How to Master Email: Be Prepared

Email can be a huge money maker for your organization if done properly. However, it takes intentional time and effort to be done right. At least at the start. To help you maximize your time and energy, consider the following to improve your open rates and help clean up your email fundraising.

Platforms

When it comes to email platforms, there are lots of great options. Many organizations use a platform such as Virtuous, which has an email platform built into their donor database. This is great because it keeps your services in one place and allows you to directly connect your donor database to your emails for easier personalization and more up to date lists.

However, third party email platforms also have their benefits. Industry staples like MailChimp or Constant Contact have a less expensive price tag and offer useful features such as free templates and more advanced analytics.

If your organization doesn’t have a budget for email, there are also platforms such as SendinBlue, SendGrid and even MailChimp that offer free email services. Some of these are limited in their scope of services (a set number of emails, fewer templates, less sends per month) but can be a cost-effective way to begin an active email program without breaking the bank.

List maintenance

Like direct mail, having a clean and updated list of donors to target is essential. If you have an ongoing email program, it’s important to update your list at least once a quarter to remove any old, invalid emails and add any newly collected email addresses.

Segmentation
It’s also helpful to segment your emails into various categories of donors. Some segments we recommend include monthly donors, active donors and lapsed donors. This will allow you to segment specific emails, such as a sustainer focused email to your active donors (excluding monthly donors) or reactivation focused emails for lapsed donors only.

Email Verification
If you’re just beginning your email journey and you aren’t sure how many of your emails are valid, it would be wise to look into an email verification service such as ZeroBounce or Clearout. These are generally inexpensive (you can check 2,100 emails for $15) and are worthwhile to help you create a clean list to begin your email campaigns with.

Something important to note is that these services cannot guarantee perfect lists. There may still be some bad addresses or inactive emails, but they will reduce the number of undeliverable emails and hard bounces you would otherwise receive.

Promotion

When looking to grow your email list, consider a variety of different approaches.

Website
One of the best and easiest ways to do so is to promote it on your website. Use a pop-up window on your site to ask if people would like to opt into your email list to receive mission updates, needs lists and newsletters. You should also have a button on your footer or a section on your homepage that clearly promotes your email sign up.

Direct Mail
You can also leverage your direct mail by including email as a contact field on your reply device, to encourage people to opt in that way as well. Or, use a small section of your newsletter to promote your email campaigns, encouraging donors to sign up on your website (with a QR code or link from the newsletter).

Digital Marketing
Consider running an email acquisition campaign on Facebook or through display ads to gather emails from current and potential donors. This is done by offering a downloadable such as a prayer guide, mission report or success story in exchange for their email.

Email fundraising can seem a bit overwhelming, but with the right tools and preparation you an master email and raise more for your organization.

Need help getting started or improving your results? Email tbaker@milwaukeedirect.com, we’d love to help you master email fundraising.

By Raianne Vasquez

Preschedule Posts

As a nonprofit, we know you’re often a one man or woman show, so time is of the essence.

One of the best time savers is pre-scheduling posts for all your social media platforms. This allows you to create future posts, which will be saved and shared automatically on the dates you choose. This can be done up to a month in advance, so you don’t have to get on Facebook every day to create posts.

You should, however, be monitoring engagement on posts every day, regardless of whether you use a posting tool.

There are a variety of different programs that offer this tool, but two of the best are Hootsuite and Buffer. They offer several different plans with a varying number of social media platforms, posts and prices. Additionally, both Hootsuite and Buffer offer 50% discount for nonprofits on their Professional Plan and Buffer has a free option which allows you to use their scheduling platform free of charge with up to 3 social media platforms.

Engagement

Once you have consistent content, the next step is engagement. There are several ways to engage your donors via social media, but simply having a direct call to action often creates the best engagement.

As fundraisers, we automatically think “donation” when we hear call to action. However, in social media especially, this can also include prompts to “comment how the Mission has helped you,” “share this post,” or “like our Page.” Adding one of these calls to action to the end of your post can make a huge difference!

The goal of engagement is to create a two-way conversation with your donors. Social media gives you an opportunity to engage in a one-on-one way. However, this means that your response to donors’ comments and shares is important. Donors will often ask questions in the comments about ways to get involved, and you don’t want to miss those opportunities to share more about your Ministry!

In conclusion?  Don’t fret if you know your social media isn’t up to par—just use these three tips to help get yourself organized, scheduled and engaged!

By Raianne Vasquez

Vasquez is a Client Account & Digital Manager with MDM Fundraising. She has been with MDM since 2018 and brings expertise in Facebook, display and Google Ads marketing. She is a skilled social media master with a keen eye for high-impact digital design and a passion for helping others tell their story through digital media. She can be reached at rvasquez@mdmfundraising.com