Email Fundraising Optimization
The first and foremost principle of nonprofit email fundraising is one of the core principles of fundraising as a whole. People give to people. When it comes to email fundraising optimization, it is crucial that we remember that people give to people – not email machines.
We’ve watched this principle play out over hundreds of tests on email appeals, cultivation emails, content offer emails, and more. What we’ve found is that donors want real relationships with real people. They aren’t interested in some organization telling them what to do. But donors are inspired when they have trusting relationships built with real, believable people.
Too often, most of our fundraising and marketing is uses organizational-centric language rather than donor-centric language. We send impersonal emails to thousands of people at a time that are irrelevant and un-empathetic.
The blogs below on email fundraising optimization explore strategies testing all variables of your email marketing and fundraising. They will help you find what messages, what tone, and what senders resonate with your donors. Ultimately, they will help you learn what works to drive more revenue for your organization through email fundraising.
Recent Nonprofit Email Optimization Blogs
- What I Learned from 152 Email Signups from 152 Organizations
Before I worked for NextAfter, one of the resources I used and referenced most was the Online Fundraising Scorecard. I [»]
- 5 Ways to Improve Your Nonprofit Email Subject Lines
When it comes to online fundraising, email is one of, if not the, biggest drivers of online revenue. Here’s an [»]
- It’s time to bust a myth about email list rentals
“Email list rentals don’t work.” At conference after conference, and in meeting after meeting, nonprofit marketers repeat this maxim to [»]
- 8 Excellent Email Marketing Ideas to Steal
Email is the most important tool that online fundraisers have in their tool kit. Period. A well-crafted email send could [»]
- The Most Important Online Fundraising Lessons from 1000 Experiments
We’re celebrating a huge milestone this week…we’ve officially logged 1000 experiments in our online fundraising research library. But the number [»]
- 4 Experiments to Help You Think Differently About Online Fundraising
Online fundraising is hard. If you’re selling a product for a profit, you normally have market research to tell you [»]
- 5 Unhealthy Fundraising Habits to Stop in 2018
At the start of a new year, there’s a universal sense of resolve to look at our lives and consider [»]
- Top 5 Online Fundraising Ideas to Grow Your Revenue
Every agency, marketer, and fundraiser can list their favorite best practices that they think will help grow your online fundraising. [»]
- Best Practices Are Hurting Your Fundraising
Sometimes we think an idea will work well based on past experiences or certain laws of design we’ve learned along [»]
- How We Forgot About Our Mid-level Donors
One year ago, we had a rather bold hypothesis – mid level donors were being forgotten and abandoned by the [»]
- Discovering Why Your Donors Give
Everyone wants to have more data to inform their fundraising. Where are donors coming from? Which ads are they clicking? [»]
- Using a Personal Tone in Your Email Copy
Not only is it important what your email looks like, or how long the copy is, but also what your [»]
- Your Email Templates Might Be Costing You Time and Donations
Email templates can serve a great purpose in nonprofits. With limited resources, fundraisers are always looking for ways to save [»]
- Are Your Email Images Helping or Hurting Your Fundraising?
When used properly, images can help to bolster the value proposition in email appeals. But we always have to ask, [»]
- How long should your email copy be?
When it comes to email copy length, people ask us all the time, “How long should my emails be?” I [»]
- Do your donors know you’re talking to them?
Donors receive your emails in the context of their entire inbox. They don’t receive only your email. As I’m writing [»]
- Measure every email metric, not just the one you’re testing
Testing one element of an email can impact all of your email metrics. For example, even though a subject line [»]
- Build Trust With Your Donor by Testing a Different Email Sender Name
Have you ever sent an email appeal from the founder or president of your organization? This is probably the most [»]
- The 10 Elements of a Fundraising Email Appeal
Over the course of the next several blog posts, we’re going to look at seven proven strategies to optimize your [»]
- The First Rule of Fundraising That Marketers Never Remember
Several mornings a week, I go to a coffee shop about a mile from my house. I’ll pull in, walk [»]