Fireside21

This is the twentieth in our series of 21 Tips for Email Outreach.

Not all email readers are alike. Emails that look perfect in your Gmail account might be slightly askew in Outlook. That’s why it’s always a good idea to test your emails in a variety of email inboxes and make sure the formatting is what you expected. (Hint: pay special attention to Outlook 2007!). Not to mention, it will give you another chance to check for typos.

This is the nineteenth in our series of 21 Tips for Email Outreach.

Take advantage of constituents’ phone calls to get their email addresses and subscribe them to your newsletter. If you can convert them into email communicators, your phone lines will be that much quieter the next time a major debate rolls through Congress.

It might go something like this: “Thank you for your call today. The Congressman/Congresswoman likes to keep in touch with constituents by email, as well. Would you be interested in receiving his/her email updates?”

This is the eighteenth in our series of 21 Tips for Email Outreach.

People today are flooded with information, their inboxes are crammed, and as a result they’ve learned to parse that information. Your constituents read emails differently than a letter from grandma; their eyes flit over the headlines and pick out only what interests them, ignoring the rest.

This doesn’t mean you necessarily have to write less, but your email outreach will be much more effective if you use headers to structure your content and give them they option to read more if they want it. Summarize your main points and provide links to the articles. Once they’re on your website, they’re more likely to click around and see what else you have to say.

This is the seventeenth entry in our series of 21 Tips for Email Outreach.

Email is a two-way street! Don’t be afraid to put a question right in the subject line of your email and ask for input. Link to your newest survey and create audiences for those who answered – even audiences based on how they answered – and email them with your response and the results of the survey. Your constituents will know that their voices were heard, and the evidence will be right there in their email inboxes.

This is the sixteenth entry in our series of 21 Tips for Email Outreach.

Show some hometown pride and remind your constituents that your thoughts are of home, even if your work is in Washington. There are lots of creative ways to inject a little local color into your email outreach: community spotlights, interviews with local leaders, constituent photos, commemorations of hometown heroes or recognitions of major athletic victories, for example. And be sure to include links. Your constituents will want to click around to learn more about the people, places, and events that make their district unique.

This is the fifteenth entry in our series of 21 Tips for Email Outreach.

It’s great to have constituents who are interested in legislation and policy, however, most of your e-newsletter readers don’t spend their days glued to C-SPAN, fretting over mark-ups and quorums.  

It can be difficult to escape the Capitol Hill mindset, but for your email newsletters try to keep your broader audience in mind and avoid congressional terminology and political jargon as much as possible.

This is the fourteenth entry in our series of 21 Tips for Email Outreach.

Variety is the spice of life. Vary your messages’ content and packaging to keep things fresh. You don’t have to stop your regular email updates, but be sure to inject some novelty into them: use polls, local spotlights, interviews, event photos, videos – whatever will keep your readers’ attention.

It’s not always easy to think up brilliant ideas on the spot, so make a folder on your computer where you can save new concepts for emails when they come to you, even if you don’t have time to flesh them out right away. That way, when the time comes to write your newsletter, you’ll have those ideas to draw on.

This is the thirteenth entry in our series of 21 Tips for Email Outreach.

What demographics do you need to reach the most?  What regions, industries, age groups?  Choose a few target audiences that are important over the next 12 months – between five and ten – and focus on developing strategies that will grow your opt-in lists in those specific areas.  

Don’t overdo it.  Only focus on the really important audiences to get the most out of the time your staff invests in preparing email alerts.

Say, for example, you want to expand your reach in a particular county.  You can create surveys that address local concerns and gather additional information about those constituents and the issues that interest them most.  

As your subscriber count grows, send more email updates to these specific groups with relevant to their geographic area (or industry, issue, etc).  These targeted emails are more likely to be forwarded to friends and family, further growing your opt-in lists for that demographic.

As always, coordinate with your offline outreach efforts and track your progress!

This is the twelfth entry in our series of 21 Tips for Email Outreach.

Think of email as one important tactic in your broader communications strategy.  You can great results by coordinating your email with your other public relations tools (press releases, town halls, tele-town halls, bulk mailing, etc.) Remember, email can be acted on instantly – just a click to forward it or to visit your website – so it can be a powerful part of your outreach plan.

We can’t say it enough: surveys are a great way to build your opt-in and targeted email lists.  They also give your constituents a chance to make their voices heard.  Email is personal and conversational: when an email shows up in your constituents’ inboxes, they’ll appreciate the opportunity to share their views.  Use surveys to foster dialogue without further clogging your office inbox.