Learn the basics of successful email marketing with our presentation. We get you started with best practices and basic techniques.

1. Email Marketing 101
A beginner’s guide to improving your nonprofit
organization’s marketing efforts using email.

2. Benefits of Email Marketing
• Relatively low cost and easy to measure
• Fast response and real time
• Can segment your list and target customers with the
information you want them to see
• Helps you learn about what your customers want (what
are people opening and what are they clicking on?)
• Helps your organization stay top of mind
• Can help build loyalty
• Opt in and Un-subscribe options

3. Pre-header
Header
Body
Footer

4. Optimizing Your Brand
• Include your brand name in the “From Name”
• Use an identifiable “From Address”
• Subject line best practices:
– Informative, short and recognizable
– Aim for 35 characters or less
– Don’t use ALL CAPS or “spammy” words
– Create a sense of urgency
• There’s Still Time, Don’t Miss, Last Chance, Sign-Up By…

5. Pre-header/Header Best Practices
• Include View Online, Unsubscribe and Share links
• Use the pre-header or first 100 characters of text to
help engagement in the inbox
• Try to keep the header to less than 150 pixel high to
avoid pushing your main message and call to
action too far down
• Provide the from email address so the recipient can
add the address to their contacts

6. Pre-header/Header Best Practices

7. Layout and Visual Best Practices
• Ideal width is about 500 to 600 pixels, 650 px max.
• Vertical layouts are typically better than horizontal.
• The eye tends to follow an „F‟ patter so it‟s good to
keep the most important information in that area
• Calls-to-action:
– Tell the audience exactly what they’ll be doing when they
click the button: Subscribe, Download, Register, etc.
– Keep language short and clear

8. Layout and Visual Best Practices
• Always test your emails with images shut off in the
browser – the majority of people have images turned off
by default
• Always put a color behind the images and/or use alt-text
for when images aren‟t showing up
• Make images clickable
• Text should never be a part of the image, especially if it is
a call-to-action such as on a button or navigation
• Images can help with engagement when used properly
but they shouldn‟t take away from the main calls-to-
action in the content

9. Keurig Email with Images Turned Off

10. Famous Footwear Email with Images Turned Off

11. Cleveland Marathon Email with Images Turned Off

12. Copy and Content Best Practices
• If you use an non-web-safe font, be sure to code a
back-up font as well.
• Good font sizes are 14px for body copy and 22px or
larger for titles. This allows for decent readability on
mobile phones.
• Buttons should be at least 45 to 50px high to make it
easier for smart phone users to click.

13. Copy and Content Best Practices
• Use bullet points to highlight main points and
breakup paragraphs that would otherwise be
overwhelming to the audience.
• Include links to main sections of your website if
possible and depending on the purpose of your
message. You don‟t want to distract from the overall
purpose of the email, if you are trying to get the
person to take a specific action.

14. Footer Best Practices
• Include the organization‟s complete contact details
• Don‟t hide the unsubscribe button – Unsubscribe vs.
Reporting as Spam
• Include links to main sections of your website if
possible and depending on the purpose of your
message. Good place for social media if not already
in header
• If it make sense in the copy, tell your reader why
they are receiving the email
– They signed up for something, a friend referred them, etc.
– This can help decrease spam complaints

15. Sending Best Practices
• The best day of the week and time of day to send
can vary by audience
• Generally, people are most engaged in the morning
and at the beginning of the week
• Mix up your email topics and content
• Reminder emails, follow up emails, thank you for
attending/registering, etc.

16. Miscellaneous Best Practices
• Videos are not compatible with all email browsers -
Check with your email platform to see if code is
provided that works best with your platform
• One solution is to link a video page to a still image
• Provide a plain text version that is easy to read,
some email platforms will create this automatically
or you can create something simple with notepad.
• Always test in multiple browsers and browser
versions: IE, Firefox, Chrome on PC and Mac

17. Email Marketing 101
QUESTIONS?