It’s your busiest time of year... and no matter how many hats you already wear... you’re almost guaranteed to be planning, creating, and sending more fundraising and stewardship emails during November and December (a.k.a., now) than any other time.
So how do you make
those messages count?
Just in time, here’s a toothy email express clinic to help you have your best year-end email fundraising season, starting now...
Holiday Email Express Clinic: Timely tips for your best year-end fundraising email series, starting now
By fundraising writer and Thankology author, Lisa Sargent
✍️
>> Send at least one weekly fundraising email from now until the end of the year
>> Send at least three emails (not less) during the last few days of the year
And don’t forget Giving Tuesday.
That’s December 3rd this year, by the way. It’s email marketing platform Mailchimp’s 3rd busiest day of the year, with many nonprofits sending multiple messages that day alone.
But whether you’re hoping to send an email each week or double that, the first, best thing you can do is to start where you are. Starting with...
Tip 1. Plot your course.
This sounds like a no-brainer. I promise,
though, it's not.
Right now, for me... remember that someone somewhere will always be sending more than you, or less than you, or somewhere in between.
So first, start with what you’ve got:
>> What makes sense for your supporters, your team, your available content, your calendar, your cause? >> Do some dates naturally call out for a
message? >> Do you have a matching gift? >> Can you create a series of stories based on your work? >> Can you recraft content from a year-end direct mail appeal? (We do this for clients all the time. It’s a great way to upcycle.)
I know it’s the end of November, but it's not too late! Plot your year-end email course.
This time I’ll add that even your emails can be longer... but not longer just for the sake of it.
Take a gander through NextAfter’s free email resources and you’ll find that when you can add value and impact, these generate better click-throughs and conversions.
In the case of this email below, we had a matching gift. What was the value? Double the relief:
This email, by the way, came in at just over 450 words.
Tip 3. But get started faster.
If you aren’t aware, under Apple’s iOS18 update, email preheaders are going away – to be replaced by AI-generated ones.
What the heck is a preheader? It’s the teaser below or beside an email’s subject line, and it’s one more way for you to help get your email opened. Or, at least, it was.
[Image below: arrow points to preheader, in my Inbox. The line
above it is the subject line. And the top line is the sender (usually we use a human's name, fyi)]
Without a preheader (or with the AI-made ones), this means that
the first few lines of your email – also known as your lead, or ‘lede’ – will be weighted more.
What’s a strong email lead then? Just like a fundraising appeal, you start your first 1-2 lines off with a bang. Three I’ve written:
>> Her words will break your heart...
>> Imagine a world without books this Christmas.
>> You
might not love Black Friday. But do you know and love the real truth about black dogs (and cats)?
They’re not fancy or magic, you can see that. That’s the thing, though. They’re short. Snappy. Designed for you to have a reason to continue.
Curiosity. Urgency. Start a story. (Or better yet, drop the reader right into the middle.)
You’ve got 1 or 2 lines. Maybe 3, tops. And now with the potential demise
of preheaders, those 3 lines will matter even more.
So when you can, put the best stuff first. Campaign Monitor says 41 characters or less is better (via
Hubspot). And – like the outer envelope teaser of a direct mail appeal – you want to spend extra time to make those subject lines super strong.
Can you:
>> Personalize
>> Open with a question
>> Add “You”
>> Build mystery
>> Test emojis
If you’re sending multiple emails at year-end, mix and match. See what
works. (Want more on email subject lines? NextAfter, again, has a great piece here.)
Six of mine:
>> How Mr. Biscuit got his garden
>> what we’re up against, <Name>
>> We call it the tree of
memories...
>> Milk for her baby would be a miracle: can you help?
>> I’ve been thinking
>> FWD: did you see this?
Tip 5. Try plain text... mostly plain with images... and full dress.
The beauty of email is testability. With a few tweaks you can go from a fully designed email with a button to a plain text message.
If you can... when you can... test.
You might, for
example, be reading more and more about how using only plain text emails (like the kind you’d send to a friend or colleague) outperforms the fully designed fundraising messages with a banner image and button at the top of the email.
And that might be right for your supporters – or, you might find (as one of our nonprofit clients did), that their readers responded better to a mostly simple message with a banner image and donate button up top.
The email excerpt below isn't mine. It's from charity: water.
But it's a fully designed
email (HTML) I received for Giving Tuesday just last year, and I want you to see it to show that not everyone is using plain text emails all the time.
You can do the same. (For more on plain text emails, Jeff Brooks has a great summary from 2022, from Nonprofit
Fundraising.)
Tip 6. Test on all screens.
Whenever Designer Sandie and I test our emails for clients, we always test across multiple email servers and screens. Outlook and gmail on the laptop or tablet, for example, and then again on our phones, whenever we can.
You want to do the same thing for your year-end emails, and be sure to test all your links and buttons. (10 Email Marketing Best Practices, with samples, from Nonprofit Tech for Good if you're interested.)
Tip 7. Know where they'll go.
When your reader clicks to give, where are you sending them?
It’s a fundraising email... so make sure that click-through is to an updated donation landing page that
matches your campaign.
And... know where you’ll bring donors after the gift.
Do you have an automatic thank-you redirect page? If not, you should... and if you can’t, at the very least be sure that your donation page refreshes to say thank you or generates a pop-up.
Here’s a thank-you redirect page we did for ChildVision, featured in the 'Better thanking beyond
the letterbox' chapter of my new book Thankology:
Tip 8. Remember the rest of the journey.
You might be focused on those year-end fundraising emails right now.
But just like that thank-you redirect page in Tip 7 just
above, spend some extra time this season to make sure the rest of your donor’s journey is as beautiful as that first gift.
For example:
>> Have you written the automatic thank-you email they’ll receive in their Inbox, after the gift?
>> Are you planning to send a thank-you by mail too? (We make sure to get permission, and send thank-you notes in the post as
well.)
>> Will you send them a newsletter? Or, how will you update them on their gift? (Again, if you can get permission to mail supporters, multi-channel donors are more loyal and more valuable. Don’t take my word for it: check out what NextAfter and Virtuous have to say.)
When you love your donors with great year-end fundraising emails, they’ll love you right back by responding... and when you take those few extra steps to cross channels and get the rest of their year-end giving journey right, you’ll be off to a
beautiful start for the new year.
Thanks for taking the time to read this extra-detailed edition of The Loyalty Letter. And thank you, today and always, for the work you do.
PS. One more year-end email tip >>> If a supporter gives on the first email, and you have emails left in the fundraising series you’ve written, it’s a great idea to create what we call “no-ask” versions of your remaining messages. Instead of telling stories that continue to ask the folks who’ve already given, create versions that thank. A little extra love goes a long way. 😊
