Web 2.0 Is Sexy, But Email Is Where It's At
Flickr Photo: MuffetAh, Spring: tulips, sun, clean, crisp air, and email metrics.
Today, we hosted and co-released the eNonprofit Benchmarks Study with M+R Strategic Services. During the live event and webinar, we learned a lot about how nonprofits are using email, and how stakeholders are responding. NTEN Members can get the recording of the webinar for free.
Convio also recently released a benchmarks report of its own clients. The reports don't cover exactly the same statistics, but it's interesting that the numbers they do have in common are very similar.
For all organizations in both reports, we found:
EMAIL NEWSLETTERS
| M+R/NTEN Report | Convio Report |
|
| Average Open Rate |
17.6% | 15% |
| Average Click Through Rate |
3.6% | 4% |
FUNDRAISING MESSAGES
| M+R/NTEN Report | Convio Report |
|
| Average Open Rate |
14.8% | 14% |
| Average Click Through Rate |
1.1% | 2% |
| Average Response Rate | .13% | .07% |
FUNDRAISING GIFT SIZE
| M+R/NTEN Report | Convio Report |
|
| Average Gift Size | $87 | $61 |
Both studies also found that email lists are growing, but open rates are dropping. It's hard to tell why open rates are dropping, but a few tidbits from the reports provide some clues:
- Email fatigue. Clearly, more people are getting more email, and they are just not opening it all.
- List appends. Some (larger) organizations are increasing their house files by matching their mailing lists with email addresses via a third party service. Emails acquired in this way are assumed to perform less well than emails given directly to the organization.
Even given the drop, average gift size is increasing, which means that email is where it's at when it comes to fundraising.
