Email Engagement

Best Practices for Nonprofits

Shana Masterson

Email Marketing puts the focus on your organization.

Email Engagement puts the focus on your constituents.

Some popular ESPs

Grow Your Email List• Permission Based• Existing and informal collection• Email field added to all forms• Email sign up on every page of your website

If CONTENT is KING, then AUDIENCE is

HIGH OVERLORD of Email Engagement.

“Even if you have permission to send an email, people will not open it, read it, or stay on your list very long if the information you send isn’t relevant to them.”

- Jeffrey Rice, MarketingSherpa

Audience Segmentation

• Location• Age• Recipients of services• Volunteers• Donors

– New donors – Lapsed donors– Donors to a particular campaign– High dollar donors

Email Consumption Stages

SenderName/Email

SubjectLine

PreviewPane

Above The Fold

Entire Email

Click-Through/Action

Open

Sender Name/Email• Consistency in both helps build recognition and

trust.

• The from line is the first thing people read, and is an important factor in whether or not the email is opened.

• As little as 20 characters will display in the from line.

• Ask to be white listed.

Subject Line• Be specific, not misleading.

• Provide a sense of urgency.

• Speak to their needs and interests.

• Put the most important information first.

• Length: Between 20 and 50 characters, 60 max.

Preview Pane/Above the Fold

• More than 70% of email users report utilizing the preview pane.

• The preview pane will show the top 2 – 4 inches of the message, often with images blocked.

• Put the most important content, the value proposition, or the action item in the first few lines of the email.

• The first few lines should draw the person in and encourage them to continue skimming in the preview pane or to open the message.

Confessions of an Email Skimmer

• Only 19% of emails are actually read, the rest are skimmed.

• Put the most important content in components of the emails that can be easily skimmed.

• Headlines get the most attention followed by bulleted or numbered lists.

• Links, links, links!

This is not your Annual Report!

• Conversational, not

corporate or flowery.

• Short, to the point

sentences.

• Paragraphs should be

no longer than 5-6 lines.

• Write for an audience

of one.

Calls to Action• One call to action

• Bring the horse to water – Tell them what they should do, why they should do it, and how to take the next step.

• Use colorful buttons and multiple links.

• Make the email shareable.

Improve as you go• Open Rate• Clickthrough Rate• Action Rate• Unsubscribe Rate• List growth/churn• A/B Testing• Timing

iOS increased by 85% in two years

Design for top email clients and with mobile in mind

Outlook – Images off by default

http://www.campaignmonitor.com/stats/email-clients/

Multi-Channel

• Website• Email• Print• Social

http://www.theagitator.net/fundraising/why-direct-mail-wont-die/

Some ResourcesCase studies: • marketingsherpa.com • whichtestwon.com

Best practices:• nonprofitmarketingblog.com (Katya Andresen)• nonprofitmarketingguide.com/blog (Kivi Lereoux Miller)• campaignmonitor.com/blog• gettingattention.org (Nancy Schwartz)

Test email design on multiple clients (fee):• emailonacid.com• litmus.com

DISCUSSION

Keep in touch!

Email: npshana@gmail.com

Twitter: npshana