Indianapolis Museum of Art Blog

When I was a junior in high school we got the internet at home . Every night while watching tv, I would check my email. After 5 minutes of whistling and whining while our PC attempted a dial-up connection, I would hear the computer exclaim “You’ve Got Mail!” WOW! Email is amazing I remember thinking. It was so fun and new that even SPAM email was okay because I like to hear the computer was greet me in such an enthusiastic way. Just knowing that there was something waiting for me in the inbox made me happy.

Email has certainly evolved in the last 10 years. I now receive upwards of 100 emails a day. With that many messages streaming into my inbox morning, noon and night, I no longer have the same tolerance for junk mail that I once did. I don’t have time to sort through SPAM. I don’t even have time to read eNewsletters that I have signed up for. I just can’t spend my time sorting through long eNewsletters looking for information that might interest me.I’m not saying that eNewsletters are useless. I’m pretty sure that I’d read them if they interested me, but they typically don’t…not even from organizations that I adore. Instead, I think that marketers, like myself, need to attempt to engage audiences through email in more unique and perhaps, direct ways.

In recent months, the IMA has tackled how to make our eNews more interesting, exciting, and interactive. We’ve included more imagery, more links to the Web sites, more calls to action, and more videos. We want our subscribers to look forward to receiving IMA eNews. We want subscribers to feel the same excitement at seeing an email from the IMA that I felt years ago when I heard the phrase “You’ve Got Mail.”

The greatest challenge is actually one of our greatest strengths as an organization: diversity. Our eNews subscribers are diverse in their demographics and interests. Some folks geek out about contemporary art, others get excited for horticulture. We have die-hard art-film-only fans and die-hard Summer Nights blockbuster movie fans. We have 80-year-old retirees and 20-year-old college students. How do we get everyone equally excited by the same email?

Our new enewsletter software has provided us with the solution - Dynamic Content. Based on preferences that our subscribers indicate in their individual eNews profile, we can tailor our message. If a person has a specific interest in family programs, they may receive additional information about IMA’s Family Saturdays. If they indicate a preference for film, we might include a New York Time’s review of a featured film in addition to the typical calendar listing. In other words, the eNewsletter you receive will not be the same as the eNewsletter your neighbor receives. Everyone receives the same key messages, but some folks will receive more information tailored just for them. Consider us the Burger King of eCommunicators - “Have it your way!”

The IMA’s monthly eNews now has over 12,000 subscribers. Our goal is to reach 20,000 by the end of the year. More importantly, I hope to increase the percentage of subscribers that open our emails (our software tracks that info.). The open rate of our emails will be a direct indicator of the subscriber’s level of interest in and excitement for the content.

So in the words of Jerry Maguire: “Help me, help you.”

• If you ARE NOT already a subscriber to our eNews you can sign up by clicking this link. We’ll send you a monthly letter highlighting the latest happenings at the Museum as well as special invites and discounts.
• If you ARE a subscriber: Next time you receive an eNewsletter (March 3) click the link at the very bottom of the email that says “update contact information.” That will lead you to your own profile where you will be able to tell us your preferences so that we can use dynamic content to tailor your enews just for you.
• Finally, if you have ideas for how we can improve our eNews, please respond to this blog. I’d love to hear what your favorite eNewsletters are and why.

• Tags: demographics, Email, enewsletters, Jerry Maguire, preference

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 28th, 2008 at 2:23 pm and is filed under Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.