All Hail the Email Welcome Series (Consumers Certainly Do)

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.

So, ask yourself: Is your communication plan missing an e-welcome series? Do you have only a welcome email versus a series? Well, you should change your plan now. Here are a few helpful hints about a welcome series.

1. Priority No. 1: Make sure you are letting your new constituents know how important they are and how thankful the organization is for their engagement. Be thankful as much as possible in your email and communicate that they are a critical part of a larger mission and a larger community trying to make real change.
2. The focus of all the touches in the welcome series should be to build a relationship around awareness, information and the progress of the organization. I'm not saying that you should withhold from stating your needs and asking for money, but with a welcome series the new constituent should be learning about your organization and those who benefit from your organization, while you are also stating your need. And, for those of you thinking, "All of my fundraising e-appeals do that"—don't kid yourself. I'm talking about real relationship-building through sharing of information, and even a two-way dialogue where you ask for their feedback and insight.
3. If you haven't figured it out from what is above, this means you need to put your new constituents into a carefully timed welcome series before you flow them into your standard fundraising e-appeals. Each organization can be different, but typically a welcome series is spread over four to eight weeks with at least one touch every week (but you can easily test into what works best for your organization). But remember, these are not fundraising asks, so frequency should not be a problem as long as you are talking about the organization, what is relevant to them, their role in the organization, upcoming events (if applicable), ways to get involved and, most importantly, how the organization is making progress with the help of people just like them.

You've got the numbers and the guidelines—now go develop it.