Session 9: Giving Tuesday Email Best Practices and Campaign Tips

Email Best Practices from Givebutter

• Lead with a story. 
  • Your emails will pack the most punch if you center each around a personal story of someone directly impacted by your work—with their consent, of course. 
  • You can ask them to share a quote or offer to ghostwrite the entire email so it’s written from their first-person perspective.
• Use clear branding  
  • Keep your brand colors consistent and clearly present your logo to reassure donors that you’re not spam. 
  • You can also integrate official GivingTuesday logos into your designs for this special campaign. 
• Keep it tidy  
  • There’s so much awesome information about your work that you may want to squeeze into these emails, but simpler is better here. 
  • Keep your photos uniformly sized and your paragraphs short. 
• Hyperlink  
  • Link to your fundraising campaign page several times throughout your emails by using colorful buttons, images, or text—you don’t want anyone to miss it! 
  • Resist the urge to link to stories or articles. The goal is to get people to enter their credit card information as fast as possible. Remove all obstacles that will derail them.
• Use text that’s easy to read 
  • Ensure everyone has the opportunity to engage with your messages by making your emails as accessible as possible. Choose a simple font style in a larger size. Avoid light-colored font on a white background or white font on a red or pink background. 
  • Most readers will skim these emails, so use bold text to highlight key points.
• Subject Line Tips
  • Keep subject lines to 9 words or fewer
  • Let preview text help tell your story
  • Build on the sense of urgency
    • Giving Tuesday lends itself well to an urgent tone since donors are encouraged to get involved on this one special day. 
    • Time-specific or goal-based language like “Help us reach our goal by midnight!” or “We just need 3 more donations to reach our goal!” can be a great motivator for donors.
  • Ask a question to peak curiosity
    • Think of what makes you click to open emails from other groups or companies. Maybe an intriguing question or a hint that interesting information lies inside. 
• Resource
  • Giving Tuesday emails: Example messages, subject lines, and calendar to inspire generosity [Givebutter]

Email Campaign Tips and Tricks

• Successful campaigns take advantage of multiple communication channels – direct mail, email, social media, text messaging, video, newsletter, and more.
• For print ads include QR codes so you can track what method resulted in the donation
• State your goal and track your progress
• A compelling combination of messaging, copy, and imagery will create an impactful appeal for your supporters.
• Build off of taglines
  • Help fund our _coverage
  • Help us fund a new __
  • Use “you” focused sentences
• Rotate the author for some of the communications.
• Use short paragraphs – white space is your friend
• Always have a call to action and a P.S.
• Use the individual’s name, not “dear friend”
• Tease your campaign in your newsletter.
  • Use every form of communication you have to remind readers of your mission, your value and your work.
• Suppress donors that have already given to a previous pitch.
  • While it is important to stay consistent and send a lot of emails during the campaign, acknowledge those who have already supported you by giving their inbox a break.
• Send a “fake forward.” This is a provenly effective way to get extra mileage out of a pitch. Send the first appeal in the morning. In the evening, send it to people who did not open the first email.
  • Change the subject line to say FWD: [Insert previous subject line
  • Change sender information to come from another person at your organization.
  • Add a personal note at the top. (“Just wanted to make sure you saw this important note…”)

return to Making the Most of Local News Fund