Email Marketing for Nonprofits: Your Quick-start guide
Need strategy and best practices for your nonprofit’s email marketing - FAST?
Look no further. I’ve got all you need to get started, included a FREE pdf download at the end.
Why your nonprofit needs An email list:
They all went up.
Open rates, click-through rates, response rates, and page completion rates all went up in 2020.
If you haven’t invested in an email marketing strategy for your nonprofit before, NOW’s the time.
"[In 2020] email fundraising performance improved by just about every metric for every kind of nonprofit."
—Source: M + R Benchmarks 2021
On the flip side:
Your organic Facebook posts reach only 4% of your page’s fans.
So should you throw away your social media accounts?
Absolutely not! After all, 29% of the people who did see your organic posts in 2020 were not already followers. And revenue from Facebook Fundraisers, FB’s peer-to-peer tool, rose 14%.
What these stats do mean, though, is that you need to devote more time and effort to your email list.
After all, your subscribers are the people who have ASKED you to email them.
They’ve given you an invitation to their inbox. Are you showing up there regularly - with news, impact stories, education, and appeals? If not, there’s never been a better time.
Choose your email service provider
The list of available email service providers to choose from grows all the time, making it hard to weed through all of the options! To help you narrow down your choices, consider these questions:
What ESP's do trusted nonprofit colleagues use? Ask them about pros and cons of their provider.
Is there a discount for nonprofits? Is there a free trial period?
Often, ESPs have a free plan for clients until they reach a number of subscribers. Compare the free plans of various ESPs.
Does the ESP allow for automation, segmentation, website integration, and A/B testing?
To get started, check out: MailChimp, Campaign Monitor, Sendinblue, MailerLite
Use a Freebie (or Opt-in) to grow your nonprofit email list
Why don’t nonprofits do this more?
It’s a basic aspect of content marketing: give something away to visitors to your website in exchange for an email address.
🎁 You get permission to show up regularly in their inboxes.
🎁 They get valuable content from an expert (that’s you!).
Rather than passively hoping website visitors sign up for your newsletter list, actively recruit them to your cause with a great opt-in!
So, what can you offer?
✏️ a cheat sheet or checklist
✏️ a white paper or ebook
✏️ free tix to an upcoming online event
✏️ access to a video recording of a previous workshop
✏️ download of an art print
Some specific ideas:
If you’re an environmental charity, offer an infographic: 10 Simple Ways to Reduce Your Household’s Trash.
If you’re a farm collective, offer a PDF ebook: Best Gardening Tips for Complete Beginners.
If you’re a mental health org, give away access to a free webinar on anxiety.
If you’re a social justice/political advocacy group, offer a Citizen’s Guide to Ending [the problem you’re trying to solve].
Put yourself in the shoes of somebody who shows up to your website with no idea who you are. What would you want for a freebie? Get creative, design something lovely and useful, and watch your list of potential donors grow!
Simple ways to grow your nonprofit email list
Include an email sign up form on every page of your website and every new blog post.
But don’t only have a form; use a pop-up! (They work!)
Ask your social media followers to subscribe. Don’t forget those YouTube video descriptions on your channel! Include a link to your signup.
Post about your freebie on socials.
Add new content to your site frequently, and post about it on social media (This drives traffic to your site, which helps!).
Add subscribe buttons/info to all social media channels.
Host a free webinar (the emails you collect are the price of admission).
Ask the subscribers on your list to share your emails (and include a subscribe link for those who were forwarded the emails).
Host a giveaway on social media (or at at in-person event) that requires an email address to enter.
Create new, valuable gated content every few months and share widely.
Post about your newsletter and include a subscribe button.
Guest blog on other sites and link back to your org’s website.
Have an influencer among your fans? Enlist them to help you grow your list.
Buy a list. NO!!!!!!! Don’t do that. You want a list full of people who asked to be on your list.
Send your new subscribers a welcome series
I covered welcome series in detail in THIS POST. There’s even an outline for your series.
The gist, though?
When someone signs up for your email list, they are the most interested and engaged in your content as they will ever be. Don’t waste the moment by not sending a welcome series!
A welcome series:
is a 3-to-5 email automated sequence that a subscriber receives after joining your list.
introduces subscribers to your organization: your mission, vision, staff, impact, history, etc.
is the start of your relationship with potential donors.
is proven to increase long-term engagement.
is NOT the right time or place to ask for money.
💥 If you’re skipping the welcome series, you’re missing an opportunity to build trust and loyalty with a potential donor.
Go to this post for full details!
How often should your nonprofit email its list?
Once you’ve got an enticing freebie and have automated your welcome series, start emailing your list regularly.
You decide what “regularly” means, but it’s very unlikely that you will OVER-email your list. Some nonprofits email at least once a week. If you’re new to email, though, once a month might be more realistic right now.
🥁 Choose a rhythm that feels do-able to you right now (1/week? 1x every two weeks? a monthly newsletter?), and then stick to it.
🥁 Add more emails to your rhythm as you grow your list and become more comfortable with the process.
🥁 DO include a DONATE button at the bottom. DO NOT make every email a direct appeal for donations. A 4:1 ratio of non-direct appeal emails to direct appeal emails nurtures donors without making them feel used.
Your emails are opportunities to build trust in your organization. Don't waste them! Ask yourself:
💡 how can I add value to my subscribers’ lives with my expertise?
💡 what wisdom do I have to share?
💡 what images/impact/story/testimonial can I share in this email?
Here’s one possible rhythm for your emails with a rotation of content:
WEEK 1: share a story (donor/volunteer/beneficiary)
WEEK 2: share your knowledge (educate your list in small, easy-to-understand chunks)
WEEK 3: share your impact & the need (what are your program stats for the last month? has the need risen? how has your team stepped up to meet the need?)
WEEK 4: monthly newsletter sharing links, news, upcoming events
WEEK 5: direct ask
Best practices for nonprofit email marketing
Every email you send is meant to:
✏️ keep your organization on your subscribers’ minds,
✏️ build their confidence in your work, and
✏️ make them feel like a vital part of what you do.
If you succeed at doing those 3 things, subscribers will be excited to give when you make a compelling ask.
Here's a few tips for nurturing your list:
1. Write from one real person to another real person. Keep your tone professional but informal. Imagine you're having coffee with a donor. Lose the jargon and the big words, and write the way you talk.
2. Format your email for skimmers: short paragraphs, bullet points, bold/underlined main points. One clear CTA.
3. Double-check that it's mobile-friendly. Send a couple of test emails to personal email accounts (your own and/or a coworker's). You should be able to read the email easily without enlarging the text or rotating your phone.
4. Segment your list. Once you've built up a solid list - and your capacity to email regularly-, start segmenting. You can segment by frequency of donations, specific programming or cause interests, or by subscriber communications preferences.
5. Say thanks and share impact. Donors give because they want to change the world. If you don’t tell them how they’ve done that with a donation to your organization, how will they know? Why will they want to give again?
Email metrics your nonprofit needs to track
Virtually every email service provider makes it easy to track whether your emails are working for you!
Start with these metrics:
✅ OPEN RATE: the % of recipients who open an email.
The average open rate for nonprofit emails is 20%. The good news is this is higher than overall email marketing open rates!
To improve your open rate:
Try out different subject lines. There are lots of great subject line testers that can help you refine yours.
The point is not to overthink it (if you find you’ve spent an hour on the subject line tester, you’ve gone too far!). Learn what works for your org.
Sometimes being super clear about what’s inside works best (“FREE webinar: details inside!”) Other times try to create a bit of mystery by teasing a story that’s inside (“Why this mom is grateful for your gift.”).
✅ CLICKTHROUGH RATE: % of ALL recipients (whether they open the email or not) who click on at least one link in an email.
This should hover around 2.5%.
✅ CLICK-TO-OPEN RATE: % of those who opened the email who clicked to open a link.
Aim for 11% or higher.
To improve your CTR and CTOR:
⭐ Make sure your emails are pleasing to the eye.
Try these formatting tips:
start with a sentence or two in bold to preview your email’s contents
add headings that stand out from the rest of the content
include images/videos
use bulleted lists
vary your text with bold/italics/underlining (but don’t overdo it)
leave some white space between paragraphs
use emojis, if this is “on-brand” and appropriate to your email’s topic
make your paragraphs much shorter than your English teacher told you they could be. One or two sentences is fine.
sum up key takeaway(s) at the end
⭐ Check again that your email is mobile-friendly.
⭐ Is your CTA clear? What exactly do you want someone who reads your email to do? Have you explicitly asked for that in your message?
Use 1 button in the email for your primary CTA.
Every other link should be in within the text.
✅ Conversion rate: % of those who clicked who completed the desired action. (You’ll likely need to use your website analytics alongside your email analytics to determine this #.)
So, if your CTA is to a landing page the seeks to get a donation, what % of visitors who show up on that landing page actually make a donation?
If your CTA is a button that takes visitors to a signup form for an event, what % actually sign up?
That’s your conversion rate.
To improve your CR:
A low conversion rate often signals that the page someone is sent to is too complicated, loads too slowly, has either too much or too little info.
In other words, you’re creating too much friction between the initial decision to click on the link and the final action desired (a donation/a signup, etc.).
Consider:
Does the page you’re linking to load too slowly?
Is it mobile friendly?
Is the design cluttered and overwhelming?
Is the copy confusing or either too long or too short?
Is the signup form too involved?
Is the CTA unclear? Or is there more than 1 CTA on the page?
Add “check email metrics” to your calendar every few months and adjust accordingly. That leads to our last step:
Why and How to tweak your nonprofit’s email marketing strategy
Even the best email marketers are constantly adjusting their emails and strategy based on data! You need to do the same.
Both larger email marketing trends AND your internal data about what’s working (and what’s not) should inform how you adjust your email strategy.
For example:
👉 If your freebie isn't drawing subscribers, try something new. (But don’t waste the freebie - repurpose it as a blog post or other content!) This could also be an SEO issue: are people finding your site? Are you getting enough organic traffic?
👉 If your welcome series isn't being opened after the first email or two, rewrite it and try new subject lines.
👉 If your CTAs aren’t converting, try different wording or formatting.
👉 Experiment with sending emails on different days/times and compare open rates.
👉Experiment with different rhythms. Do you get more opens with 1 email a month or 1 email a week?
An inexpensive way to stay on top of the best ideas in email marketing:
To keep your own strategy fresh and interesting, subscribe to the lists of other nonprofits - or businesses - and keep a file on your computer of email examples you love.
When your own inspiration is waning, this is a simple way to give yourself a boost. Which subject lines can you not resist opening? Which buttons are you compelled to click? What content and formatting keeps you reading?
And if you’re a small nonprofit with a limited marketing budget, subscribing to the lists of orgs much larger than you can be an inexpensive (FREE!) way to get an education in the latest email marketing strategies.
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