E-mail

For several years now, Jan. 1 not only has meant the beginning of the new year, but also an opportunity to look at trends in year-end fundraising emails from nonprofit organizations. Back in 2011, I started collecting all the emails that nonprofits sent me during the month of December and reviewed what was in my inbox.…

Creating your year-end email appeals? Don’t forget these six key ingredients: 1. An obvious donation button. Your donate button should be big, bold and above the fold. When your donors want to give, it needs to be as easy as possible. They shouldn’t need to hunt for the link to your donation page. 2. A…

I’ve seen so many bad nonprofit newsletters. And some really good ones! What sets the good ones apart? For example, take Pesticide Action Network. Its newsletter is always interesting and always full of useful advice, even when the topic may seem dry or hopeless (like bee colony collapse). I’ve included an example from the Smithsonian e-newsletter…

Clearly, there are some major differences between political fundraising and other nonprofit fundraising (for starters, charities don't have the benefit of super PACs raising and spending unlimited sums of money on their behalf). But there are some valuable lessons to be learned from the way political fundraisers are using email. Here, we break down three of the big ones...

Roughly 87 percent of fundraising emails from political candidates are ridiculous—ridiculous as in hugely melodramatic, making up random fundraising targets (we are only $1,538.32 away from our midnight goal!), and doing just about anything underhanded or gimmicky to get you to pony up a couple bucks. And yet, these candidates almost never get called out…

Virtually everyone is infatuated with Instagram and Snapchat. Few of us can remember the days before Facebook and Twitter. But email is still the best way to drive sales. In fact, a survey we conducted revealed that nearly 60 percent of Americans prefer brands contact them via email, and email marketing continues to yield higher…

I don’t need to tell you that it’s a busy time of year. We have too many things to do and very little time to get it all done. We are all just running to keep up, so I thought I would have a little fun with my next topic and present 10 ways you can…

The marketing year is rapidly drawing to a close. For some, it’s pretty much already done. The Christmas promotions are all teed up. It’s just a matter of rolling them out and riding the wave from here until January. But what about January? And the rest of the whole year? If you could look into…

Experienced writers and designers who do email and direct mail marketing know this for a fact: The littlest things can add up to make the biggest difference in response and sales. How much attention are you paying to details like these? 1. Perfect your preheaders. Use the area at the very top of your email…

‘Tis the season for holiday shopping, family feasts and gift giving. The last few months of the year are a busy time for everyone, including nonprofits. While retailers are busy with glitzy sales events featuring the year’s must-have items, nonprofits are also working hard to capitalize on the season of giving. About 50 percent of…