Building An Email Marketing Program
From the Ground Up
Background
Media Rhythm Institute is an arts education organization specializing in nurturing creative expression, education, and community engagement. It offers in-school and after-school arts programs and art-centered events that support emerging artists. Before 2024, the organization’s email marketing efforts were sporadic, with occasional newsletters sent without a formal strategy.
As the company grew, it recognized the need for a structured approach. Therefore, in 2024, MRI launched an official email marketing program to improve engagement, drive conversions, and expand its reach.
Challenges
Lack of a structured email marketing plan.
Inconsistent communication with audiences.
Limited audience segmentation, leading to generic messaging.
Goals & Objectives
Build Brand Awareness – Increase visibility for MRI’s programs, events, and community initiatives.
Foster Engagement – Strengthen relationships with students, educators, partners, and local creatives.
Drive Conversions – Promote event attendance, program enrollments, sponsorships, and donations.
Strategy & Execution
Audience Segmentation: To improve targeting and relevance, MRI categorized its audience into:
Educators & School Administrators: Focused on arts education initiatives.
Parents & Guardians: Highlighting youth programs and after-school activities.
Partners & Sponsors: Showcasing sponsorship and collaboration opportunities.
Local Creatives & Artists: Offering event promotions and studio rental details.
Email Types & Frequency: MRI implemented a structured email calendar, including:
Monthly Newsletters: Sent at the top of each month, the newsletter features upcoming events, program highlights, and important announcements.
Event Promotion Emails: Sent at the end of the first week of each month and 1-2 days leading up to events.
Automated Sequences: Welcome emails for new subscribers, re-engagement campaigns, and targeted booking opportunity emails for the studio space in Downtown Baltimore.
Quarterly Emails for Educators & Administrators: Focused outreach emails highlighting MRI’s arts programming and opportunities for partnership.
Content Strategy
Engaging Visuals: Increased focus on including videos, programming recaps, testimonials, and workshop photos.
Clear CTAs: Encouraging event sign-ups, donations, and program enrollments.
Impact Stories: Showcasing student and partnership successes to highlight MRI’s impact.
Email List Growth & Management
Regularly adding new contacts from Eventbrite registration, public tabling events, and other sources.
Automated segmentation for more personalized content delivery.
Quarterly purging of inactive or bounced email addresses to maintain list health.
Results & Successes
In 2024, the strategy of establishing and building MRI’s email marketing plan led to significant improvements in key performance metrics:
Open Rate: Decreased slightly from 82% (2023) to 76.6% (2024) due to a larger and more diverse audience but remains well above industry benchmarks.
Click-Through Rate: Increased significantly from 4% (2023) to 14.9% (2024) reflecting stronger audience engagement and more compelling calls to action.
Bounce Rate: Decreased from 16% (2023) to 9.3% (2024) due to better email list management and higher-quality contacts.
Future Steps
Expand Partnership & Sponsorship Outreach: Develop targeted campaigns to attract business collaborations.
Introduce a Creators Series: Focused emails on creative collaboration opportunities at MRI Studios.
Conclusion
The transformation of MRI’s email marketing program in 2024 demonstrated the power of a well-planned and data-driven strategy. MRI significantly improved its outreach and impact by implementing structured communications, targeted segmentation, and automated workflows.