Newsletter Tips for Your Nonprofit
Does your nonprofit have a newsletter? If not, it probably should. A good newsletter keeps donors engaged and informed, acts as a vital promotion tool for events and fundraising campaigns, and drives traffic to your website. A bad newsletter does, well, none of those things.
To make sure your newsletter is firing on all digital cylinders, iContact put together this infographic. Titled “Anatomy of a Nonprofit Newsletter,” it offers tips for organizations looking to create their own newsletters or refresh the ones they have. Tips include:
• Frequency. Some nonprofits can get away with a quarterly newsletter, but if you want to really drive web traffic and keep things timely and relevant, you’ll likely want something more regular. Play around with this to see what works for you.
• Subject line. This is true of any email. The infographic notes that 33 percent of recipients decide to open an email based on subject line alone, and suggests keeping subject lines to 50 characters max.
• Amplify. This is a good one. Put newsletter opt-ins on every page of your website, and promote your newsletter on social media and elsewhere. Own the thing.
There are a bunch of other tips, but the breakdown of five essential newsletter elements is perhaps most helpful for newsletter newbies. According to the infographic, a well-written preheader, distinct branding, good imagery, a clear call-to-action and social-share buttons are absolute necessities.
Imagery, especially, is important—90 percent of information sent to the brain is visual, the infographic notes, so use large, compelling images whenever possible. You’ll also want prominent social media buttons—just not too prominent. Put them in the footer so they don’t take precedence over your call to action.
For more information, check out the full infographic at goo.gl/AJ1dzA.
