Email Marketing remains a significant part of nonprofit marketing and fundraising. Sure, we all know social media is essential for today’s world. But you can’t discard Email Marketing anytime soon. That’s why we recently did a free webinar that you could check out right HERE about some of our favorite ideas for email marketing. And if you want to find more of our free webinars that you could access, check out our webinars resource page.

So, why’s email marketing still vital for nonprofits? Well, the answer is simple.

• Nonprofit emails have 4 times the open rate over other marketing emails.
• 42% of donors still prefer to hear from a nonprofit through email.

Those are two clear reasons if you’re a nonprofit marketer or fundraiser to keep promoting your cause through email marketing. In this article, we’ll feature some of the highlights from the webinar. But, if you want to get all of the insights, make sure to listen to the whole thing.

How to Optimize Your Website for Email Capture

Something that’s exceedingly simple but many nonprofits miss is to use their website to capture emails. So, if you haven’t done it yet, it’s our first suggestion. Here are some of the ways we suggest for you to optimize your chances of getting email addresses from people who visit your site:

• Place a pop-up or place a sign-up form on the footer of your website.
• You may also want to consider placing email sign-up forms on the pages where you get the most traffic.
• As we know, social media is essential, so make sure to also place sign-up forms on social for email marketing efforts.
• Finally, when you have events, don’t forget to get peoples’ emails. You could use email capture tools.

Segmentation is Still Essential, But It’s Getting Better

Effective nonprofit marketing always depended on good segmentation. However, because of technology and artificial intelligence, it’s only getting better. (Back to that in a moment). For starters, for any quality program, you want to segment based on the following:

• Communication preference
• Age
• Location
• Marketing persona
• Job
• Giving history

And as we said, email marketing is only becoming better because of tech. Essentially, AI can scan mass amounts of data and predict who will give when based on past behaviors. Even better than that, AI could also tell marketers the messages that will appeal to their prospects to get them to convert.

Using Social Media to Boost Email Marketing

One of the great things about today’s marketing strategies is that tech allows everything to be integrated and seamless. For email marketing, you want to build an extensive list, of course. One of the ways you should do it is using social. For instance, Facebook Page Likes ads.

In other words, when you create brand pages, you could invest in increasing the number of people who follow your page. We love Page Like ads because they’re a great way to increase brand awareness for nonprofits. Moreover, you get to know who supports your cause, and you could ultimately target them in later ads.

On Facebook, something else you could do, which ultimately boosts your email marketing as you raise awareness, is to create lookalike audiences. You could do it in Facebook Ads Manager. In doing so, you mirror your current donor base and recruit people who care about your mission.

Using Shares, Resources & Giveaways for Emails

One of the reasons brands use social so much is because it’s an easy way to spread your brand. As you know, the more your brand gets out there, the more people will sign-up (including your email marketing). So, something you should do, especially when you have an impactful post, is to ask people to share the content with a friend.

In addition, aside from doing social media ads for raising brand awareness, helping you increase your email database is to share resources and giveaways. For example, create excellent and gated content on your website. If you’re in education, maybe you could develop tips for parents to help their children with homework.

Another great opportunity for email marketing is to do giveaways. The prizes don’t have to be expensive—even Amazon gift cards work. However, the aim is to ask people to sign-up (give their email addresses) and participate in the giveaway or receive the gated content you create.

Creating a Personalized Experience for Email Marketing

A study by Accenture found that 44% of donors would contribute 10% more to nonprofits if they had a personalized experience. So, this goes back to refining and making content hyper-personalized, if at all possible.

How could you personalize content to boost up your email marketing? Here are some tips:

• Ask subscribers why they joined your email mailing list by offering a preference center where they could choose their interests.
• Make use of surveys to get information and insights about prospects who sign up.
• Track their interests by tracking the information on your information by using platforms such as Google Analytics.
• Technology’s everywhere, and it could even provide you with custom subject lines.
• For your email provider, make sure that they allow the following:
  • Ability to send emails to strategic email groups.
  • Custom email templates.
  • Automation capabilities (e.g., triggered emails depending on user actions).
  • Email marketing metrics.

Event Invitations that Boost Your Database

As we know, most nonprofits have in-person or virtual events. Don’t forget that all of these events are a great opportunity to update and capture email addresses. So, you want to make sure that your landing pages for registrations are optimized. And, when you send emails, make sure to include the following:

• Highlight the benefits of attending your event.
• Include all essential event information (e.g., time, date, location).
• On landing pages, use quick CTA buttons to make registration easy.
• Send out 1 to 2 email reminders once they’ve signed up.
• Ask people to share your event with friends and family.

Getting the Most Out of Emil for Donation Appeals

As we know, nonprofits want to raise the most funds possible for their programs and mission. Appeals for support are the foundation, and email marketing still makes sense for asking for donations. However, when doing so, you want to ensure that the ask is as compelling as possible.

• Make sure not to overwhelm supporters with many email marketing donation requests (especially new subscribers).
• If your fundraiser is specific to a program, make sure to target past supporters who have to it in the past.
• Create fundraising challenges and ask major donors to set down a match. 84% of donors are more likely to give if they know their funds will get matched.

In sum, email marketing is one of the essential tools for marketing and fundraising. It’s not just about getting new donors; it’s also about spreading the word about your cause, celebrating accomplishments, and thanking supporters. Check out the entire webinar here for the expanded content about:

• Audience segmentation
• Capturing email donor information
• Growing your donor base
• Types of email campaigns
• Crafting engaging content
• Analyzing and improving your engagement

And hear from some of our partners who’ve raised thousands of dollars!

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