Associations work hard to grow their email lists, and with good reason. Email is one of the best ways to consistently reach members and partners. But all too often, associations aren’t doing the necessary cleanup work on email lists to keep them fresh and accurate.

MediaPost columnist Ray Schultz asserts that many association email lists are being damaged by “hidden rot.” Schultz points to a study from Bob & David James, an association marketing agency, to back up his claim. The study states that business-to-consumer lists decay at a rate 30 percent per year, and business-to-business lists reach a whopping 70 percent decay per year.

Many associations aren’t aware of how weak their lists are becoming. “Of the 97 association marketers surveyed, only 18 percent said they were aware of an increase in undeliverable addresses in the last year,” says Schultz. “Another 58 percent said they were unaware of any decline, and 26 percent were unsure.”

A plague of dead email addresses is a serious problem for the health of your list and consequently your organization. If your email list is decaying at high rate, it could be nearly worthless in just a few years—even if you’re able to make small gains in followers along the way.

Hire Experience

From #ASAE17: Why You Should Hire the Overqualified Candidate – https://t.co/HZegPls2z1 #assnchat pic.twitter.com/M4NC5YuzFQ

— MemberClicks (@MemberClicks) August 24, 2017

Managers are often reluctant to hire overqualified candidates. Many think these candidates will be too difficult to control. Or they may think these candidates will jump to a more senior position at another organization quickly. Some may even worry about being replaced themselves by overqualified hires.

But don’t be so fast to count these candidates out, explains a new MemberClicks blog post.

“Typically, these employees are much faster with onboarding than their counterparts and will jump into their job duties quicker than you expect,” writes Krissy Conant, referencing a session called “Take a Chance on Me: Hiring the Overqualified Candidate” at this month’s ASAE Annual Meeting & Expo.

Overqualified candidates also make a good sounding board for ideas and questions.

“Experience is the best teacher, so don’t be afraid to seek out your new employee’s perspective on an issue they may have dealt with before,” says Conant.

Other Links of Note

Think beyond the profession. Association Success shares four skills all associations should teach, no matter their field.

Get great press. Kivi’s Nonprofit Communication’s Blog provides tips for a good media-relations strategy.

Infographic of the day. Omnipress shares five ways to easily promote your training courses online.

(Image Source/Getty Images Plus)