We are attempting to determine the best approach to begin email solicitations.
If you have implemented these. I would be interested in your feedback re:
-The form of solicitation (i.e. ask only, or included with other messages?)
-Level of success
-Did you see a higher unsubscribe rate? How much?
-Do you offer constituents the option to determine types of email messages?
Thank you!
Clint Riley
When I was at a different institution with a performing arts series several years ago, I started email membership renewals by email in 2000.
Email solicitations were very effective when our concerts were selling well, and our members were planning to renew as a matter of course. As a benefit, members ordered tickets before nonmembers.
I would send out very brief emails about six weeks before scheduled renewal mailings with a message about "saving paper and postage" and get immediate results. I would also send out notices to lapsed members when concert series were announced and get good results. Many members saw this as a convenience.
When a change in programming caused demand for tickets to decrease drastically, so did our renewal rates, and email solicitations became ineffective. Mail renewals also decreased, but not so dramatically.
I did not see a high rate of unsubscribes because of email solicitations, but when the programming lost popular support, people who weren't going to renew anyway took the opportunity of the solicitation to unsubscribe.