Music & Youth Initiative Strikes a Chord with Targeted E-Mail Marketing through RatePoint

Music & Youth Initiative Strikes a Chord with Targeted E-Mail Marketing through RatePoint

Music programs for underserved youth grow through proactive e-mail marketing efforts

NEEDHAM, Mass., Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- The Music & Youth Initiative (www.musicandyouth.org), a non-profit organization dedicated to developing and funding afterschool music programs for underserved urban youth, has seen growth in its program with the help of strategic e-mail marketing through RatePoint, a leading provider of customer feedback and online reputation management services. By utilizing RatePoint, the organization has been able to generate additional donations and expand its support of music programs for youth.

The Music & Youth Initiative sponsors six Music Clubhouses in some of the neediest neighborhoods in the greater Boston area. School-aged youth 10-18 years can take music lessons, practice, listen to music, and collaborate with other musicians, at no (or minimal) cost to them and their families. In the six-year history of the organization, Music & Youth Initiative sponsored clubhouses have participated in numerous performances and have created three original music albums. All of the music composition, performance and production on the albums came from young people participating in the program.

As a volunteer-only organization, the Music & Youth Initiative needed a fast, easy, professional way to communicate multiple messages to different audiences. Music & Youth Initiative Executive Director Gary Eichhorn (also a volunteer) turned to RatePoint as a trusted partner for e-mail marketing. Eichhorn uses RatePoint to communicate via targeted e-mail marketing campaigns to donors and partners such as universities, corporations and managers of the clubhouses.

"Through RatePoint's e-mail marketing solution, we are able to efficiently target communications to the right people at the right time," Eichhorn said. "When we are fundraising, we can target specific messages for each audience. For example, we wouldn't want to send an appeal e-mail to our partners, so we are able to quickly and easily send them a tailored newsletter."

While the Music & Youth Initiative relies on RatePoint, Eichhorn found colleagues in the non-profit sector try to manage e-mail lists on their own in a Microsoft Excel document.

"That's a cumbersome and almost impossible way to try to manage the e-mail communication process," Eichhorn said. "With RatePoint, you can segment your database of contacts and send e-mail communications to whomever you want. You can also easily go in and update a contact, see who is opening your e-mail and who isn't so you can send something different to them."

Beyond database management, Eichhorn says e-mails coming through a provider such as RatePoint look more professional and have more impact with the end audience.

"Organizations such as the Music & Youth Initiative have found email marketing to be a valuable strategy for raising funds to continue their important work in local communities," said Neal Creighton, co-founder and CEO of RatePoint. "Strategic email communications benefit small businesses and organizations through awareness, action, sales and support."

About RatePoint:

RatePoint, Inc., the leading provider of customer feedback and online reputation management services, helps businesses protect and build their online reputation, allowing businesses to harness the power of credible customer feedback and leverage it into a sales, marketing and customer service asset.

RatePoint's easy-to-use, Web-based communication services include customer feedback tools to collect business and product reviews, email marketing, survey and dispute resolution capabilities to provide small- and medium-sized businesses with the ability to collect, manage and promote customer feedback directly from their Web site. For more information, contact us at: 888-777-1636 or visit: www.ratepoint.com.

Source: RatePoint, Inc.

CONTACT: Yvonne Gaudette of RatePoint, Inc., +1-781-465-2052,
ygaudette@ratepoint.com; or Tim Wieland of Airfoil Public Relations,
+1-248-304-1414, wieland@airfoilpr.com

Web Site: http://www.ratepoint.com/

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