E-mail Appends: The Good, the Bad and the Realistic

Fantasy No. 3: If they didn’t opt out the first time, I don’t have to use an opt-out link in the future!
Not so fast. Giving donors an escape hatch in every e-mail is the best way to keep them from hitting the spam button. DMA guidelines [see box above] require that you give your donors the chance to opt out with each e-mail.

The final question
Why do you need to e-mail donors? Donors are critical to the health of our organizations, but it’s not an exclusive relationship. They are donating to other organizations and, increasingly, are being approached online for gifts.

In fact, FY 2009 budgets for most direct marketers, on average, have planned for a 55 percent increase in e-mail prospecting budgets, according to the article “Less for More” in the June issue of Direct. Staying at the forefront of your donors’ minds with e-mail has gotten much easier — and far more critical.

Plus, didn’t you hear? The average yearly value of an e-mail address on your file is $7.86!

Catherine Algeri is an account director at Washington, D.C.-based data-processing services firm Triplex, an infoUSA company.