Marketers are always looking to find the perfect day, time and frequency for their emails to maximize open rates. This presentation goes through the results of a few recent studies in these areas and also includes a case study on how the American Counseling Association optimized their email program. It was presented at the Association Media & Publishing Annual Meeting on June 26, 2018.

1. EMAIL MARKETING STRATEGIES: LATEST
ADVICE ON WHEN, HOW OFTEN
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2. #AMPAnnual18
Introductions
Scott D. Oser, MBA
President
Scott Oser Associates
@scottoser
Mollie Turner Wiard
Marketing Strategist
American Counseling Association
@Spundl

3. Agenda
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• Introductions
• Research
• Case Study
• Q&A

4. Let’s Play Make Believe!
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• Situation
– Association uses email as primary way to
communicate.
– Results are strong but leadership thinks they could
be improved.
– You are given an assignment………….

5. Let’s Play Make Believe!
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• Research the best day, time and frequency to
send emails to your audiences.

6. #AMPAnnual18
Research Results

7. Best Day
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Source: MailChimp
Source: HubSpot

8. Best Day
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And the winner is……..
Thursday?

9. Best Time
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Source: Science of Marketing, Dan ZarellaSource: Entrepreneur.com
Source: Informz

10. Best Time
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And the winner is……..
6 am? 9 am? 12pm?

11. Optimal Frequency
#AMPAnnual18 Source: Database Marketing Institute

12. Optimal Frequency
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And the winner is……..
2? 6? 25?

13. Conclusions
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• Everyone is different
• Use this data as a guideline
• Test! Test! Test!

14. #AMPAnnual18
Case Study
American Counseling Association
Mollie Turner Wiard
Marketing Strategist
American Counseling Association
@Spundl

15. Why Email Marketing Optimization?
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Improving email marketing results is
not as simple as sending at the best day & time
– there are many other variables.
Using data as a guide, here’s what we did!

16. Case Study: Email Marketing Optimization
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• Process
– Email Marketing Audit
– Strategic Recommendations
– Organizational Buy-In
– Implementation

17. Case Study: Email Marketing Audit
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• Review of emails sent over year prior
– Content
– Frequency
– Day to Send / Time of Day
– Subject Line
– Branding

18. Email Marketing Audit: Content – OR/CTR by Topic
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19. Email Marketing Audit: Frequency
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• Data from email marketing campaigns (sent via Informz)
– 406 emails were sent to ACA members
– Average 34 emails/month and >1/day
– 107 emails went out to 40,000 or more email accounts
• Translating to ~2x week to nearly the full ACA membership.
– Overall, campaigns performed at high rates of variability:
• OR 8.62% to +70%
• CTR 0% to +80%
– No email marketing campaigns sent to full mailing list
• Data suggested there was plenty of opportunity to refine & improve!

20. Email Marketing Audit: Best Day to Send
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21. Email Marketing Audit: Best Day to Send
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Compare Mailing Results by Day of Week
Day Recipients Delivery % Open % Click % Mobile %
Sunday 342265 92.45% 23.35% 6.23% 46.02%
Monday 6472005 97.04% 28.81% 9.89% 48.15%
Tuesday 12083728 97.70% 27.38% 12.17% 45.77%
Wednesday 6477884 97.34% 29.90% 9.64% 46.48%
Thursday 6224941 97.47% 29.83% 8.43% 48.36%
Friday 2738617 95.59% 29.95% 9.22% 49.75%
Saturday 256438 92.12% 20.05% 9.03% 60.10%

22. Email Marketing Audit: Best Time to Send
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23. Email Marketing Audit: Best Subject Line Length
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24. Email Marketing Audit: Best Number of Links
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Compare Mailing Results by Number of Links
Links Recipients Delivery % Open % Click % Mobile %
0 1292 98.14% 49.76% 0% 52.46%
2 27926 99.15% 48.20% 0.95% 49.11%
3 to 4 197385 96.14% 35.61% 7.28% 49.90%
5 to 7 10384156 95.50% 27.10% 6.45% 52.60%
8 to 15 9691130 97.32% 29.70% 7.40% 46.49%
16 to 30 3944195 98.08% 30.65% 13.39% 42.97%
31 to 50 529017 98.45% 30.64% 9.75% 45.80%
>70 9820777 98.50% 28.19% 15.68% 44.58%

25. Email Marketing Audit: Brand Consistency
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26. Case Study: Strategic Recommendations
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1. Automate all membership
join/renew/thank you emails
a. Segment campaigns based on key
drivers by level of professional
experience.
2. Condense all other email marketing and
news into one email newsletter
campaign/week
a. Lead with topics of high interest,
and supplemented with other
important announcements
3. Focus weekly email newsletter on best
practices (as identified in audit)
4. Phase out all individual email marketing
announcements to more than 100
people without a direct tie to revenue
a. Transition other announcements to
social media and ACA Connect
(member community)
5. Market top products periodically to full
mailing list
6. Leverage online communities and
advertising to diversify outreach / reach
people where they are

27. Case Study: Buy-In Process
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• Review and feedback from B&E team
• Approval of CEO/COO
• Individual meetings with
departments
• Introduction via full-staff meeting

28. Case Study: Implementation
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• Transition email marketing to 2 weekly newsletters
1. Membership, Member Minute
2. Full contact list, Counseling Insider
• Market to full list
• Integrate digital marketing
• House web ads
• Social media
• Google AdWords
• Measure & refine

29. Case Study: Results since Jan. 2018 launch
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• Reduced staff time with automation & 1 weekly email
campaign
• Increased engagement
• Email campaign clicks to ACA websites up >700%
• Increased sales and revenue
• Conference registration up 7% (surpassed revenue goal by
~20%)
• Online book sales up
• Increased ad revenue from external partners
• Counseling Insider alone added ~$12K in royalty revenue

30. Conclusions
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• Everyone is different
• Use data as a guideline
• Test! Test! Test!

31. #AMPAnnual18
Questions?
Mollie Turner Wiard
Marketing Strategist
American Counseling Association
@Spundl
Scott D. Oser, MBA
President
Scott Oser Associates
@scottoser