The email program run by the Obama Campaign was a brilliant and shining example of success that baffles many small campaign leaders. To some, a victory of such proportion seems like an impossible daydream. However, achieving campaign success is more than just having a compelling cause and creating inspiring content. Rather, it is in large part mathematical — a numbers game.

So, what does that mean?

Recent benchmark studies have returned some interesting results. According to the 2011 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study authored by M+R and NTEN, the average fundraising email response rate is 0.08% and the average advocacy response rate is 3.30%. Now, if you do the math here is what you could expect to achieve with your campaign efforts:

Image taken from M+R and NTEN's 2011 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study.

e.g. If you have a list size of 50,000 and you send out an advocacy email blast to your full list, you can expect about 3.3% of the recipients to take action.

• List size: 50,000
• Advocacy email response rate: 3.30% (0.033)
• 50,000 * 0.033 = 1,650 actions taken.

e.g. If you have the same list of 50,000 supporters and you send out a fundraising email blast to your full list, you can expect about 0.08% of the recipients to donate.

• List size: 50,000
• Fundraising email response rate: 0.08% (0.0008)
• Median gift size: $91.94
  according to The 2011 Convio Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index^TM Study
• 50,000 * 0.0008 * $91.94 = $3,677.60 dollars earned.

So, the next time you send out an incredible email campaign with copy so rich and compelling that you are certain you are going to raise thousands of dollars — think again and get out your calculator. No matter how great your campaign is or how convincing your content, the reality is that the number game rules, and if you are only reaching 50,000 people your success is going to be limited.

But do not despair! Email is still one of the most popular and successful means for communicating with your supporters and prospects. There are a couple of things to take into consideration, and a couple of ways to improve the success of your campaigns.

1^st — Measure your campaigns. The benchmarks in the report referenced above are just that — benchmarks. You should look at your own campaign results in order to find out what your organization’s average action rates are. Then you can use those as a base to set your campaign goals, and work to improve these rates over time.

2^nd — Craft your engagement strategy. Creating relationships with your supporters will likely improve the success rates for your campaigns. If you think about your campaigns as a large narrative driving your supporters to deeper engagement, they will become more invested in your organization. Use email to tell them about your cause, report back on your successes, and don’t always ask them for things. Over time, they will be more likely to open the emails and take action or donate when the time comes for you to send out your advocacy or fundraising blasts. Building an engagement strategy is key for success.

3^rd — Build your list / expand your reach. As the math above shows, it will be hard to achieve dramatically higher results without reaching a larger audience. Plus, with an average email attrition rate of approximately 18% it is incredibly important to work on expanding your reach and building your list of supporters. You can expand your reach by:

• Cross posting campaign materials to various social media platforms.
• Support your online campaigns with offline organizing activities.
• Ask your organization’s top evangelists or influencers to personally reach out to their networks to spread the word about your campaign.
• Do list swaps with other similar or related organizations.
• Research and reach out to other online communities, groups, or platforms with audiences who might be interested in your campaign.
• Promote your campaign with traditional PR activities, outreach to news/media organizations, bloggers and online influencers.
• If you have a budget, try paid media (targeted search, blog ads, banner ads) or platforms such as Care2 or MoveOn.

Ultimately, if you do the three things above — measure your campaigns, craft your engagement strategy and expand your reach — you will likely be able to work the numbers to your advantage and will be on your way to both setting achievable goals and reaching those goals in no time.

Just for fun, lets look back at the numbers one more time to see how things can change with a few new inputs.

e.g. If you have a list size of 50,000 and you send out an advocacy email blast to your full list, you can expect about 3.3% of the recipients to take action. If we extend the reach of the campaign by 20,000 people and assume a 0.3% improvement in responses from increased engagement we yield much higher results.

• List size: 50,000 + Extended reach: 20,000 (social media platform + list swap)
• Advocacy email response rate: 3.30% (0.033) + 0.3% (0.003) response improvement from increased engagement.
• 70,000 * 0.036 = 2,520 actions taken or 52% more actions taken.

e.g. If you have the same list of 50,000 supporters and you send out a fundraising email blast to your full list, you can expect about 0.08% of the recipients to donate. If we extend the reach of the campaign by 20,000 people and assume the same response rate we yield much higher results.

• List size: 50,000 + Extended reach: 20,000 (social media platform + list swap)
• Fundraising email response rate: 0.08% (0.0008)
• Median gift size: $91.94
• 70,000 * 0.0008 * $91.94 = $5,148.64 dollars earned or 40% more money earned.