UWAA E-Mail Stratergy 2005 [Case Study]

                       DRAFT

September 23, 2005

TO:

FROM:           John Buller

Outbound Email Strategy Objective:

To increase our overall email address penetration and lessen our reliance on print production.

The younger graduates are increasingly becoming more web based.  Traditional news outlets are declining and increasingly web based news sources are growing.  We need to act now to at least stay with this cultural change.

Getting More Emails:

We have 70,000 emails on file (where?)

Strategy:

• Increase value of newsletters
• Create higher affinity newsletters
• Use all printed materials to ask for feedback
  • Columns, ViewPoints, invitations, membership packets, etc.
• Find ways to use Alumni staff edu emails
  • Charge C&C efforts to maintain students on edu email program after graduation.

UWAA Outbound Email Strategy Objective:

• To create a dynamic and valued outbound email newsletter program that members and non-members pass on to their friends.
• To create a dynamic and valued outbound email newsletter that becomes a primary benefit for being a UWAA partner (either campus or volunteer).
• To build greater support of alumni and friends by increasing engagement and the sense of community.

When:

The goal is to have two monthly e-newsletters:

• First of Month:  Affinity based, targeted toward list that have a defined University relationship, i.e. area of degree, club or chapter affiliation, geographic location, etc.
• Mid-month: A UWAA Columns special edition based upon “the user guide to campus” concept with a strong focus on events and news.
• Action:  Conduct Surveys:  UWAA will do an online survey to ask our 70,000 addresses if they would prefer Columns online and we will define this information by class year.

Where:

The project would be managed by the UWAA and would combine as many campus units as possible.

Funding:

The UWAA already has invested in this concept, but several options remain to increase financial support that this effort would require:

• Decrease the distribution of Columns.  Let Columns recipients opt-out an email version.
• Don’t send Columns to alumni until their fifth year after graduation.

Projected savings for this project:

• Current distribution                         240,000       4x     =       $960,000
• Proposed distribution                      190,000       4x     =       $760,000
• Savings at $0.50/20% transfer                                             $100,000

Email Architecture:

These two emails (2x monthly) would come branded under the Columns identity and reflect the partnership between the UWAA and the University of Washington with both logos.  The design would be patterned after the best approaches as defined by the project lead.

Email Elements:

1. UW News:  Objective is to get more people to see the impact of the UW.
   Daily, the UW News & Information office (Bob Roseth, Director), produces an email with all “UW in the News” for the previous day.
   Action:  This information would be edited into important stores and each story would be archived to be searched in a variety of ways, i.e. Campaign theme, economy, health, personality, and areas of academic residence.  The reader would be able to create their own filters as to what news about the UW they want to include, sports, etc.
2. UW Events:  Objective is to get more people to attend events.
   The UWAA has a large number of life-long learning events that are already listed on the UWAA website but there is so much happening that we need to find an easy and clear way to allow alumni and friends to access what is available to participate in on campus.  Again, the UW News & Information office has the basic start of our calendar opportunity.
   Action:  We need to manage/edit this calendar from the context of the outside user and create a searchable database to use with this email project.  The individuals that receive these 2x monthly emails need to be able to self select those areas fo interest and receive information about their interest.
3. Unit/Program Email Focus:  Once a month, have our e-news recipients get the email from the highest level of affinity connection possible.
   The top of the email focus would be a unit or program that has a partnership relationship with the UWAA (partnership relationship to be defined later).
   Action:  A communications person at the unit or program level would be responsible for filling a pre-formatted space on the email production timeline.  This space would have a link to that organization’s web site.  (A side benefit of this approach is that over time, we could make access to all of the UW’s web efforts easier and create greater UW brand consistency through these partnerships.)
4. Athletics:  Objective is to create easy access to athletics.
   Although the event calendar would include the athletic event section, the athletic web site is much more robust and this email program would help drive additional traffic.
5. “Did You Know” Talking Points:  The objective is to help increase our alumni and friends awareness of the quality impact and relevance the University has in their lives and to encourage greater advocacy action.
   Action:  Create a section that allows easy access to UW pride points, both for the University as a whole as well as the individual units and program partners.  We have a start with the Campaign launch, but we could do so much more.  We need people to move from “they like us” to “they act on our behalf.”
6. The Foundation:  The objective is to clearly help our alumni and friends find ways to financially support the University and the 1,600 unique ways to give.  Also, to tell the stories of impact and relevance of these efforts.
   Action:  This section is already in action and is moving in this direction.  This would be merged by Advancement Communications.
7. Tell Us What You Think:  The objective is to get more alumni and friends to interact with telling us what they think.
   Action:  In conjunction with news events and pride points, the UWAA would manage a consistent effort at providing survey opportunities and this section would be searchable with all surveys listed here as well as on all other portions of the email program.

The UWAA section for members only:

1. Huskies Helping Huskies:
   Objective:  to help members find jobs through Career Connections and promote Husky entrepreneur with the Husky Purple pages.

• Career Connections:  We have a well-established Career Connections program with over 5,000 Huskies willing to help current alumni and friends.
  Action: none
• Husky Purple Pages (like Yellow Pages):
  This would be a section focused on entrepreneurs that are graduates of the UW and doing their own business.
  Action:  create a pre-designed web application that for the price of membership (or an increased price) would receive a front web page with a picture bio description, sales pitch, and link to their business web site.  They could offer specials to members if wanted.
• Volunteer Opportunities:  The goal would be to create a searchable database of places where alumni and friends could volunteers.  This would catalog by school and program all of the opportunities for alumni and friends to volunteer (mentoring, committees, events, etc.)
  Action:  create this database from partnership programs.

1. Travel, Educational Weekends, and Family Camps:
   This would be the travel program and our ______________ weekend, and family camp section.  All of these sections would link to our travel staff’s reservation system.
   Action:  build out the weekend and family camp sections.
2. Member Benefits:
   Objective:  to create a compelling benefit section that clearly describes the dollar value of being a UWAA member.  Dawg Deals have been expanded greatly – no change required in Phase I of this vision.
3. Retail:
   Objective:  to give email recipients easy access to Husky merchandise.  This section would be defined by the relationship to the University Book Store.  It would be thought that it could go above the UWAA membership section with member discounts on selected items.

Conclusion:

There is a great opportunity to create a robust and readership email marketing effort.

Next Steps:

1. Present this vision to a group of web communication specialists for review and comment.
2. Do an audit of the current state of unit, program, UWAA, and foundation websites for analysis.
3. Survey all alumni email addresses for defining the level of interest in receiving Columns online versus by mail.
4. Redefine the vision
5. Present to the Vice Provost for discussion (with permission)
6. Hire a person to bring this vision to life, reporting to John Buller.