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Fossil
Rim Wildlife Center is smaller in size
for a non-profit organization, compared to the behemoth
non-profits. However, it has taken the pace of the
cheetah when it comes to adopting a strategic e-marketing
program. In just more than one year since the launch
of the Center’s Wildlife W@tch e-newsletter,
its subscriber base grew from less than 1,000 to more
than 4,000 targeted, opt-ins and now this customer
communication program boasts more than 6,500. All 100
percent are permission-based.
The
key to this success? Fossil Rim understands the importance
of handing over its trust and support to a third party
to develop a long-term, ongoing strategy for its customer
communication program. That partner is Arlington, Texas-based
E-marketing Strategies, Inc. led by President Mona Belcher.
Fossil
Rim’s e-newsletter has been published for 27 consecutive
months, with readers from all over the world, including
Africa, New Zealand, Europe and Canada.
E-Marketing
Strategies showed Fossil Rim the importance of trying new
things, adapting to the needs of its audience and remaining
fluid to the changing interests. Just like the wildlife
stars of the newsletter, Wild W@tch itself has evolved
with its changing habitat – the readers.
This
first step to launching Wildlife W@tch was to clean the
existing list of 1,000 database members. E-marketing Strategies
tackled this by sending a “thank you for your support” message
and inviting Fossil Rim members to become newsletter subscribers.
Next,
a template was created that included all the right elements
for effective e-mail marketing: quick download time, easy-to-use
navigation and fun graphics (photos of the baby animals
are especially popular).
And
then, of course, was the main ingredient--the content.
The goal of the customer communication plan is to build
a sense of community and to keep members and visitors up
to date. Some recent article topics include Field Notes
from Robin Radcliffe, who is in Sumatra studying the black
rhino and Animal Care’s Adam Ayres, also known as
the Rhino Rangler.
Other
key elements that E-marketing Strategies purposely created
include:
• A
sense of appreciation by sending special news and offers,
and “first to know” material
• Reader involvement, like voting on names for the new baby animals (Name
the giraffe contest generated a couple of hundred entries)
• Photo contest and recent stories submitted by Fossil Rim visitors
Photography
also plays an important role, updating the audience on
the changes taking place at the wildlife reserve. In fact,
the photos receive has many clicks as the articles themselves.
Fossil Rim and e-Marketing Strategies also spent time testing the content and
the promotions to see what its audience hog “wild” about. The outcome
is a few regular features – like Cheetah Chatter, Distinguished Resident
and What’s Gnu.
This
successful e-newsletter now grows consistently by 300 subscribers
each month, with an average click-through rate of 16 to
20 percent. And it gets read all the way to the bottom.
In March, 2006, the links in the very last article of the
newsletter received the highest number of clicks. |
