Sending regular emails to your subscriber list is one of the most powerful and dependable ways to build trust, authority, and loyalty for your nonprofit. Remember, people may or may not see your social media content! The social media algorithm is a fickle and ever-changing god, after all, and not everyone is on social media!
So, send those emails, and be super smart about it.
Here are 12 quick ways you can boost the impact of that email you’re drafting right now:
Keep your subject line short.
MailChimp suggests no more than 9 words and 60 characters, but, if you can do shorter, do! Most smartphones only show 5-6 words of the subject line. Keep it within that limit for the best results!
Use the recipient’s name in the subject line.
You don’t need to do this for every email, but try it this week and see if it has any impact on your open rate.
Make sure it’s mobile-friendly.
Every week, I get a nonprofit email I can’t read on my phone. The font is tiny! And so, even though I care about the nonprofit’s work, I delete it immediately. Don’t waste time crafting a beautifully written and formatted email that goes unread because of a simple fix.
Get to the point.
Don’t make your readers wade through several sentences or paragraphs to find out why you’re writing. Use your subject line, your first sentence, or a few bullet points at the beginning of the email to state your purpose. More on how to do this HERE.
Write a shorter email.
If you usually write emails in letter format with several long paragraphs, can you say what you need to say in 2 paragraphs this time? Can you tighten up your sentences and paragraphs?
Your reader needs brevity. Give her brevity.
Aim to boost your website traffic.
If this is not already a goal of your email (and social media) efforts, make it a priority today. Link to your latest blog post with an interesting hook that makes the reader want to know more. Not sure why website traffic matters? This will help.
Write from a real person to a real person.
Obviously, you are a real person, and your email subscribers are also real people. Often, though, we default to stuffy, formal writing. Case in point: all those emails you’re getting about “unprecedented times.”
You can and should aim for casual and professional, instead. (Think: you’re having coffee with a donor. If you wouldn’t say it in a face-to-face conversation, don’t say it in an email.)
Use real images from your work (rather than stock photos).
If this isn’t immediately do-able, stock images are better than no images! Photos of smiling people have the best track record.
Make your emails visually interesting.
Maybe this means adding colorful header banners, varying up your text styles, adding background photos, GIFs, emojis, etc. It should be attractive to look at when your reader opens it.
Have a specific CTA (call-to-action).
Your primary CTA should only be “Donate” or “Give” once every 5 emails. What else can you ask your readers to do that will increase loyalty and investment in your organization? Ideas:
Forward this email to a friend.
Take our survey.
Read the article.
Share on social media.
Like our IG page.
Send a test email to yourself and someone else at your org.
Preferably the two of you will have different email providers, as emails “behave” differently based on ESP. Verify your email is mobile-friendly, images load quickly, names auto-fill correctly, and you have no spelling/punctuation errors.
Start tracking open rates and engagement (clicks).
Get a baseline for a typical email, and then start tweaking to nudge that rate up.
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