We all have experienced looking in our email inboxes and finding floods of emails from businesses trying to get us to buy their products or fund their businesses. However, if done right, email marketing can be an effective marketing tool for your nonprofit.
Email marketing is a great way to keep your current and potential supporters up-to-date on what your organization is doing. E-newsletters can help keep members, sponsors, donors and media informed on events such as open houses or fundraisers that your nonprofit may have scheduled to show your target market that your organization is active.
Marketing through e-newsletters is also effective because your distribution list is comprised of individuals your organization has “touched” in some way and therefore they are all people with some level of interest in your nonprofit. You know that you are reaching the right audience every time you send an email.
Here is some advice on how to make an effective e-newsletter campaign:
- Keep it short. Keep your blurbs short and efficient. People want to get the information you are giving them quickly and are more likely to continue reading your email if it is not too wordy.
- Be thoughtful about the subject line. The majority of people open an email based solely on the subject line. Think of something intriguing for your subject line such as something funny or shocking that will make your audience want to open your email. Refrain from using an exclamation point in your subject line as email systems could flag it as spam.
- Use a good distribution program. Using a distribution program that has in-depth analytics about how successful your email campaigns are doing can help you know what is working and what needs to be improved upon in the future so your emails are more effective.
- Include Video. Including video in your nonprofit’s e-newsletter can increase the amount of people that read them. According to the Forrester Marketing Group, if a business includes a video in an email, the click-through rate can increase anywhere from 200% to 300%! Additionally, make sure to include a thumbnail of your video so readers are more inclined to view the video.