THIRTEEN FINDS MORE THAN LUCK
WITH EMAIL APPENDING
The Challenge
New York public media company, WNET.ORG (THIRTEEN), is a pioneering provider of television and web content. Through its wide range of channels and platforms, WNET.ORG serves the entire New York City metro area with unique local productions, broadcasts and innovative educational and cultural projects. A member of the Public Broadcasting System, THIRTEEN depends heavily on donations from its listeners and friends to continue to bring high level programming content to its viewing audience.
Although THIRTEEN had a substantial member database, its email address database only contained approximately 100,000 records and growth was flat, despite doing everything possible to grow this list organically. Looking to communicate more cost-effectively with its existing donors and to increase the email penetration of this file, Ben Smith, THIRTEEN’s Director of Online Fundraising & Promotion, realized it needed to leverage the expertise of an email database services partner to help build this database. The new email addresses would be used not only to solicit funding but to more cost-effectively promote their programming as well.
The Solution
WNET.ORG decided that a B2C Email Append, whereby email addresses are matched to a donor/customer file, would be the optimal way to grow its email database in an efficient manner.
As a non-profit organization with a small email acquisition budget, several factors went into Smith’s choice of FreshAddress:
- FreshAddress’s unparalleled reputation, expertise, and experience in the industry
- Smith’s previous successful experience as a FreshAddress client prior to joining THIRTEEN
- FreshAddress’s reliance on only carefully collected and vetted opt-in email addresses
- FreshAddress’s “guaranteed deliverable email address” policy and competitive rates
- Convio’s endorsement of FreshAddress as a preferred email database service provider. Note: THIRTEEN is a client of Convio’s, a leading provider of on-demand constituent engagement solutions that enable nonprofit organizations to more effectively raise funds.
Results and Benefits – THIRTEEN’S Email List Size Doubles!
FreshAddress’s B2C Email Append turned out to be exactly the solution THIRTEEN was looking for. After performing three email appends in an 18 month period, THIRTEEN added 100,000 email addresses to its list, thereby doubling the size of its email database. The email addresses gained enabled Smith to significantly reduce his marketing communications costs while providing THIRTEEN with additional fundraising and promotional opportunities.
"Here at THIRTEEN, growing our email list is a major priority. So far, working with FreshAddress has been the most efficient, cost-effective way to increase the size of our email list I've experienced. Most importantly, we always generate enough new online donor revenue from these new subscribers to cover the cost of the email appends and more. It’s a smart deal."
---Ben Smith, Director of Online Fundraising & Promotion, WNET.ORG
To further evaluate the benefits of the email append program, Smith analyzed the giving trends of 20,000 randomly chosen, new email addresses acquired from its first two rounds of appending over a six month period. He was pleased to find that THIRTEEN had generated enough online donation revenues to more than cover the cost of the appends. Equally important for future trending, he found that those members with newly appended email addresses made more gifts (both on and off-line) after their email addresses were acquired than donors in a control group whose email addresses had not been collected! And finally, the email append enabled THIRTEEN to re-connect with former donors, who it had previously lost contact with.
In its final analysis of the program, THIRTEEN found FreshAddress’s email append services invaluable in enabling it to grow donation revenues, reduce marketing costs, re-engage former members, and provide its followers with more timely and informative communications.
“If performed in a careful and conscientious manner by an experienced partner with the highest integrity like FreshAddress, a regular email append program can do wonders for your email marketing program, helping you generate additional revenues while freeing up resources to serve your core constituency.”
---Ben Smith, Director of Online Fundraising & Promotion, WNET.ORG