"Our message is not just sent; it is received, opened, and felt, creating ripples of impact far beyond the screen." - David Avritt (CA Jail Outreach)

Email Marketing: Strategy and Performance Review

The Role of Email in Our Ecosystem

Email marketing is the most direct and measurable digital channel we possess for communicating value, fostering relationships, and driving action among our audiences, whether they are new cold leads or existing subscribers. At its core, email allows us to deliver personalized, timely, and relevant commercial messages directly to a user's inbox, bypassing the ever-changing algorithms of social media and search engines. We utilize this channel for two primary purposes: distributing educational and inspirational newsletters to our engaged community and conducting targeted outreach to expand our network and influence. We rely on email because it offers unparalleled cost-effectiveness, a high return on investment (ROI), and a stable, owned communication platform where we retain complete control over our relationships with contacts.

Our decision to utilize GetResponse as our comprehensive email marketing and automation platform is based on three core strategic pillars: Superior Deliverability, Integrated Functionality, and Scalability.

• Superior Deliverability (Trust): For both our high-volume newsletters and our sensitive cold leads campaigns, maintaining an exceptional sender reputation is non-negotiable. GetResponse consistently ranks highly for delivering emails directly to the inbox, not the spam folder. This proven track record ensures our message is seen by the people who need it most.

• Integrated Functionality (Efficiency): We didn't just need a sender; we needed an ecosystem. GetResponse provides a comprehensive suite of tools, including a robust marketing automation builder, a dedicated landing page creator, and conversion funnels. This integration enables us to consolidate our entire marketing operation in one place—from lead capture to email nurturing and analytics—resulting in significant internal efficiency.

• Scalability and Data (Growth): The platform is built to handle our current volume while easily scaling as our lists expand. Its sophisticated analytics provide granular, real-time data on open rates, click rates, and CTOR, allowing us to rapidly segment our audience and continually optimize our content strategy for maximum engagement and conversion.

Crucially, GetResponse also handles essential compliance features, such as automatic unsubscribe management and mandatory inclusion of physical addresses, helping us navigate the legal landscape of commercial messaging.

Regarding regulatory compliance, we adhere strictly to the requirements of the CAN-SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act), which is enforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The key stipulations of this U.S. federal law require that every commercial email we send:

1. Must not contain false or misleading header information or deceptive subject lines.

2. Must clearly identify the message as an advertisement (where applicable).

3. Must include our valid physical postal address.

4. Must provide a clear and conspicuous mechanism for recipients to opt out of future emails.

5. Must honor all opt-out requests promptly, within ten business days.

Maintaining this compliance is paramount to protecting our sender reputation and ensuring long-term success.

Our marketing success is directly proportional to the size and quality of our email list. Therefore, every content asset we produce—from our website and dedicated landing pages to our podcasts and downloadable resources—is fundamentally designed as an email capture tool. The goal is simple: maximize the number of individuals who willingly opt in to receive our communications. This consistent focus on lead generation ensures that we continually replenish the top of our marketing funnel with interested prospects, enabling us to build deeper relationships and provide ongoing value.

Performance Analysis: Year-to-Date (July 2024 to October 2025)

The performance data covering the period from July 1, 2024, to October 2, 2025, reflects the Year-to-Date (YTD) overall health and strong engagement of our email programs.

Positive Highlights:

• Exceptional Deliverability: Out of 7,110 emails sent, 6,880 were successfully delivered, resulting in a phenomenal 96.24% Delivery Rate. This rate is a direct reflection of our diligent list hygiene, use of the GetResponse platform, and strong sender reputation.

• High Engagement: Our overall Open Rate stands at 43.11%. This is significantly above industry benchmarks, indicating that our subject lines are compelling and our audience finds our content highly relevant.

• Strong Conversion Intent: We achieved an excellent Click-to-Open Rate (CTOR) of 33.37%. This metric, which measures clicks relative to opens, demonstrates that once a subscriber opens our email, the content and call-to-action (CTA) are highly effective in driving them toward the next step, such as viewing an article or completing an action.

• Minimal Complaints: Our Spam Complaint Rate is extremely low at 0.02% (only one marked complaint across the entire period), and the Bounce Rate is well-controlled at 3.76% (230 total bounces). These numbers confirm that we are sending solicited content and maintaining a healthy, high-quality list.

Areas for Improvement and Focus:

• Attributed Revenue: The report currently indicates 'No Attributed Revenue Found.' While our primary goals often focus on educational outreach and relationship building, for the sake of long-term sustainability, we must implement more robust tracking within GetResponse to link specific email campaigns (especially cold leads and promotional newsletters) to measurable financial outcomes, thereby quantifying the value of this channel.

• Unsubscribe Rate: The total Unsubscribe Rate is 1.41% (83 total unsubscribes) for the reporting period. I would like to point out that our process involves manually deleting approximately half of these unsubscribes, as they originate from contacts with known duplicate email addresses, which effectively lowers the actual voluntary opt-out rate. While not alarmingly high, this rate indicates that specific segments may be receiving content that is not fully tailored to their current needs. We need to refine our list segmentation and content strategy to reduce this rate, ensuring every subscriber receives the most relevant information possible.

• Targeted Optimization: An examination of individual campaign performance (seen on page 3 of the report) reveals opportunities for optimization. For instance, the July 2025 Monthly Newsletter, Vol. 7, to the CA Jail Outreach list had a good Open Rate of 39.85% but a moderate Bounce Rate of 6.07%, suggesting a potential need to clean or verify that specific list segment. Conversely, high-value, small-batch emails, such as the CEO Report July 2025 to Board Members, achieved a 90% Open Rate and a 30% Click Rate, confirming the high engagement of our core stakeholder communications.

Conclusion:

Overall, our email marketing program is functioning effectively as a high-engagement, cost-efficient, and compliant communication platform. Our immediate focus will be on addressing the lack of attributed revenue tracking to better measure ROI and implementing refined segmentation strategies to reduce unsubscribes and minimize list degradation. This foundation will allow us to scale our efforts responsibly as our audience continues to grow.

“The fruit of our labor today determines the quality of our harvest tomorrow.” - Chaplain David