For your nonprofit's latest newsletter, you spent hours checking the links, making sure the fonts were consistent, and finding just the right image of a cute panda that'll make any potential donor's heart melt. Now, the only problem is you have to fight for their attention amid an inbox full of Blockbuster overdue notices, Amazon.com sales, and scam business opportunities from Nigeria. How can you compete?
M&R Strategic Services thinks they've found the answer in their latest report, titled "Digging Into eNewsletters," on what nonprofits can do to "maximize the likelihood that their eNewsletters will be opened, read, and clicked on." No matter how much killer content you have, if people aren't looking at, it's doing you no good.
Here are the quick tips from the report, but make sure to check out the full PDF article to look at all the data behind it. It's worth it!
- Place the most important articles at the top - they're more likely to get read there
- Give people an opportunity to donate or take action - links in standard newsletters do get clicked on, but, admittedly, not as much as stand-alone appeals
- Include fun stuff in the sidebars - they get clicked on a lot!
- Relocate that Tell-a-Friend link - moving it to nearby an article on an important, urgent issue improves the chance of someone forwarding it to a friend
- Don't skimp on the design - be careful, though, of getting sent to the dreaded spam folder!
- Consider cultivation as a goal - the newsletter is a good way to deepen your list members' relationship with your organization
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