As we wind down 2018 in preparation for 2019, there is no doubt in my mind that you are in the process of thanking donors, identifying new prospects, reaching out to your clients and community. As you solidify your marketing and outreach strategies for 2019, I thought you might find Alexie Ward’s article, Our 9 Biggest Email Marketing Pet Peeves for 2019, to be of interest. Alexie lists 9 email pet peeves and alternatives, that I think are relevant to everyone, including professionals in the nonprofit and for-profit arenas. Alexie is an account coordinator with IMPACT.

Amy’s 9 email pet peeves are:

1. No personalization
2. No clear call to action
3. Not optimizing for mobile
4. Lack of/misuse of automation
5. Boring subject lines
6. Lack of professionalism
7. Failing to analyze your data
8. Not taking advantage of testing
9. Neglecting design

Amy expounds on each of these points in her article.

Amy’s Key Takeaways

Email marketing has the ability to be an amazing tool to connect and engage with your audience when done right.

Sending emails on a whim with no real goal won’t leave you reaping any benefits, so be sure to always have an end-to-end strategy in mind when planning for your emails.

What Resonates With Me

One of the things from Amy’s article that resonated with me is the fact that email marketing is a more effective conversion tool than social media. People are more likely to purchase products after reading an email than after reading similar content on social media. As someone who is in the throes of developing marketing and communication strategies utilizing email and social media, this really struck a chord with me. More