An alarming rate of unsubscribes among members and nonmembers—plus an internal analysis indicating that target audiences could receive up to 10 emails daily from the association—led the American Academy of PAs (Physician Assistants) to reassess its emails and e-newsletters in 2016.

“Open rates were low across the board, and unsubscribes were growing at a rapid pace,” says Lisa Burns, AAPA’s marketing director. “This was hurting our ability to market effectively.”

Knowing that an immediate response was needed to correct the declining metrics, Burns says AAPA’s marketing team started to look at what communication tools and tactics large associations were using and acted quickly to create a new vehicle, PA-Central, winner of the 2017 ASAE Gold Circle Award in the “E-Newsletter” category.

Rather than AAPA pushing everything out to everyone, this new e-newsletter aggregates disparate campaigns into a streamlined experience where subscribers can pull in the information they want. Here is a look at the goals and strategy behind it.

Content Based on Organizational Priorities and Goals

Initial goals were to substantially decrease unsubscribes to acceptable levels and hike open rates to make them comparable to industry standards. The marketing team also wanted to highlight important communications and promotions based on AAPA’s strategic plan and operating goals.

Our team coordinates based on a clear understanding of organizational priorities, goals for products and revenue generation, or goals for activities and actions.
—Lisa Burns, American Academy of PAs

“Our team coordinates based on a clear understanding of organizational priorities, goals for products and revenue generation, or goals for activities and actions,” Burns says. “The marketing department holistically reviews and balances campaigns to ensure we are giving all initiatives the weight they deserve. This strategy drives results that are critical to the organization.”

The team also adjusted the frequency of PA-Central based on audience. Members receive it weekly, while it’s sent bimonthly to students and monthly to nonmembers and PA program directors. Since more than 70 percent of the AAPA’s audience opens emails on their mobile devices, the newsletter contains a maximum of six stories, which highlight events, products, and news for PAs. To make it easier to read for these mobile users, the newsletter has a clean layout that alternates images with text and text-only blocks. When readers click on the 30- to 40-word article blurb within the newsletter, they are sent to AAPA’s website to read the full article.

Along with this new channel, the marketing department developed a master calendar to streamline emails sent from AAPA. Member emails are now limited to no more than two per week, unless the audience size is less than 500, and nonmembers only receive emails once a week.

Regular Tracking Ensures Proper Messaging

AAPA measures reader engagement by reviewing open rates and click-through rates (CTR) for each edition of PA-Central. To drive these rates up, Burns says the teams spend time crafting subject lines and adding personalization when possible.

When PA-Central launched, AAPA created a new opt-in/opt-out preference page in an effort to win back those who had unsubscribed. The group also offered incentives to members for updating email preferences. During that process, AAPA discovered that people didn’t even know they had opted out of certain emails and were glad to be able to opt back in.

All of these changes have paid off: In 2016, 1.5 million member and nonmember PA-Central emails were sent, with a 36.4 percent open rate and a 10.2 percent CTR—far exceeding industry benchmarks of 16.19 percent for opens and 6.6 percent for click-throughs. In addition, the e-newsletter has generated 33,433 sessions to APPA’s website—making it the sixth-highest source of traffic—and AAPA can directly attribute 314 membership joins and renewals to PA-Central emails.  

“Because we are reaching more people and giving them permission to pull what they want out of their membership, we think the overall membership experience is stronger,” Burns says. “We also know that our membership has grown year over year, so we know our omnichannel approach to membership is working.”