Take a deep dive into the MIT Alumni Association’s email marketing data with strategist Joe McGonegal. Beyond open/click-thru rates, what are the most meaningful data to track? And if MIT constituencies already love to read and click, how does one improve on impressive numbers? Joe will brief us on the tests he’s done on newsletters and campaigns in his “email lab,” provide 10 tips for improving email performance, and share some of his favorites from around campus. Presenter Joe McGonegal, MIT Alumni Association

1. You Should Click on This.
Joe McGonegal | MIT Alumni Association

2. Infinite Connection58%
Classes1%
Clubs/Groups39%
Parents
Affinity Groups
FY14: 12.8M emails
MIT Alumni Association
Connecting alumni to one another and to MIT.
•130,431 living alumni
•77% with email address
•FY14: 61,513 unique alum clickers

3. Alumni Relations Programs20%
Annual Fund9%
Special Institute Offerings12%
Tech Connection15%
Infinite Connection: 7.4M emails
Alumni Association Announcements
Alumni Association Volunteer Programs
Alumni Relations Programs
Annual Fund
Athletics
Donor Relations
FSILGs
General Information
Institute Announcements
School of Architecture and Planning
School of Engineering
School of Humanities, Arts, and Sciences
School of Science
Sloan School of Management
Special Institute Offerings
Strategic Initiatives
Student News
Student-Affiliated Groups
Tech Connection
Tech Reunions
Travel Program

11. Sent: 416
Opened: 406
Clicks: 391

17. Sent: ~30k
Opened: 33%
Clicks: 14%

18. Sent: ~82k
Opened: 29%
Clicks: 8%

21. 0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Sloan
MIT10
Superclicker
Locals
ALC 2014: Segmented blasts
Unique CTR
Conversion rate (reg/clicks)

22. Sent: 1.1M
Opened: 30%
Clicks: 20%

24. 49.15
0.00
10.00
20.00
30.00
40.00
50.00
60.00
GSE alumni: top stories in Tech Connection, FY14

25. 0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
TC: May 2014 split-test of 3 link-only ("short") sections
Long
Short

27. 14 other email metrics worth tracking
•New openers/clickers
•Devicetraffic
•Time/day
•“Superclicker” behaviors
•Text vs. image/button clickers
•Email audits—quantity per wk/month
•Linktype performance
•Subject line score
•Click distribution across head/body/foot
•Top ESPs
•0-click/action emails
•Long tail of clicks
•Subject line keywords
•Social clicks/view in browser
10 email split-testsfor beginners
•Fromfield: person v. person + title
•Lead image: faces vs. landscape/research
•Subject line: question vs. statement
•Preheader: call to action vs. expository
•Button vs. link text
•Mirror web navlinks in head/footer
•Fontsize
•Button/linkcolors
•CTA language: click/see/view
•Crowdsourcedvs. non-content

34. Email resources:
Subjectline.com: http://subjectline.com
Litmus: subject-line, mobile testing: http://www.litmus.com
Best-of email designs: http://www.pinterest.com/movableink/
Buttons.cm: http://buttons.cm/
Responsive email design guide: https://www.campaignmonitor.com/guides/mobile/
MarketingSherpaEmail Summit: http://www.meclabs.com/training/marketing-summit/email- summit-2015/
Useful Email blogs: http://www.marketingprofs.com/marketing/library/17/email-marketing
https://litmus.com/blog/
http://blog.mailchimp.com/
http://www.verticalresponse.com/blog/
https://www.emailonacid.com/bloghttp://blog.hubspot.com/insiders/topic/inbound-marketing
http://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/
http://blog.case.org/tag/casesmc/
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/111942944834056981113?cfem=1