4 E-mail Fundraising Campaign Best Practices

Coordinate various different messaging to different types of donors as well, he adds. There are countless ways to segment e-mail donors, whether it be age, income, giving history, types of e-mails they respond to, etc.

Be succinct
There is a big difference between an e-mail appeal and direct-mail letter. People have short attention spans online, especially when slogging through their seemingly endless e-mail messages during the work day. They need to be able to scan something quickly, understand the message and be able to respond instantly.

Too many words and no easy-to-find call to action can spell doom for your e-mail.

“I see a lot of e-mails out there where organizations are a little verbose,” Habig says. “Make sure you’re not overwhelming someone. The eye online does not do the same thing as it does on print, and if you overwhelm a visitor, you’re going to lose them with too much text.”

Habig suggests limiting your text to less than 100 words if possible, ideally somewhere in the 40-50 range to stay "above the fold."

And in those words, make sure there are appropriate callouts — a “Donate Now” button, text link, bold and larger fonts for the call to action.

“Make sure there are places your eye will go to take the action you want donors to take when you’re designing an e-mail,” Habig says. “Someone needs to be able to really quickly scan it because a lot of times when we’re online, a donor is scanning a document, not reading it start to finish. So the main message must jump out at someone.”

Integrate
Make sure your e-mail campaign is part of an even bigger multichannel campaign with a cohesive strategy, Habig says. Keep the message and branding consistent, and supplement e-mail with other offline and online channels to make the most of your campaign.