Ever been frustrated by writing your nonprofit e-newsletter? Ever wondered what to say, or how to get people to click donate? How do you get people to just look at your email and sign up to be the sponsors for your next event? Mazarine Treyz will help you get more e-newsletter opens and signups.
Getting More People To Open Your Nonprofit eNewsletter
3. What are some of your issues with your
e-newsletter?
a) It's written by committee
b) No one signs up for it
c) No one clicks donate through it
d) No one opens it
e) Only my friends read it.
Poll questions
4. What are you hoping to get out of today?
a) New e-newsletter subject lines
b) Tactics to get people to open the e-newsletter
c) E-newsletter headlines
d) All of the above
e) A magic bullet system that will allow me
to achieve millionaire status in 5 seconds
Poll questions
5. What You'll Learn Today
1) Best Subject Lines
2) Formatting rules
3) Cheapest & most useful email clients
4) Innovations in e-newsletters
5) Case studies of incredible e-newsletters
6) What kind of photos to use
7) Where to put the donate button
8) Lolcats (just checking to see if you're paying attention!)
6. What is your most
powerful social
media tool?
Pop Quiz!
a.) Twitter
b.) Facebook
c.) Email
d.) Blog
e.) Your face
8. What are the best subject lines?
1. Free
2. New
3. At last
4. This
5. Announcing
6. Warning!
7. Just
released
8. Now
9. Here's
10. These* FACT: No one will donate via
your enewsletter if you can't
get them to OPEN it. These
subject lines pique curiosity
* From Cashvertising by Drew Whitman
AND LISTS! (From
Smithsonian
Magazine)
9. What are the best subject lines?
11. Last chance
12. Hurry
13. Quick
14. Easy
15. Sensational
16. Remarkable
17. Revolutionary
18. Startling
19. Just Arrived
20. Important Development
21. Introducing
22. The Truth About
23. Offering
24. Suddenly
25. Amazing
These sorts of headlines
are favored by Dr. Mercola,
who has one of the biggest
circulation e-newsletters in
the world.
10. What are the best subject lines?
Warn people about something.
Use I
Use the word You
Feature your offer
Use the word Why or How
Use the word breakthrough
Example from Dr. Mercola's website
11. Must Know
Use the words You,
How, Announcing
Test your subject lines
Using the subject line
“Our quarterly
newsletter” is not going
to cut it.
What are the best subject lines?
Must Do
Subscribe to these
e-newsletters and LEARN:
Dr. Mercola
Tom Ahern
Smithsonian
NAPCO Online Marketing
Wild Woman Fundraising
12. What are some e-newsletter
formatting rules?
Remember a big header with a real
headline.
Always have a caption with your
picture.
Give us a big picture of what
you're doing
Black writing on a white
background is easiest to read.
Sans serif fonts
13. Make your headline POP!
(Example on the right from Tom Ahern's
Enewsletter)
Make sure you have a text only version
that can stand alone, without pictures
Think of this formula: 1 email, 1 purpose
What are some e-newsletter
formatting rules?
14. Case studies of incredible newsletters
Start with
the word
YOU
Keep making the donor the hero, help them feel involved
Good headline!
20. Segment Your Target Audience
based on what they click on.
Are you looking for:
Donations
Sponsorships
Volunteers
In-Kind Donations
Gala event attendees
Family & friends of people
you serve
Segment your e-newsletters
21. How can we improve these e-newsletters?
What can we change to
make this more effective?
Instead of this headline,
try:
“Do you like riding your
bike for good causes?
Join us on August 11th!”
Change headline to “Save Money on Your Taxes” (with a Tax-Deductible
Gift to CVCJ)
23. Poll questions
Have you surveyed your e-newsletter
subscribers to see where they hear about
you?
a) Yes
b) No
c) I'm far too busy to do that.
Have you surveyed your current donors to
see where they hear about you?
a) Yes
b) No
c) Only informally.. no process for this.
24. Cheapest and most useful email clients?
MailChimp
Pros Free for up to 2,000
subscribers
Easy to edit the format
of the enewsletter
Democracy Now uses
MailChimp, must be
working for them!
25. Emma
You have to pay $30 after 1,000
subscribers
You have to pay $45 after 2,500
subscribers
Hard to make custom e-
newsletter signups
A lot of people don't use images
in their emails, or check email on
their phone, and a custom design
doesn't help there.
Offers custom
design
services for
your emails
Pros Cons
Cheapest and most useful email clients?
26. iContact Hard to make custom enewsletter signups
Not double opt-in, more likely to be marked
as spam.
Their customer support is
outsourced overseas
Cons
Cheapest and most useful email clients?
27. Constant
Contact
It looks different in each email
client, which can be frustrating
More expensive than other
options, $30 for over 500 emails
Hard to make custom enewsletter
signups
You're more likely to be marked as
spam.
Data you get is not actionable
Their customer
support is in
America and
they pick up the
phone pretty
fast.
Connects with
Donor Perfect
database
Pros
Cons
Cheapest and most useful email clients?
28. Pros Cons
$19/month for up to 1,000
subscribers
Can create many
e-newsletter signup forms
easily
Easy to segment list
Easy to see data about list
Best deliverability rates
Double opt-in means fewer
email signups
Cannot just add names from
speaking engagements
Their WSIWIG editor is difficult
to use.
Aweber
Cheapest and most useful email clients?
29. Pros Cons
Can create many
e-newsletter signup forms
easily
Easy to segment list
Single opt-in
Tech support is native
English speakers
Sometimes emails
don't get sent
Had a DDOS attack
a month or two ago
GetResponse
Cheapest and most useful email clients?
30. What kind of photos NOT to use
Administrators in a row
People waving goodbye
Fuzzy close ups of thank
you notes.
Open sores.
Sexy teenagers
Men with mustaches
31. What kind of photos to use
Children
Animals
Pictures of your
constituents
being helped by
your staff.
Pictures of staff
helping solve
the problem.
Screenshots from RLSB Little
Heroes Appeal 2012 by Craig
Linton
34. Where to put the donate link
You don't have to be
fancy.
Look at this piece of
genius from Marie
Forleo.
One Link. One purpose.
Nice headline!