Use Email Automation to Save Time and Communicate More Effectively

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Let’s break it down. The word automation means that something is done automatically, without continuous input from the operator. In our case, it would mean emails being sent automatically based on conditions, and triggers. Once you’ve set your parameters for a certain scenario, everything is done automatically, without your input!

Email is here to help you stay on top of your workload and connect with your audience, your contacts. In this presentation, we’ll see how email marketing can help you:
develop a loyal donor base
expand your reach
drive more donations

With the lack of time (and sometimes even lack of team) that most nonprofit employees are faced with, email marketing is one of the best ways to connect with your supporters. Through email, you can show donors the impact they’re making and the gratitude your organization has for them.

Many organizations spend a great amount of time and money finding new donors by engaging people on the street, at special events, and fundraisers. The focal point is always to drive new donors to sign up, but we rarely consider what the experience is like for the donor after they’ve started giving. By welcoming each new donor, or subscribers and sharing what impact their donations are having, you can not only keep them engaged but reduce the risk over time of them canceling or stopping recurring donations.

Every time you sign up a new donor instead of doing nothing, send them on a welcome journey. The goal is to slowly drip them content over the course of 12 months about:
What you are doing with their donation; and
Why it matters.
It may seem like a big task, but starting simple with one email a month about how their funds are typically used can make a huge difference and can be completed in just a few days.
In this example we’re sending them an email, displaying a thank you message when they become a donor. After 7 days we send them their first story about what we’re doing with their donation and continue to send a message every month over the lifecycle of their commitment.

It’s best if this message is personal, contextual and to the point with a single call to action. In this case, my fictitious charity Save a Pup encourages new donors to read more about how their donations will be put to work.

Note how we’ve focused on one simple message they can take away, “My donation is saving 5 pups in need.” Having a single focal point like this can remind the donor why they’ve made the right decision and gives them a clear message to tell to their friends and family.

The majority of organizations hold numerous fundraisers every year and typically have a number of subscribers to either their blog or social media accounts. But rarely are these lists of people considered as potential recurring donors and rarely are they ever contacted apart from that once a year event invite or a brief social media update. By taking this ever growing list of people and nurturing them with content about your organization, you can automate a constant stream of new donors.

Every time you have a new subscriber they’re added to a list. You can start simple or get a little more complex by adding people to different lists based on the topics they’ve shown interest in.

The Added to List Trigger begins the journey with a series of emails that send content related to animal welfare and specifically how our organization is helping in these areas. These emails are blog article teasers with a clear call to action to “read more”.

If someone clicks a link in an email, we can trigger an email that will ask them if they want to become a donor. Or, wait until they clicked a few times.

Lapsed members: You want them back! Let them know. Let's look at a potential workflow for those whose memberships in the past three months lapsed. You start with the assumption that it's just slipped their mind.

First email is a direct CTA to renew with some "hey, don't miss out, you may have forgotten to renew" copy.

For those who don't renew off that email, a second email goes out a week later sharing some information about a program in which they participated or service they benefited from while a member with another renew CTA.

A reminder email with new, relevant content, and another renew CTA can go out 10 days later.

For people who still haven't renewed, send a short survey email asking their reasons why. Include a renewal link and CTA in case "they just haven't gotten to it yet."

For those who don't renew, you may decide to follow up with a few directly based on what they said in the survey, as well as a couple who didn't respond to the survey at all. The others can get redirected to other nurture workflows.

Set reminders to follow up and let your donors know how their gift has made an impact. Segment this list based on when they gave, how they gave, and how much, so you can be specific about their individual impact. This follow-up will make your donor feel like they made a difference and inspire them to stay involved.

Yes, you can embed videos in emails, but that not all subscriber can see them. It all depends on whether or not an email client, like Gmail, Hotmail or Outlook, can support the more recent video format, HTML5.

If HTML5 is supported, it will play within the email itself. If it's not supported, subscribers should see what's called a "fallback image," which is a still image that looks like a video. It links subscribers to another website where the video can be played.

That is something that Wistia offers as well. They provide a code that you embed in your email and that code takes care of the fallback image.

You'll notice there aren't too many clients that support HTML5.

You can try to pull it off if the technical challenge is not an obstacle for you team. Wistia has this feature by the way. But if you want people to leave their email client (ie go to your website), you should consider another option.

Let people know there’s a video (subject line, email text, play button on a thumbnail).
Choose an enticing thumbnail from your video to include in your email (hint: friendly faces attract clicks).
Link that thumbnail to a page on your website.
Keep the number of calls-to-action limited.

Super simple, still effective, and great to send people a URL of your choice (where the video is embedded).

Let’s settle the debate; do you say gif or gif?

Works the same as a static image, only with movement that allows to give readers a “taste” of your video, and really entice them to click to watch to whole thing.

The one thing to remember is that file size matters. GIFs won’t animate in an email until all of the frames are loaded, so larger file sizes can create a subpar experience. If you’re lucky, an oversized GIF might pause on the first frame. Conversely, it could appear completely blank. As a rule of thumb, email GIFs should be under 125K.

Use Email Automation to Save Time and Communicate More Effectively

NetSquared Vancouver

Use Email Automation to Save Time and Communicate More Effectively