June 9 , 2008

7 Ways To Make Donors Respond to Your e-Letters

E-newsletters reach people already interested in your organization -- well, at least enough to get emails from you. But how do you keep that interesting burning through the newsletter? Test to figure out what works best, according to Felicity Ayles, assistant director of communications at the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health in Palo Alto, Calif.

Change and test these elements to tailor the newsletter to fit your subscribers and organization:

Design. Ayles said that you don’t need a “fancy, exciting newsletter that moves and shakes and flashes” for lure your subscribers in. It’s more important to present the information in a clear way that’s easy to find. Your design level depends on your budget and time.

Html. A newsletter using html and images might look great, but your subscriber might never see it if their mail blocks that content. Test email the newsletter to several different email accounts to see what your newsletter looks like once it hits the content blockers. If what you see isn’t pretty, it might be time to revamp your design.

Subject lines. Ayles discovered that subscribers to her organization responded more to subtle subject lines. But, see if your audience likes the direct approach.

Event invitation. Some things just might not work in your newsletter. Ayles found that more people signed up for an event when it was sent in a separate email -- but remind people in the newsletter.

Content. Remember -- it’s a newsletter, not a textbook. Ayles said her tests showed “users are not scared by a lot of content.” Chances are that if they signed up and opened the newsletter, they want to stay informed.

When to send it. That means testing days of the week at various times of the day. Ayles didn’t find any difference in open rates -- whether the newsletter was sent 10:30 a.m. on a Wednesday or 12:30 p.m. on a Friday before a three-day weekend. See if your subscribers are more willing to click through during the day or evening, weekends or weekdays.

Sign-ups. It’s foolish to put effort into a newsletter no one will read. Make it easy for people to subscribe. Think about replacing a long form on a single page with an email box on every page.

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This article is from NPT Weekly, a publication of The NonProfit Times.

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