E-Communications

The Electronic Communications Committee administers our electronic communications –

email blasts, event registrations and electronic surveys. We have a paid subscription for

an online program called Constant Contact that we use these communications.

This past year, we’ve made several changes that have helped our committees with their

work and increased efficiency. In the past we used three separate email lists to send the

Minstrel-Gram. These were a weekly list, a bulletin list sent when there were shows of a

higher caliber, and an emergency list just for special alerts. This year we consolidated

those lists into one. We also updated the Special Concerts web page to enable a link to

the web page created in Constant Contact. This made it easier for the Special Concerts

committee to publicize the events they are registering in Constant Contact on our own

Folk Project web pages.

Constant Contact made a lot of changes this year. They created a new billing system and

when we switched to it we were able to save a small amount of money. They changed the

look and feel of their website. They also changed their statistical reporting and because of

that, I have had to change how I report the statistics to you. For instance, our average

open rate for emails used to be reported as a weighted average but now Constant Contact

only gives me an unweighted average, so looking at our results from last in comparison

with this year is meaningless. As a result, this report will only state the figures for this

year alone.

In addition, Constant Contact is only reporting these figures annually on our anniversary

date, which was May. So the figures below are from May of this year.

Our average open rate is 33%, a good rate.

Our average click through rate is 11 %, also a good rate.

Over the past year we sent out 221,997 emails.

We currently have 4,388 contacts, up from 4,105 last year, an increase of 283.

Number of contacts on each of our venue lists:

• • Getaway – 810

  • Minstrel-Gram – 2,334

  • Special Concerts – 706

  • Swingin’ Tern -- 841

One new feature of the reports is letting us know the best time for us to send emails,

based on the hour of the week with the most opens for our emails. For us, this magic time

is:

• • Monday at 10 am.

Constant Contact users please take note!

We continue to send out regular emails from each of our venues as well as e-newsletter

notifications, membership renewals, flyers and volunteer requests. We also use Constant

Contact’s event registration facility for many of our events, including the Getaway,

Special Concerts, House Concerts and the NJ Uke Fest.

I’d like to thank committee members Barbara Moo, Liz Pagan and Bobbie Rosengarten

for their help. And I’d also like to commend all of you who are using electronic

communications for always exploring new ways to enhance our outreach to our audience.

Lori Falco