Email Tips That'll Help You Get Donors Loving Your Emails

The Donor Attraction Letter

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, emails are one of the most important tools in your donor attraction tool box.
 
Standalone emails for your fundraising campaigns and advocacy messages, along with e-newsletters, are some of the most vital communications your nonprofit needs to effectively connect with donors and motivate support.
 
But, getting your email list subscribers to actually look forward to, click open, and respond to email messages isn’t easy.
 
To help get you to that enviable place every email marketer wants to be, check out this fantastic post by Pamela Wilson over on the Constant Contact blog: Build an Email List That Loves Hearing From You: 5 Guiding Principles. Pamela is best known for helping small businesses, but her excellent advice applies to nonprofits, too.
 
Here’s what Pamela recommends you build into every one of your email messages for optimal success:

1. Consistency, which tells your reader: “You can count on us.”
2. Utility, which tells your reader: “This email has useful information for you.”
3. A Friendly Tone, which tells your reader: “I’m here to help, and I’m just like you.”
4. Respect, which tells your reader: “We’re sending you what you signed up for. No more, no less.”
5. Honesty, which tells your reader: “You can trust us to honor our commitments.” 

Great advice, Pamela, and I hope you’ve found these tips helpful!

Dedicated to helping you attract and keep your donors,

Jen Viano
Nonprofit Writer/Consultant
Editor, The Donor Attraction Letter

PS: Crafting compelling emails that follow the guiding principles above can be challenging. If you’d like some help, please let me know! Email me at Jen@JenViano.com or call me at 248.957.8918 to begin a conversation.