Also see Best Practices and Tips for Raising Money Online
Think about how and why you use email every day. The strength of email is that it is simple, efficient, immediate and personal. You should communicate with your email list just as you communicate with your friends and coworkers—keeping these values in mind.
The majority of your audience is more likely to read your email messages than they are to visit your website each day. Your goal is provide personal, engaging content in your regular email communications that builds trust and interest in the organization and gives your members a reason to return to the site.
Tone and Relationship Building
Your basic objective regarding email communications is to convince people to (1) open the email, (2) read the email, and (3) do what you ask in the email.
You have a greater chance of getting readers to complete all three tasks if your email originates from a human being with a name (i.e., include sender’s name in “From” field—organization name can be used in conjunction with name, but should not be used exclusively) and if your message is written in an intimate, personal tone. To envision such an email, think about how you would communicate with a co-worker or friend (removing the typos, smilies, and run-on sentences).
It often makes sense to choose two or three people within an organization, including the director or CEO, and create an “email relationship” for each person with your list. Each person can be built up as the sender of a certain type of email, and then, as your list gets to know each person they are immediately aware of what type of email to expect, simply by reading the “From” line. These come to be trusted names, and readers feel a personal attachment to what they are being asked to do. For this reason, it’s usually a good strategy to only attach the director or CEO’s name (usually the best known name to begin with) to critical emails, for example, an end of quarter fundraising ask.
The first few emails to a new, growing list are especially important because they will set the tone and precedent for a reader’s experience with all future emails and his/her likeliness to open future messages.
Structure
The structure of your email also makes a difference. We have seen the best results with emails that follow this format:
Dear Ms. X -
Two paragraphs
Hyperlink
Two paragraphs
Hyperlink
Two paragraphs
Closing
Signed, (name)
PS
Hyperlink
In the above example, each instance of the hyperlink is identical—it leads readers to the same page or action on the website. Additionally, the hyperlinks should be written out just as they would appear in your browser. If the links are embedded in the text, they do not stand out enough, and your click through rate will be lower.
Even if your email is primarily informational, it should always ask the reader to take an action – whether that action is clicking through to an article on the website, forwarding the email to a friend, signing a petition, or contributing – adding something that people can DO engages them in the process.
In general, graphics don’t have much impact on the success of an email, but well-placed images or photos can help summarize your ask in a long email or help tell the story.
Scheduling
Each communication with the list membership must be done thoughtfully and with regard to real-world time. You don’t want to email your list too often, and you want to be especially aware of holidays and world events. You should generally avoid sending messages on Mondays and Fridays, as open- and response-rates are particularly low on both days. In our experience, the best time to send an email is early morning (before 10am) on Tuesday or Wednesday, but every list is unique.
In terms of frequency, the acceptable number of emails per week or per month varies. It depends on things like: your relationship with your readers, whether your organization’s issues are at the forefront of the news that week, if there is a time-sensitive action you are asking people to take, etc. It is critical to track the open rate of your emails to determine where you are being most successful—in terms of both frequency and tone—and consequently be able to back away from tactics that are not working.
We recommend that you establish an email calendar that is planned well in advance but is also flexible should events arise that you need to act upon in conjunction with your email list. A good rule of thumb is to keep it as consistent as possible. If you send emails on the same two days each week for example, your list will begin to expect updates and action alerts on those days and be ready to follow through.