Email is one of the most powerful marketing tools, but it’s often under-utilized by non-profits. Your email subscribers are a highly-engaged audience who want to hear from you – but are you communicating with them regularly?  

According to Campaign Monitor, the average open rate of an email campaign sent from a non-profit is 26% compared to just 21% across all industries. Non-profit subscribers are therefore not only interested in receiving email communication but are also more likely to open and engage with emails.  

Email marketing is a cost-effective tool that can be extremely useful in increasing donations, recruiting volunteers and generating engagement. Consider these tips when crafting your next email campaign. 

Ensure you have a solid list  

You have an important new campaign to announce, but do you have an audience to send it to? Building a solid list of engaged users is vital to any email campaign. Building a list can take time, but there are strategies to increase it quicker.  

• Consider adding a pop-up form to your website, which can increase your subscriber rate significantly. It should be easy for users to sign up to your email list. They shouldn’t have to search too hard to find the sign-up form. 
• Leverage social media to ask your followers to sign up to your mailing list. 
• Collect emails at in-person events (if you’re hosting them). Consider hosting a giveaway where someone has to provide their email and agree to be added to your mailing list to be entered for a prize draw. 
• Consider gating content on your website. If you have a valuable resource or interesting piece of content, ask users for their email address in order to download it. 

When building your list, ensure you collect important data points from your subscriber. You don’t want to make the sign-up form too lengthy, but asking for their name in addition to an email address will allow you to personalize your emails.  

Also consider segmenting subscribers into separate audiences so that you can create more targeted campaigns. For example, you may have a donor list that would receive fundraising campaigns, and a volunteer list that might receive emails about upcoming volunteer opportunities. Personalizing your emails is much more effective than a spray and pray approach. 

Personalize your content 

Once you’ve built a list with segmented audiences and key data points, use the information you’ve collected to send targeted emails that speak directly to your subscriber and appeal to them emotionally. For example, if someone has donated to a specific program in the past, send them an update about how their donation has made a difference. 

It’s important to update your CRM (customer relationship management) tool regularly to add donor information. By further segmenting your list by donation status, such as current donors and lapsed donors, you might be able to generate some additional donations by reaching out to past donors.  

Personalization is an important and effective way to engage with contacts in your database. Sending the same email to everyone won’t have the same impact as crafting unique email messages based on the contact’s history with your organization. 

Automate your emails 

When a new subscriber signs up to your email list, put together a welcome series of 4-5 emails that automatically get sent out every few days. A welcome series can include anything you want – but be sure to stick to one message per email. Your first email might be an introduction to the organization, the next might outline how supporters can get involved, and the third might be a human-interest story on someone your organization has helped. Welcome series emails can receive double the average open rate of your other emails and you only have to compile the campaigns once, so it’s a great way to maximize impact with low output. 

Perfect your visuals and messaging 

The average person receives 121 emails per day, so if you want your message to be opened and read, it has to stand out. Consider these tips when designing and writing your email campaigns: 

• Write a short and catchy subject line that’s 7-9 words. Consider using emojis to make the email pop in an inbox. 
• Use compelling and impactful images that showcase the work that your organization does. 
• Keep emails short and sweet. Campaign Monitor recommends just 125 to 200 words – or 20 lines of text.   
• Make your email easy to read by breaking up text with headings and using call to action buttons (e.g. donate, apply, learn more) to drive users to your website.   
• Ensure your email is mobile-friendly. Mobile accounts for nearly half of all email opens. 

Send it at the right time 

Historically, the best time to send an email campaign was Tuesday or Wednesday morning. However, with the rise of mobile phones, users now have access to email 24/7. Statistics show that 58% of adults check their email first thing in the morning and 19% checking their inbox several times a day. Given this, when is the best time to send an email? 

The best way to determine the right time to distribute your campaigns is to test. Different audiences might be more inclined to read emails at certain times than other audiences. There is no one-size-fits-all.  

Typically, if your organization is business-to-business, you’ll want to send emails during the week, but if you’re business-to-consumer, any day or time is fair game. Have some fun with testing different deployment days and times and then analyze your results. 

Measure, measure, measure! 

Measuring your results is the best way to determine the effectiveness of your campaigns. Test elements such as deployment times, subject lines and images to see what resonates with your users. Look at metrics such as open rates, click-through rates and unsubscribes, and use this data to inform future decisions about your email campaigns.  

Conclusion 

If you’re not already leveraging email marketing, a huge opportunity is in front of you. Take the time to build your email list, design effective campaigns and monitor your results to ensure success. 

NFP Communications is a marketing and communications consultancy that aims to help the not-for-profit sector with its marketing and communications needs.