All Hail the Email Welcome Series (Consumers Certainly Do) Angie Moore

By Angie Moore

Last week, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) launched its yearly Statistical Fact Book for direct marketing with a webinar to share some of the highlights. While I presented on the trends in nonprofit, Tom Sather, senior director of research for Return Path, presented on email trends overall. In his presentation he provided some amazing data on what happens when consumers engage with a welcome series online after an initial engagement. They looked at data based on how consumers behave in the commercial world. Not only is it fascinating, it once again confirms that the welcome series is so critical in the onboarding of a new constituent.

Here are the findings when comparing people who read zero messages in a welcome series to those who read one, two and three messages in the welcome series:

Those who read zero messages from the welcome series read only 5 percent of the emails sent after the welcome series.
Those who read one message from the welcome series read 18 percent of the emails sent after the welcome series.
Those who read two messages from the welcome series read 40 percent of the emails sent after the welcome series.
Those who read three messages from the welcome series read 69 percent of the emails sent after the welcome series.

If that's not enough proof, they looked across three brands sending welcome series, and here is their buying behavior:

Those who read zero messages in the welcome series only had two orders across the three brands sending welcome series, with a total spend of $247.16.
Those who read one message in the welcome series had four orders across the three brands sending welcome series, with a total spend of $365.68.
Those who read two messages in the welcome series had three orders across the three brands sending welcome series, with a total spend of $242.25.
Those who read three messages in the welcome series had four orders across the three brands sending welcome series, with a total spend of $391.09.

Clearly there is some anomaly with the third group studied who read two messages in the welcome series, but the pattern is clear enough.

1 2 3 All Next »

1 Comment

View Comments

Angie Moore Author's page

Vice President, Strategy & Development
Eleventy Marketing Group

Angie is ridiculously passionate about EVERYTHING she’s involved in — including the future and success of our nonprofit industry.

Angie is a senior exec with 25 years of experience in direct and relationship marketing. She is a C-suite consultant with experience over the years at both nonprofits and agencies. She currently leads strategy and development for marketing intelligence agency Eleventy Marketing Group. Previously she has worked at the innovative startup DonorVoice and as general manager of Merkle’s Nonprofit Group, as well as serving as that firm’s CRM officer charged with driving change within the industry. She also spent more 14 years leading the marketing, fundraising and CRM areas for two nationwide charities, The Arthritis Foundation and the American Cancer Society. Angie is a thought leader in the industry and is frequent speaker at events, and author of articles and whitepapers on the nonprofit industry. She also has received recognition for innovation and influence over the years.