You won’t find political opinions here, but we need to talk about the fatigue the elections are going to cause our members and how your emails (and ads!) are going to be impacted.
The goal of this article is to provide information on how the elections will impact your emails. I hope you will take this information and have a meeting with your team to ensure your digital marketing efforts won’t be drastically impacted. All you need is a bit more strategy.
$15.9 Billion dollars are being spent on all both Federal and local elections1 which means we are all going to be bombarded with paid social ads, TV ads, influencer, direct mail, calls, texts, and emails all around local and national elections.
In addition to being bombarded with continual news about the election, for me the Presidential Elections also caused a lot of personal fatigue. There’s a lot of tensions, conflicting opinions, and new this year – a lot of fake info generated by AI – that we’ll have to keep an eye out for.
During the last Presidential election, I personally left social media for a few months, I limited my TV use, avoided the news cycles (aka internet), and leaned way more into being digital free because I was tired of it all.
What else can we expect:
Email Marketing Open Rates DROP 2%-3% Each Week [Starting 6 Weeks Prior to Election]
Email Newsletter Click-Through Rates DROP 25%+ Month Prior [October]2
Media coverage will be impacted, learn more from OnWrd & UpWrd
Paid Ads will cost more, especially in battle ground states3
Print materials may be delayed due to increase mail traffic
What should Associations be doing now to prepare?
Utilize this article and the resources listed through out to guide conversations. Consider:
Managing expectations internally – ensure that staff knows that the elections are going to impact your marketing thus registrations and renewal numbers this Fall. Give them the stats & resources so everyone is on the same page.
If you are on a calendar membership cycle and dues are due in December, have a discussion around your renewal marketing strategies.
If you are on an anniversary membership cycle, your renewal dues could dip September – November, what is the winback strategy like for those members? Or does your grace period cover them?
Evaluate any major events or conferences happening in the Fall, or registrations opening, and have a discussion around the strategy to get registrants early or just right before.
Election Heat Cycle
September 15 – November 8, is when billions of marketing dollars will be flooding the market for election promotions – both national and local. This is being referred to as the Election Heat Cycle.
Additionally, we need to be mindful of other key election dates such as Primaries & Election day.
Avoid Sending Emails On
September 10: 2nd Presidential Debate
September 16 & 25: Both Caucus / Primaries
October 1 & 9: Both Caucus / Primaries
November 4 & 5: Election Eve and Election Day
January 20: Inauguration Day
(Block these dates out on your email schedule now)4
Check out our Email Scheduling Template here if you don't already have one.
Be mindful of your members in battleground states
Members in battleground states are going to be getting extra everything, exclude them from non-essential emails, and eliminate or limit ad spend during the Election Heat because they will cost more. The states are:
Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin5
Factors to consider
Have a conference and email people specifically in the drivable areas – that happen to be a battle ground state?
Running a winback campaign specifically targeted to certain regions or states – adjust!
Our Membership Dues are due on December what should we do?
Cross off any hot election dates for sending emails, assess your current renewal cycle, and adjust the cadence of emails. Limit the number of emails send during the Election Heat Cycle, this means talking to your full team and saying what emails need to stop, or have a very limited audience, to ensure members are focusing in on renewal emails. Ensure everyone is on the same page - that the priority are renewal emails - and other things might need to wait or be adjusted to ensure renewals go well.
What this could look like: Send the first renewal notice & no other emails the day before and the day of.
We have our Annual Conference Registration opening in October, what should we do?
Kick off your registration with one email to everyone. The next three emails should be funneled.
What this could look like: Email #1 to all, Email #2 to non-opens of #1, Email #3 to all openers, Email #4 to clickers of Email #3. Make sure these are the only emails going out on those respective days!
Also, provide a pause promotions button. At the bottom of the email say “Can’t join us this year? We understand, pause these promotions.” Provide a link where they only stop emails for this conference year.
We have our Annual Conference at the end of September, what should we do?
For final promotional emails, have very targeted audiences = people who have clicked the most recently emails but not registered, people who have surfed the website but not registered, or members in drivable states.
For sponsor emails that go out right before the event = ensure your policies are clear on what sponsors get to send emails to your audience and who don’t.
For final know before you go information: only email people who are going to the conference! Be mindful of not increasing overall member email fatigue, skip emailing non attendees anything about the event unless it’s a great wrap up email on what they missed.
Adjusting Strategy: Cutting Non-Essential Emails
I’m proposing that non-essential emails be cut from sending during the Election Heat Cycle. These emails could include:
The 4th or 5th email promotion for a virtual event, they typically fare poorly
General reminders of member benefits
Excessive use of Auto-Resent to non-openers
Any other email your team’s email expert suggests cutting based on poor performance – trust them!
Should we just stop sending emails?
No, just be aware of what your members are feeling and how they are being inundated with election info, just like you. This is the perfect time to be human in relating that there’s a lot going on but there’s just a few critical things from the Association they should know about.
Segment more: be vigilant in emailing only the people who really need the information or are most likely to convert. You will get high unsubscribe rates if you continue to email everyone, all the time, especially through the Election Heat cycle.
Should we mention the elections in our emails?
It depends on your brand and Association purpose, if you need to talk about the election and politics, continue on! If you don’t normally, really no point in starting now unless you are going to relate.
Consider adding in some light hearted memes, or changing your newsletter subject line up to: “Election Free Zone:”. Relate to your members, when you are feeling fatigue, limiting access to social media, email & TV to avoid the chaos – your members probably are too so give them some breaks.
Bottom Line
Apply best practice email strategies and your emails will do well this fall. Have a conversation with your team around emails that might need to be eliminated or re-scheduled to ensure the best success for everyone!
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