Three areas of focus:
Tell Compelling and Direct Stories
Give Specific Impact
Use Catchy Subject Lines
Tell Compelling and Direct Stories
- Paint a picture from the first line. Draw the reader into your story. Use a specific name/face/setting. Make it personal/connect to the reader in some way
- Make every word count. Short/to-the-point emails do so much better. Don’t waste words/sentences on things that are obvious. For example “It’s Giving Tuesday, a time for people to give.” or “We want you to support our mission.” Instead, go straight into the impact/story and let that tell what the mission is, and then specifically ask them to support the person you are telling the story about.
- Make sure your email answers the questions: Why should I care? How will my donation help? What do you want me to do/How do I help?
- Tell stories that directly showcase the impact of donors’ contributions.
- Have a protagonist, a hero. It’s easier to relate to an individual with a name than to a faceless group of people (ex. the poor in Somalia).
Give Specific Impact
- People are way more likely to give when they know exactly what their money is going to. Exactly how many kids will be funded? How much does it take to fund each child? How many more students will hear the gospel? How many more water wells will be built? $50/month funds 1 child for afterschool. We need 114 pairs of shoes for our students by fall. These are just examples of how we need to be specific in our impact.
- Be specific throughout the campaign. Give updates on how much is left to raise, how many more kids need to be funded, just $500 more dollars to build that new building…etc. Put this in subject lines, graphics, etc.
Use Catchy Subject Lines: (35% of email recipients open email based on the subject line alone)
- Intrigue your readers or pose a question – this can help increase your open rate.
- Try personalizing the subject line by using the contact’s first name.
Include the name of the sender.
Try avoiding the word “we”. “We” is a faceless entity and “I” is a person who wants to talk to “you” and “me”.
Use rhyme, lists, alliterations, and more. These perform well. But also break the rules and get creative.