Email "campaigns" versus single-asks

From Convio.com comes this reminder/tutorial: Raising money and volunteers by email isn't a one-shot deal. You've got to design a campaign built around multiple asks that are varied and diverse.

As certified-smart-guy Vinay Bhagat, Convio's founder, points out: You've got to design a campaign that's effective for your audience, test specific messages on sub-samples, and then measure results across the entire campaign, not on an email-by-email basis.

For example, Bhagat says, "if an organization's first email targets 1,000 people and generates 50 responses (i.e., a five percent response rate), then the next email should be sent to the 950 people who did not respond. Continuing to ask the 50 respondents to take action when they've already done so runs the risk of annoying and alienating people who have already provided support."

FYI, Convio provided some of the software that powered the Howard Dean campaign. Check out the article here - Beyond the Single Email Message: Running Effective Email Campaigns

Recently, here at Mandate Media, we organized a single email ask on behalf of a candidate. While the message was strong and timely, it didn't nearly generate the results we wanted - after all, it was only a single ask. Job #2: develop a complete strategy and keep the asks going.

Just because they haven't given yet, doesn't mean they won't later.