How to Get Fundraising Emails Opened

Get Emotional

Co-Schedule has built upon what government researchers studying the roots of languages had done in the '60s and '70s. The findings revealed that emotional language creates a very predictable response. If you haven’t yet discovered the "Headline Analyzer," I highly recommend you give it a try. Personally, I have it bookmarked, and my articles don’t leave home without it!

Before you let your email out the door, ask "What will this make my reader feel?" Remember, if you want gifts, you must give them. I talk about this most often as it relates to donor acknowledgements and stewardship, but it also applies to all of your content marketing and fundraising.

Are you offering something that gives folks a reason to click "open"? Does your email appear to be something that will make their lives better, keep them more informed, give them a chuckle, make them feel like they’re involved in something meaningful or otherwise stimulate them? Are you making them feel connected to something larger than themselves—a special club, a family, a community, a movement, a cause? Is it instantly clear how they can help resolve a crisis, contribute in an emergency, meet a deadline or put a campaign over its goal?

Here are some specific examples of ways to key into various emotions, such as how to:

• Tell users to take action. "Children’s lives need saving" differs from "Save children’s lives."
• Create urgency. "Double your donation" differs from "Double your donation before our challenge expires."
• Get readers curious. "You won’t believe this!" differs from "Do you know how many people are hungry in our community?" Don’t overpromise and then deliver up something that’s not all that incredible. No one likes to feel duped into clicking.
• Kick up excitement. "Our 100th anniversary is this Saturday" differs from "Join us Saturday for the celebration!"
• Inspire happiness. "Thanks for giving" differs from "Thanks for giving, and double your money today."
• Ask a good question. "What worries you most about homeless kids?" differs from "What’s the biggest problem homeless kids face?" Open-ended questions work well for face-to-face asks, when you want to get your donor talking. For email subject lines, close-ended questions (that imply you’ll offer the answer inside) work better because they don’t require your donor to think too much—which can cause them to hit "delete."
• Sound human. "Your help is needed" differs from "Could you help Jimmy out?"
• Be more concise. “Announcing your chance to buy raffle tickets for our 10th anniversary gala” differs from “Anniversary gala: Buy your raffle tickets now”

Co-Schedule also offers some easy subject-line templates you can use as guidelines.

Test

Once you have options, it’s time to consider some testing. The easiest is the A/B test. The key is to try only one variable per test, otherwise you won’t know which one caused the difference in behavior. In other words, test the subject lines only; don’t test the graphics or internal copy or who the email comes from at the same time. Then see how opens, click-throughs and conversions (i.e., responses to your calls to action, such as attending an event, signing a petition, sharing your email, making a donation, etc.) compare.

When you’re coming up with your A and B options, Co-Schedule suggests five different approaches to give you the biggest bang for your testing buck:

1. Test different value propositions. Perhaps your email shows readers the value of giving to leverage a challenge grant and the value of giving to feed a homeless person. Write a headline that focuses separately on each value. Then, see which performs best. If they perform equally well, you can use them both for a series of emails within a consolidated campaign.
2. Target different emotions. There are many different emotions that trigger giving. Despair. Hope. Intrigue. Urgency. Surprise. Fun. Opportunity. Fear. Guilt. Your audience might respond better to one than another. Try targeting different emotions and see what drives a better response.
3. Test subject line length. Subject lines with fewer than 50 characters have open rates 12.5 percent higher than those with 50 or more, and click-through rates are 75 percent higher. Be cognizant of the fact that different email clients and devices cut off your subject line in different places—another good reason to keep them brief so that nothing gets missed. The exception proves the rule however, and your results may differ. So experiment with shorter versus longer lengths.
4. Test questions vs. statements. Questions create curiosity. Statements can express authority. See what your audience responds to best. "What happens when a 5-year-old is homeless?" vs. "A 5-year-old homeless child suffers from malnutrition."
5. Test using stats. Despite the fact that the best fundraising offers are stories, not statistics, data can drive email opens—especially when the numbers are difficult to believe. If your email content includes incredible statistics, try working them into one subject line option. Then, compare it to another data-less option.

Go Get Your Emails Opened!

It may be easier to slap your subject line together at the last minute. But that’s penny-wise and pound-foolish. As advertising guru David Ogilvy wrote: "Five times as many read the headline as the body copy. When you’ve written your headline, you’ve spent 80 cents of your $1."

Take the time to craft a thoughtful subject line. Use tools like the Co-Schedule Headline Analyzer. Test. If you do, you’ll win a lot more "opens" and give your email content a fighting chance!

Note: I tested 13 subject lines before publishing this article. I came up with a lot I thought were more compelling or clever, but that’s not the point, right?