What do you want? RESULTS! What do you need? DATA! Staci Poole | Derek Lavalier July 28, 2014

Concordia University, St. Paul “The mission of Concordia University, St. Paul, a university of The Lutheran Church -- Missouri Synod, is to prepare students for thoughtful and informed living, for dedicated service to God and humanity, for enlightened care of God's creation, all within the context of the Christian.” “Concordia University, St. Paul empowers you to discover and engage your purpose for life, career and service in a dynamic, multicultural, urban environment where Christ is honored, all are welcome, and Lutheran convictions inform intellectual inquiry and academic pursuits.”

Concordia University, St. Paul 3,632 students 1,344 traditional undergraduate students 827 adult undergraduate students 1,461 graduate students 18,597 degreed alumni (living)

Problem Good offline data wasn’t shared with iModules July 2012 – iModules import October 2012 – iModules impact group July 2013 – SFTP process High unsubscribes Low open rates; low reach Bad data

Problem: We had bad data

Problem: Bad data is affecting our reach

Solutions Communicate with offline database on a regular, automated basis Pay attention to how you string your s Minimize non-member records Use reusable and relevant role-based content that draws off of your accurate data Use categories to lower unsubscribes Utilize iModules reporting tools E.g. Volleyball. We’re getting too many unsubscribes

Solutions: Communicate with offline database

Suggestion – Think of a time when you need accurate data the most We sent our monthly alumni e-newsletter on Wednesdays, so we have our file dump on Tuesday evenings Suggestion – Identify a time in which you need to get updates from iModules into your offline database All changes are added to our offline database on Monday so the bad offline data doesn’t override the corrected/updated online data

Solutions Communicate with offline database on a regular, automated basis Pay attention to how you string your s Minimize non-member records Use reusable and relevant role-based content that draws off of your accurate data Use categories to lower unsubscribes Utilize iModules reporting tools E.g. Volleyball. We’re getting too many unsubscribes

Solutions: string Multiple s – recognize your issues We have four different types (e.g. personal, business, student & fac/staff) in our offline database. Only one is preferred. Uploading CSV files with un-preferred addresses caused issues even if the s were accurate

Solutions Communicate with offline database on a regular, automated basis Pay attention to how you string your s Minimize non-member records Use reusable and relevant role-based content that draws off of your accurate data Use categories to lower unsubscribes Utilize iModules reporting tools E.g. Volleyball. We’re getting too many unsubscribes

Solutions: Minimize non – member records 13,786 non member records Most were only – no first or last name Currently ____ non – member records Most are ones we can now delete because we no longer have the Church Relations function in our office.

Solutions Communicate with offline database on a regular, automated basis Pay attention to how you string your s Minimize non-member records Use reusable and relevant role-based content that draws off of your accurate data Use categories to lower unsubscribes Utilize iModules reporting tools E.g. Volleyball. We’re getting too many unsubscribes

Solutions: Reusable role-based content

Solutions Communicate with offline database on a regular, automated basis Pay attention to how you string your s Minimize non-member records Use reusable and relevant role-based content that draws off of your accurate data Use categories to lower unsubscribes Utilize iModules reporting tools E.g. Volleyball. We’re getting too many unsubscribes

Solutions: Use categories FY14 FY13

Alumni newsletter FY13 E-newsletter averages Sent to Opens 1659 Open rate ~12% Unsubscribes 13

Solutions Communicate with offline database on a regular, automated basis Pay attention to how you string your s Minimize non-member records Use reusable and relevant role-based content that draws off of your accurate data Use categories to lower unsubscribes Utilize iModules reporting tools E.g. Volleyball. We’re getting too many unsubscribes

Solutions: Utilize iModules reporting tools

Volleyball: Check your opens

Volleyball: Deduplicate

Volleyball: Upload CSV

Volleyball: Check it out!

Did it work? Yes. Here’s our proof.

Alumni newsletter FY14 E-newsletter averages Sent to Opens 2850 Open rate ~20% Unsubscribes 72 Creating new categories opened up sending to those who previously unsubscribed Unsubscribes reporting shows unsubscribes, not users who unsubscribed This number will go down over time FY13 E-newsletter averages Sent to Opens 1659 Open rate ~12% Unsubscribes 13

Overall Open Rate

What lies ahead Increase reach by improving invalid s append including … Those with an open rate of <%10, alum Alumni with no Check valid address for those with newly changed s

Questions? Derek Lavalier Staci Poole