There’s more to a (seemingly) simple e-mail campaign than you might think. Avoiding spam filters, including the right keywords in your message and striking the right tone are each important factors.

I’m willing to bet a lot of associations rely on e-mail as a main form of communication. But did you know that a 25 percent open rate is actually a good percentage in an e-mail campaign? So many people just delete e-mails without reading them (I’m guilty of it, as well), and there are a few things to keep in mind when designing an e-mail campaign.

For one thing, what’s the definition of spam? If you think spam is anything that gets automatically filtered to your junk folder, or an e-mail from a long-lost uncle in Africa who needs money immediately, think again. Spam is anything unwanted in your subscribers’ inboxes. If they don’t want it, it’s spam to them – even if it’s a perfectly legitimate newsletter or update from your organization.

Send e-mail on a regular schedule. If your members are expecting a newsletter on a certain day or at a certain time, they won’t be caught off guard and delete it without reading. Establish some sort of schedule for all your marketing e-mail.

Write from your recipients’ perspectives. When I see an unexpected e-mail in my inbox, I immediately want to know if it has information that will save me money or time, or if it offers some other benefit. With the amount of e-mail we all receive each day, there’s no room for your e-mails to contain a message that won’t get noticed.

For example, if you’re writing about your annual conference or meeting, be sure to include how it will help your members’ professional development, rather than just writing about how amazing your keynote speakers are. Include tangible examples of what benefits attendees will receive.

This should go without saying, but proofread, proofread, proofread. There’s nothing more off-putting to me than a beautifully designed e-mail riddled with typos and grammatical errors. (This may be the grammar geek in me, but I hope we can all agree that professional e-mails should be grammatically correct.)

Don’t be discouraged by a seemingly low open rate. E-mail, when used correctly, can be one of the most effective ways to reach people – both members and non-members.

When I was the editor at my college newspaper, I got tons of hate mail. (OK, most of it wasn’t directed at me personally, but at a particular news story or — more often — an opinion column or editorial.) I sometimes had to write retractions or corrections, and they appeared in both the print version of the newspaper and online.

When I was the opinions editor at the same newspaper, I received even more “hate” mail. The Opinions section was one of the most widely read sections (second to Sports) and it was also a pretty polarizing one. My university was home to 35,000 students with diverse opinions and backgrounds, and often a column or editorial would stir up the masses. It was always my goal to publish columns on both sides of an issue, and I loved having point-counterpoint columns on the Opinions page.

Opinions columns are similar to blog posts; they share the author’s opinion with facts to back it up, but not every reader has to agree with every word.

Because of this background, I was extremely interested in Tuesday’s Association Chat (#assnchat on Twitter), which discussed the Acronym blog’s decision to remove a post from last week titled “Consultant Wasteland.” (Check out the transcript here.)

Just like you can’t delete something from a newspaper once it’s been put into print, you can never truly delete something from the Internet once it’s been posted. You can, however, publish an official apology, a column (or blog post) reflecting a different viewpoint or letters to the editor (blog comments) disagreeing with the original post.

I always made an effort to publish letters disagreeing with columns (yes, even columns I had written), or columns responding to previous ones. It creates a dialogue in the community, pure and simple. It lets people know their opinions are appreciated and their contributions are welcome.

Of course, at the top of every opinions page, there was a disclaimer: “The views expressed here do not represent the views of the newspaper.” Although not all readers understood that and I often got letters asking how I could publish certain columns and if the newspaper had any standards, there was nothing I loved more than starting a good healthy discussion on a controversial topic.

However, the Internet allows everyone to be a columnist and espouse views on whatever they’d like. Now more than ever, it’s crucial to allow a dialogue and conversation to take place. By deleting the post about consultants, ASAE unintentionally conveyed that it is not willing to stand by what it publishes. Will people think twice now before submitting a comment or blog post? Perhaps.

I hate to use ASAE as an example because I truly think the Acronym blog is a wonderful resource for everyone in the association community. And I don’t know the conversations that took place in its offices or all of the complaints they received about the posts. But I do know that now, after the post has been deleted, even more people are talking about it, and not in a good way. I’m willing to bet that wasn’t the intent when the post was deleted.

Like the true journalism geek that I am, I have a bumper sticker from the Newseum (located in Washington, D.C.) on my car that reads, “Talk is cheap. Free speech isn’t.” Some may say that’s just the idealistic journalist in me, but I don’t want to live in a world where we can’t speak out freely and (politely) disagree with others in an intelligent conversation.

What do you think? How would you handle criticism of a blog post? Or, how have you handled criticism in the past?

Every once in awhile, I stumble upon some new technology or software and think, “That is so PERFECT for associations!” I’ve got two to highlight today: TextMarks and Phonebooth.

It’s no secret that people’s use of mobile phones is constantly increasing, and important messages can be passed via text messaging (or SMS). Mass donations can even be accepted via text message, as we saw during the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti.

TextMarks is a service that makes it easy to set up marketing campaigns through text messages. An administrator chooses a word (or even acronym) to be your “textmark.” Members then can subscribe by texting that word to 41411. Once members subscribe to your service, they’ll receive any updates you choose to send out via text message.

TextMarks works with tons of providers in the U.S. (check out the list) and doesn’t charge users any extra for receiving a text message (standard rates do apply). If you want to use the service for free, your messages to subscribers will contain ads. Ad-free plans start out at $9.95 per month, which is a fairly cheap way to get your messages out en masse.

With all the talk about mobile in the association community and the need for associations to embrace different marketing platforms, TextMarks could be a great option if you’re interested in starting a mobile campaign. Your association could send reminders about event registrations or volunteer opportunities, or any short announcements. (I’d definitely recommend not abusing the service though – no one needs spam sent to their cell phone!)

The second service also deals with communication: your phone system. If you’re a smaller organization and are in need of a phone system that won’t break the bank, take a look at PhoneBooth, an alternative to Google Voice.

There is both a free and a paid service, and the free one is pretty comprehensive. You get a local number with up to five extensions, call forwarding to multiple sources, voicemail with transcription and the ability to get users connect with you from the Web – all for free! (Two-hundred in-bound minutes are included, and each additional minute is 6 cents.)

If you need more options, such as the ability to handle conference calls, Phonebooth OnDemand is $20 per month and unlimited local and long-distance calls on the Phonebooth.com nationwide network and support for HP VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and IP phones.

One downside to Phonebooth Free is that masking services aren’t available, so your outbound calls will still appear on Caller IDs as the number you’re actually calling from, rather than your Phonebooth number. But, if you need an easy to route calls and don’t need too many extensions, Phonebooth could be a really great option.

Does your association use text messages in its marketing plan? What kind of phone system do you use? Would you ever consider using an Internet service, such as Google Voice or Phonebooth?

Image credits: One, Two

When you survey members to gauge their satisfaction with their memberships, do you ask them to rate programs and services in terms of “usefulness” and “criticalness?”

Rather than striving stay relevant in this fast-paced society, aim higher. Be indispensable.

There’s a reason there’s an association for everything. Each one is designed to meet the needs of a special audience. Those of us at MemberClicks are reminded of this every day, as we serve many small-staff organizations specifically tailored toward their members’ unique needs.

It’s vital for association staffers to remember that there is no such thing as a typical member, so stop trying to cater your organization’s programs to fit an “average perception.” Don’t be average. Be extraordinary.

Even though members’ expectations can vary depending on their situations, it’s still possible to incite passion and commitment among them.

Does your mission statement reflect what makes your members special?

Does your communication drive the entire association?

Do the staff’s actions  create value “both within the marketplace and within an organization?”

Do you have a grander vision for your association?

Offer programs and services intrinsic to your members’ wellbeing. And don’t be afraid to get rid of programs that are highly rated as “useless.”

Just because your association has a high renewal rate doesn’t mean nothing should change within the organization. Make every effort to form a genuine sense and commitment toward indispensability.

Everyone in your organization should know how to best present the mission and energize members, volunteers and board members.

Once your team has a clear vision of the association’s mission, they will be able to more effectively demonstrate how and why the organization is irreplaceable in its members’ lives, which should be the all-encompassing goal.

Image credit

I came across this video late last week and made a mental note to share it with you guys here. Every once in awhile, a designer or blogger puts together a video with stats on the state of the Internet, and this is the latest one. There’s some incredible info here!

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo.

Still think the Internet isn’t revolutionizing the way we communicate? Your members need your organization’s voice online!