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The goal of every e-mail marketer, whether you're selling a product, an issue, or a candidate, is to get your message out to as many people as possible, enticing recipients to open, read, and ultimately return to your website to engage them further. E-mail is the cheapest way to get your message out to a large recipient group as quickly as possible. A simple mouse click will fire off your message to your list of 150,000 supporters and within minutes, if not seconds, they'll be coming in droves back to your website (at least that's the hope) to perform whatever action you've asked them to perform.

There are two primary forms of e-mail marketing in the online advocacy world: a call to action e-mail, and an informational e-mail. The latter is a message that usually presents data or information from your website in an easily digestible, executive summary format. The former is a targeted and detailed e-mail directing your supporters to perform an action demonstrating their support. The call to action e-mail is the bread and butter of online advocacy and political campaigns. It's the technique used to spur supporters to donate money, sign online petitions, and forward messages to their friends.

There is no true one-size-fits-all strategy for e-mail marketing success, however there are some standard baselines which undoubtedly increase the likelihood of success. I'll outline these strategies below.

Design the right e-mail template 

The most obvious requirement for success is a visually appealing HTML template. If your e-mail templates do not have the following elements, you're limiting the potential success of your e-mail marketing campaign:

• Appropriately sized graphical header — What good is an HTML template if you don't have at least a rudimentary visual element at the top of your e-mail? Your e-mail template should be branded and have the same visual elements as your website. A quick glance at the e-mail template should visually connect it to your website.
• Above the fold content — Keep your most important message content above the fold. You don't want recipients to have to scroll down to see that important donation link.
• This e-mail was sent to...in the footer of the template — Make sure to add a little line somewhere at the bottom of your e-mail letting the user know they were the final recipient of the e-mail.
• Unsubscribe link — Every recipient needs to be able to easily opt out of your messages. If you continue to send unwanted e-mails to your supporters, you run the risk of being flagged as a spammer.
• View this e-mail online link — No matter how much you test an e-mail template, there are still e-mail clients which will not properly render your message. To address this situation, add a link to redirect the recipient to view his e-mail online instead, where you can fully control the visual experience.

Pique curiousity with the right sender and subject

Don't send your e-mails from info@ e-mail addresses. These generic accounts are much more likely to be flagged as spam. Send them from real e-mail accounts (or at least recently created e-mail redirects), so people can easily reply to the e-mail if needed. Also, if you're sending out a weekly e-mail newsletter, keep the from e-mail address the same each week. Most e-mail clients like Outlook or Gmail ask the user to accept image downloads on a per sender basis, so if they accept image downloads the first time, they will be automatically downloaded from that point on.

Reduce link noise and create a clear call to action

If your e-mail is going out to raise funds for your organization, or you're directing your supporters to sign an online petition, the link to your action should be the only link present in the e-mail. The link can be repeated multiple times throughout the body of the e-mail, but lowering the number of choices will increase the likelihood that the action link will be clicked. If the e-mail is a general update or newsletter, this call to action link can be overlooked. Adding too many gratuitous links in the e-mail will increase link noise, thus decreasing the probability that the recipient will actually click the link you wanted them to click. Second, the call to action link needs to be clear and specific.

Personalize your message

Personalization is dependent upon the quality of your supporter database, but it goes a long way if used properly. I'm more likely to continue reading an e-mail if it starts with "Dear Tom" than "Dear Friend" (it's much worse though when the name in the database is incorrect...I've received numerous e-mails addressed "Dear Dewey" ). Sometimes personalizing the e-mail subject line helps, but often that can be viewed as overkill. How often do you write an e-mail to your friends, putting their first name in the subject line?

Add conditional message content

If your bulk messaging software can handle variable content, then you should use it to customize your message to each individual. If your organization is holding events is six states, the recipients of your announcement e-mail probably only want to read about events in their city or state. Conditional or variable content could then be used to only display message content that is pertinent to the recipient.

Experiment, Analyze, and Strategize

Make sure you have sufficient analytics software to determine your messaging success rate. Obviously watch open rates and click rates, but more importantly, see them as a relative measure than an absolute. If your messages sent on Tuesday have a five percent higher open rate than any other day, that should be statistically significant enough for you formulate a strategy around Tuesday messaging. Compare your open rates across different e-mail templates, subject lines, senders, and days. A wide array of variables will affect your success and these variables will affect organizations in dramatically different ways. If you are creative and continue to experiment, you will eventually come across a winning strategy to improve your organization's e-mail marketing strategy.

Enjoy a safe and happy Fourth of July everyone!

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