What We Believe About Association Email Marketing (And Why It Matters)
Over the last 14 years, I've worked alongside associations of every size. I've written emails, audited programs, selected platforms, built automations, trained teams, and spoken with hundreds of association marketers at conferences around the world.
The one thing that has rung true since I created Email Maven in 2019? Email is the workhorse of association marketing.
Yet it's often treated like an afterthought.
As we head into another year of supporting associations, I feel like it's time to outline everything we believe about email at Email Maven.
We Believe Email Deserves a Seat at the Leadership Table
Every association depends on email.
Very few invest in it accordingly.
Marketing teams are expected to send more emails, promote more programs, increase registrations, improve renewals, and report better results—often with the same staff and the same amount of time.
Meanwhile, the people actually managing email rarely have a voice in larger organizational decisions.
That's backwards.
The people managing your email program know which messages members respond to, which campaigns aren't working, and where opportunities are being missed.
Yet too often, they're brought into conversations after the decisions have already been made.
Stop treating your email marketers like order takers. Start treating them like strategic advisors.
We Believe Email Marketers Deserve More Recognition
Some of the smartest marketers I know work in associations.
They understand their members.
They know what's working.
They have incredible ideas.
But often times they are telling me they are burned out from no one listening to them.
They are tired of being the person who must solve every association problem with little budget. They are tired of saying what they know will work to fix the problems, but no one lets them do it or give them the space to do it.
One of my favorite parts of my job is helping those professionals succeed. Email Maven is an extension of their team.
We want to support the great marketers you already have.
We Believe Association Email Marketing Needs Governance
The biggest email problems I see aren't copywriting problems. They're operational problems.
No shared calendar.
No communication priorities.
No thought to the audience receiving the message.
No tailored content specific to the person.
No one being able to explain what the purpose of that email is anymore.
No governance and no clear ownership.
Internal email chaos becomes external email chaos. Your members feel it too.
We believe every association needs email governance.
That means having a shared calendar, consistent rules about how often members are emailed, regular coordination between departments, and a commitment to reviewing performance and making changes.
It's not about restricting departments from communicating. It's about getting everyone working together instead of competing for space in members' inboxes.
When associations get this right, marketing teams have the time to create better emails, departments work together, and members receive more coordinated communications.
Less internal chaos. Better emails. Stronger member engagement.
We Believe in Creating Emails Members Actually Want
One of the most common things I hear from associations is: "Our members don't read our emails anymore."
But after auditing hundreds of association emails, I can tell you the problem usually isn't that associations are sending too many emails.
The problem is the emails themselves.
Newsletters that are so long nobody knows where to look. Email designs that haven't been updated in years. Content focused on what the association wants to promote instead of what members actually care about. Messages that make members work too hard to figure out what's important.
And when registrations are low or renewals aren't coming in? Someone inevitably says, "Let's send one more email."
And here's the thing: That extra email might actually generate a few more registrations or renewals.
But it doesn't fix the bigger problem.
It just reinforces a cycle of sending more emails instead of making the emails you're already sending better.
We believe associations need to focus on creating emails members actually want to receive.
That means modern, easy-to-read designs. Clear, compelling content. Messaging that speaks to members as people, not just names in a database. And emails that make it easy to understand the value and take action.
Better emails lead to better engagement. And better engagement means you don't have to rely on "just one more email" to get results.
We Believe that Members Should be Treated Like Humans
Your members aren't just email addresses, membership IDs, or registration targets.
They're people who joined your association because they want to learn, connect, grow professionally, and belong to something.
Your emails should reflect that.
Write like you're talking to a person. Be useful. Be clear. Give people a reason to care.
Cut down on the corporate language or another paragraph about your organization's mission. The association is a guide for members, act like it.
Give them options to opt out of your emails. They are busy, they want to get the most value out of what you are sending them and that doesn’t mean they need it all.
Segment your audiences so they get emails they actually want.
We Believe in Data Driven Decisions
Your email data tells a story about your relationship with members. Pull the data regularly (monthly or quarterly), review it, analyze it and make data driven decisions on communications.
Evaluating individual campaigns helps move the needle.
That giant newsletter that you’ve had forever? If it is getting less than 2% click rates, it’s time to question whether it’s delivering enough value.
Your member renewal emails aren’t converting people? What emails are doing terribly the rest of the year that impact your members impression of you as an organization? They need to change.
Keep an eye on the bigger picture though, email data is always changing, and your adjustments should be too.
We Believe You Should Maximize What You Already Own
I've worked inside enough email platforms to know that sales demos won’t tell you:
There isn't a perfect platform. Every email platform has strengths. Every email platform has limitations.
Moving platforms isn't always the answer.
More often, the biggest opportunity is learning how to fully use the platform you've already invested in.
Invest in training for the people who oversee the platform. Make sure they know what it is really capable of.
Give them time and space to build better automations and cooler designs.
Before you spend thousands of dollars replacing technology, make sure you're maximizing what you already have.
We Believe Integrations Matter More Than Features
If your email platform doesn't communicate well with your AMS or CRM, your team is going to work harder than it should.
If your data doesn’t flow seamlessly between systems – it is time to:
Fix the integration (if it is possible)
If it can’t be fixed, evaluate platforms that integrate well and move.
If you don’t you are wasting valuable time and money.
We Believe AI Should Reduce Work, Not Create It
AI should remove repetitive work, so your team has more time to think strategically, create meaningful campaigns, and serve members better.
Use AI to analyze, organize, and improve your work. But don't let it replace your expertise, your voice, or your responsibility to question the results.
Technology should support people. Not replace them.
We Believe in Creating More Email Mavens
That's why the company is called Email Maven.
A maven is someone who shares knowledge. Someone who helps others grow. Someone people trust.
My goal has never been to create dependence. It's to create confidence.
Whether we're conducting an audit, building an automation, training a team, or speaking at a conference, the goal is always the same:
Help associations communicate more effectively so they can better serve the people who depend on them.
Because when associations thrive, the professions, industries, and communities they support thrive too.
And that's something worth sending an email about.
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