s a recap of the Email Experience Council‘s (EEC’s) Eality project. The Eality project originated as a way to enable peers and competitors in the e-mail marketing industry to put business aside and work as a team to create the best e-mail efforts for a good cause.
In 2007, the EEC selected the Women’s Bean Project (WBP) as its Eality focus. Stephanie Miller from Return Path volunteered countless hours to lead this initiative and its team on behalf of the EEC. I spoke with Miller to get the inside scoop on the project.
Jeanniey Mullen: What is Women’s Bean?
Stephanie Miller: The Women’s Bean Project helps women break the cycle of poverty and unemployment by teaching workplace competencies for entry-level jobs through employment and by teaching job readiness skills in our gourmet-food-production business.
JM: Why were they a good Eality candidate?
SM: The WBP was sending one-off donor and volunteer announcements from a database created in FileMaker. The Women’s Bean Project came to the EEC with the following needs/goals:
JM: How did the EEC volunteer team look?
SM: It is a testament to the e-mail industry and the EEC membership that very quickly we had 15 talented professionals volunteer to help and several vendors step forward and offer to provide tools and services free of charge. ExactTarget offered a free basic sending license and graciously donated nearly 15 hours of support throughout the project. Return Path donated a free rendering and deliverability account. Other companies represented included Blackbaud, Future Integrated Marketing, BlueHornet, Merkle, Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, Industry Mailout, and Leapfrog.
This team focused on six specific areas to create the program: content, design, deliverability, metrics, testing, and list growth.
JM: What was accomplished?
SM:
JM: How did it turn out?
SM: We launched a program! It is practical; earns results; garners the praise and kudos of subscribers, donors, and the WBP board of directors; and has legs. The WBP can continue this e-mail program when the volunteer team disbands.
Subscribers love it. Stats for the inaugural issue of the e-newsletter:
Subscribers are great WBP customers. Page views from e-mail subscribers are two times higher than other sources.
Want more e-mail marketing information? ClickZ E-Mail Reference is an archive of all our e-mail columns, organized by topic.