Nonprofit Email Marketing: The Complete Guide

The Complete Guide to Nonprofit Email Marketing

Without a doubt, nonprofit email marketing is a valuable tool that can help organizations spread the word about the important work they do and get more people involved in their mission. The right email marketing campaign can make all the difference between creating long-lasting, meaningful relationships and losing the audience completely.

If you are new to the world of email marketing, don’t fret! At Market Me Consulting, we are devoted to helping our clients achieve their goals and drive the results they need. In this comprehensive guide, we are going to cover all the ins and outs of creating a successful email marketing campaign for your non-profit organization.

What is Nonprofit Email Marketing?

Unfortunately, it is common for non-profit organizations to have difficulties getting their message heard and meeting their fundraising goals. The good news is that nonprofit email marketing can help you spread the word and get donors’ attention, making all the difference in accomplishing your important objectives.

Email marketing for nonprofits centers around building email campaigns that speak to potential contributors, building long-term relationships and converting them into regular donors. To achieve ultimate success, you will need to leverage engaging, creative content and continuously monitor its effectiveness with useful metrics.

Best Practices for Nonprofit Email Marketing

There is a reason 82% of companies use email marketing: it works. Nonprofit email marketing will allow you to stay in touch with your subscribers over a long period of time, cultivating valuable relationships and promoting frequent donations.

That being said, not all email campaigns deliver the same results. To get the most out of your email marketing strategy, follow these best practices:

1.     Build Your Email List

You will likely devote a lot of time and effort to crafting each and every email, so you want to make sure that somebody reads them on the other end. Here, you need to make sure that you attract people who will benefit the most out of your email campaigns, who are passionate about your mission, or who want to stay up-to-date on your industry or issue.

A great way to build such a list is to offer free incentives in exchange for subscriptions. This could include a white paper, an infographic, or a toolkit of valuable resources: anything that somebody would be willing to share their email to receive.

2.     Leverage Personal Connections

Ideally, your nonprofit’s cause should be personal to everybody on your email list. By personalizing your emails to speak to that personal connection, you will be able to deepen the readers’ engagement with your organization and attract more donations.

To begin with, you can personalize emails based on specific actions that your email recipients have taken on your website or specific pages they visited. Most of the time, if a person receives an email related to an action they’ve taken on your website, they won’t feel as nervous as they would if the email was personalized around personal information that you happen to have on them.

3.     Commit to Regular Communication

It isn’t uncommon for nonprofits to be stretched for resources, and it is easy to write off marketing as something not that important. However, regular email marketing messages are one of the most effective ways to help your organization grow and develop. A well-planned content schedule can help to keep your organization on top of potential contributors’ minds, so you can continuously grow your donor base.

This doesn’t mean you need to bombard your email list with countless messages. Instead, commit to sending informative emails on a predictable schedule in order to nurture long-term relationships and keep the audience engaged with your organization. Luckily, our marketing experts at Market Me Consulting can take care of planning and running an effective email campaign for your organization.

4.     Segment Your Database

Segmenting the database for your nonprofit email marketing can help to ensure that the right person receives the right message at the right time. While all the subscribers to your email list believe in your organization’s cause, you don’t necessarily need to send every single email to them. Each person on your list is at a different stage on their journey, and the emails you send to them should reflect that.

Factors like events attended, previous donation amounts, and actions taken on your website can all help you determine the engagement level and should be taken into account when sending emails. As such, more engaged audience members will respond better to more frequent messages, while people with fewer touchpoints should receive fewer emails.

5.     Include a Donate Button

Whenever you craft your emails, it is absolutely crucial to keep your end goal in mind. It is also important to provide potential donors with clear instructions on what their next step should be. Therefore, all of your emails should guide readers toward making a donation or contribution. By including a “donate” call-to-action right in your email, you will enable donors to simply click a button to visit your donation form.

6.     Encourage Sharing

When crafting your marketing emails, you want to make sure that you get the most out of every single one. By encouraging the audience to share your newsletter, you can find new supporters, gain new subscribers, and spread the word about your cause.

Here is what you can do to make sharing your newsletter simple for your audience:

-        Ask readers to forward the email to their friends and family

-        Include all of the social media links and easy share buttons, so that readers can easily post your newsletter to their social feeds

-        Offer incentive to those who get others to sign-up for your newsletter

7.     Test, Analyze, Adapt, and Repeat

Remember that running a nonprofit email marketing campaign is not a one-time effort. You can’t just send one email and expect to see the results immediately. Instead, you should keep an eye on key performance indicators and adapt your strategy continuously based on those factors.

To begin with, choose a few key email metrics, track them with each email sent, and try to find any trends that emerge over time. You will then be able to adjust your strategy accordingly based on these trends.

Create a Winning Email Marketing Campaign with Market Me Consulting

If you are working to promote your non-profit organization, you know the challenges associated with building an effective email marketing campaign. Creating and following a regular email schedule; personalizing the message to appeal to specific audience segments; testing, analyzing, and testing again… We know, it isn’t easy.

Luckily, at Market Me Consulting, we can help you with all of your nonprofit email marketing needs. Schedule a call today to find out how we can help you promote your brand and achieve your objectives.