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60 percent of galleries can't measure the effectiveness of their announcements
A survey of messages sent by some 250 randomly picked contemporary art galleries reveals an interesting fact: almost 150, some 60 percent of galleries use a standard email program (such as Outlook Express or Apple Mail) to send out their invitations, newsletters, announcements, etc.
Why is this interesting?
You use a proven tool that comes with your operating system. Moreover it works like a charm. You can even create and send out segmented batches, you receive a warning if an email address bounces, etc. How much more should you want?
Well ... there's is one essential feature you may have over-looked.
Standard email programs essentially send 'messages in a bottle'
For instance your standard program doesn't allow you to see who opened your invitation (unless you ticked a box). Worse, you can't possibly trace if your message actually reaches a particular person in your contacts base. The email address can still be active, while your recipient has switched addresses without advising you.
Studies reveal that each year approximately 25 percent of email addresses become obsolete this way. Not to mention, the dreadful spam filters more often than not trashing bulk messages as soon as, or even before, they land in the addressee’s inbox.
Yet, I know you are extremely aware of the value of your announcements
Even if email marketing is declared 'dead' near daily (to resurrect as quickly), you know that it still is one of the most cost-effective ways to reach out directly to your contacts worldwide.
Experience taught you that announcements are crucial to spread your gallery’s reach and therefore require a fail-safe communication channel. Therefore, like all galleries you concentrate intensely on the impact of your messages.
But once the message is sent, you must take some follow-up action to ensure that you have achieved your communication task rather than having sent a message in a bottle. Because the standard programs provide little feedback, you can't measure your messages’ effectiveness.
Why invest so much in your email announcements without measuring their effectiveness?
You already know two elements: your contacts base counts thousands of addresses and there will always be some losses.
Do you remember the annual percentage figure I mentioned above? With it in mind, you can easily imagine that after a few years sending out announcements without any follow-up, your contacts base looks like a lottery.
Reaching fewer and fewer people who once showed real interest in your gallery's activities by subscribing to your mailing list can't be your goal.
Your contacts base is your treasure vault
Sending out 'messages in a bottle' may be an excellent concept for a digital mail art campaign, but when it comes to your contacts base it's all about efficiency and ROI.
Leveraging its potential and exploiting it to its maximum requires a real tool. A tool that enables you to measure selected parameters in details, up to each individual recipient if possible.
If possible? It's paramount
Sure, standard email programs give you some basic feedback. Only just.
Because of this shortfall, email management systems were created; a wide number exists with each offering an increasing variety of services.
Yet, most of these do only slightly better than standard email programs. They return numbers and overall percentages presented in tables and graphs.
But what's the real added value of knowing that x percent of addressees has opened your announcement? Likewise, not one graph will make you any wiser in the end.
This isn't the information you're looking for.
Which leads us to the Achilles Heel of most email management systems
Wouldn't it be more valuable if you knew exactly, per recipient, who has opened, clicked, forwarded, taken action on your invitation? Which email address has become obsolete? When your message has been viewed?
The real power of an email management system is hidden in its report functionality
Great email marketing software offers the possibility to follow-up on your subscribers' individual behaviour.
It shows you that a given art magazine collaborator no longer forwards your invitations to the editors' desk. Or that a long time collector hasn’t opened your announcements for months, while your favorite curator has clearly switched email address without letting you know.
In each case, not one of your announcements has been opened.
Suddenly, each email announcement comes with an individual GPS chip
You know exactly what each individual addressee did with your announcement.
The reports come not only with almost unlimited opportunities to track and measure the message’s effectiveness; not in sterile numbers, percentages or graphs, but in individual results. These add an extremely powerful dimension to your marketing efforts.
They allow you to take action in a very precise way, correct or clean up where necessary, even contact important people individually to know what's happening with the announcements you send them.
Get ready for a surprise when you switch programs
Each gallery installing a professional email management system is surprised upon discovering the real efficiency of their announcements.
Galleries send out thousands of messages for each opening, but on seeing that only a minor percentage actually reaches their destination, they start to understand the importance of their communication’s effectiveness.
Believe me, there is no better way to start taking action than having a professional email management system installed.
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