Social media reach and engagement continues on a downward spiral, and it’s so important that nonprofits don’t rely on social media to reach their audience.
Bring on the email newsletter! Email is not dead, and it’s not going anywhere. But in order to reap the benefits of email for your nonprofit, you need a strategic plan to do it right.
In this Facebook Live video replay, I’ll give you five quick ways to improve your nonprofit email newsletter with a lot of fancy tech or a big team.
Watch the video replay:
Let’s dive into today’s topic. I first want to give you some statistics around email vs. social media:
OptinMonster found that 58% of consumers open email first thing in the morning, as opposed to 14% that check social media first thing.
MailChimp found that the average open rate for nonprofit email marketing is 25.96%, while Facebook engagement is at about 2-3%.
And turns out that 60% of consumers subscribe to a brand’s email list to receive promotional messages compared to 20% of consumers who will follow brands on social media to get promotions and marketing messages.
But that doesn’t mean that you can simply use email as a one-way tool to push out promotions.
Alright now let’s tackle the five quick ways to dramatically improve your email newsletter, and thus the experience for donors and subscribers.
1) Change your entire mindset around email.
Email should be used to deepen existing relationships and welcome new people to the fold.
I see your website, your email list, and your social media as all fitting together with separate but complementary purposes.
Your website is your hub of information.
Your email is your relationship builder.
Your social media is more top of funnel, getting to know you, building trust and affinity and awareness.
Use your email marketing and fundraising campaigns to tell stories and show your subscribers the impact of your work.
2) Make it personal.
Inject your personality.
Have it be from a person.
Give it some flavor.
You can change it up and make it be from others involved in your org.
For example, one of my clients, The Marfan Foundation, sent out their annual appeal from the perspective of two young women that participate in their programs:
Another client, Fight Colorectal Cancer, sent several email appeals around GivingTuesday, all in the voices of different cancer survivors.
3) Make it clear and easy to take action.
Include multiple calls to action within your email, in various places including the header text, in the body of the email, and in the footer.
Within the body of the email, place your call to action within a box or a circle resembling a button, with the words in a large, clear font:
Take action now, join the movement, give now
PRO TIP: When you write this button, use the words “I want to…” in your head and imagine your card holder has seen your email and is saying to him or herself, “I want to do that!”
What is the “do that”? That’s your CTA button!
4) Focus on the subject line.
This is where I differ from a lot of other marketers.
People are wise to cute, witty email subject lines that are basically click bait.
If you have had success with calling your emails “June Email Newsletter” then by all means stick to that. If people expect it and look forward to it, changing it up may hurt your open rates.
Use clear, simple language and stay away from passive words.
Numbers get results: Numbers in subject lines draw attention more than a descriptions do.
Questions do the trick, too: Leading with a question that makes your readers think or stirs emotions will help open emails.
Avoid words that trigger spam filters: Words like “free” or even “money” could potentially send your email to spam.
You may want to test out more compelling subject lines, but don’t get too cutesy, don’t include too much punctuation and do NOT write in all caps – those will get you sent to the spam folder in the blink of an eye.
5) Edit and edit again.
Start with the most important information first.
Don’t waste that first sentence!
Remember that people scan. Don’t hide the important info.
Is your email providing valuable information subscribers can’t easily find anywhere else?
Is the information you’re providing solving a problem? Or are you telling them the same thing every week?
Is your newsletter concise?
It’s tempting to include all your information in the newsletter rather than keeping text brief and linking to places with further details such as blog posts, your website, and programming calendars, but all that makes newsletters long FAST.
Keep your newsletters short and sweet and let your readers click to learn more if they want.
How to Build Your Nonprofit Email List Using Your Website & Social Media
Your email list is essentially the communicative lifeblood of your nonprofit.
Okay, that was a little dramatic, but seriously, your nonprofit needs a robust and plentiful email list to continue engaging your community and garnering support.
But how does your nonprofit go about building this active email list, you might ask?
Via your nonprofit’s website and social media profiles of course!
J Campbell Social Marketing has partnered with Elevation to bring you this free guide to building your nonprofit email list, using the tools that you already have!