guest post // Top 5 Email Marketing Strategies and How to Implement Them
By Dave Martin, CharityEngine
For a nonprofit leader, the task of grabbing people’s attention and convincing them to support your cause can feel daunting in an overcrowded market. Choosing which marketing channel you’ll use, such as deciding between direct mail and email campaigns, is the easy part. However, it takes thorough planning and creative strategies to make the most of those channels.
Email remains a wide-reaching, effective, and very low-cost way for nonprofits to engage supporters in either a broad or targeted capacity. Effective email marketing can lead to increased engagement, conversions, and brand loyalty.
Here are five proven ways you can optimize your email marketing strategies.
1. Build a High-Quality Email List
Your nonprofit’s contact list is more than just a repository of email addresses; it’s a gateway to deeper relationships and long-term support. CharityEngine puts it like this: “A powerful CRM helps you track donor behavior, identify key trends, and personalize outreach, making converting one-time donors into long-term supporters easier.”
A clean, engaged email list will directly impact your deliverability, open rates, unsubscribe rates, and overall campaign success. On the other hand, outdated or unengaged contacts in your database increase the risk of your messages being flagged as spam, which can reduce your chances of being seen by even your most loyal supporters. A high-quality list ensures your emails land where they’re supposed to and they’re interesting to the recipients.
Here are the steps you can take to build a high-quality email list:
Use clear sign-up forms. Place them on your website, donation pages, and blog posts. You can even use QR codes to turn physical marketing materials, like direct mail pieces or event signage, into a gateway to your website. Be certain to explain exactly what subscribers will receive and how often they’ll hear from you.
Offer incentives for signing up. Consider offering exclusive content, downloadable guides, early access to event tickets, or another incentive in exchange for contacts sharing their email addresses with you.
Tag and segment new subscribers immediately. Use your CRM to tag new contacts by source (i.e., you met them at an event or through an email campaign) and interest (i.e., they prefer supporting with donations or by volunteering) so you can send personalized and relevant communications from the start.
Practice pristine data hygiene. Clean your list constantly! Before pruning the list, run a re-engagement campaign for any inactive contacts to see if you can spark some interest. Then, remove hard bounces, unsubscribes, and inactive contacts.
Append your email data. Instead of simply removing outdated contacts, retain as many contacts as possible by conducting an email append. According to NPOInfo, the best way to ensure your list stays accurate is to do this regularly.
Use double opt-in. If you immediately follow up with a new subscription by confirming their interest and intent, you’ll prevent mistyped email addresses or disinterested contacts from being absorbed into the database.
2. Personalize Your Emails
We all know how much better it feels to receive an email that calls us by name or specifically references something we have done. This holds true for your donors, too.
As you build relationships with the individuals in your CRM, you’ll get to know their preferences and motivations. These insights will help you create targeted emails that resonate with them and make them feel personally recognized.
For example, addressing the recipient by their preferred first name, thanking them for the exact amount of their recent gift, and explaining how it will be used to impact your mission can improve open rates and drive higher conversions.
Here are a few tips for personalizing your emails to make them relevant to the recipient:
Use dynamic fields in your CRM. Most CRMs and email platforms allow at least some personalization, such as the donor’s name, gift amount, or giving history.
Acknowledge past engagement. Thank recipients explicitly for their support. Get specific with your gratitude; for example, call out whether they participated in a peer-to-peer or advocacy campaign, committed to monthly giving, or gave their support in another way.
Segment by giving behavior. Craft different messages for donors, volunteers, first-time donors, and major donors. Beyond switching up the message, you can also use different graphics, images, and other design elements for each segment to differentiate your outreach.
Adjust send times based on past behavior. Check to see if your platform offers reporting on when donors are most likely to open their emails. If so, use this data to schedule your messages.
Use personalized subject lines and preheaders. Different subject lines and preheaders yield different open rates. For example, more people will click on a subject line that reads, “Amy, here’s how many animals your gift helped this month” than one that says, “Summary of giving activity.”
Make it from a person. Sometimes it’s easy to forget to sign emails or attribute them to the team. Furthermore, it takes deeper detail than a simple signature to form a human connection. Add your name and even a photo of yourself when signing off.
3. Craft Engaging and Compelling Subject Lines
Your subject line is your first (and sometimes your only) chance to capture someone’s attention. Think of it like a headline: if it doesn’t interest or engage immediately, your email may never be opened.
In fact, studies show that 47% of email recipients decide to open an email based on the subject line alone. For nonprofits, subject lines can be a powerful tool to communicate urgency, emotion, or impact. Give people a reason to click!
Here are a few tips for developing top-tier subject lines:
Keep it short and punchy. Aim for 40 or fewer characters so the complete subject line appears on mobile devices. Shorter subject lines have been proven to be more effective.
Create curiosity. Hint at what the body of the email reveals, such as “You Made This Possible…” without giving away the content inside.
Use numbers. Numbers can help your subject line stand out against the wall of text in recipients’ inboxes. For example, “3 Ways Your Gift Helped This Week” or “24 Hours Left to Double Your Impact” can improve engagement.
Highlight urgency. If you have a time-bound goal, such as a year-end push or a giving thermometer, mention it to encourage immediate action.
Avoid spam triggers. Research which words or phrases are more likely to flag your email as spam. Words like “100% Guaranteed!” are often used in actual spam messages and can falsely send your email to the wrong folder.
4. Optimize for Mobile Devices
Did you know nearly half of all email opens are on mobile devices? Your emails have to look great and properly function on phones and tablets. Always make them mobile-friendly and test them thoroughly before sending to ensure they look great. It’s the easiest way to avoid high bounce rates!
However, don’t let mobile-friendly design replace the intentionality behind your emails. It’s important to still incorporate storytelling techniques, eye-catching visuals, and other compelling elements that spur readers to take action.
Follow these steps to optimize your emails for mobile devices:
Use a responsive email template. In most CRMs and email platforms, your layout should automatically adjust to different screen sizes.
Keep subject lines short. Mobile screens cut off long text!
Use large, readable fonts. Best practices dictate a minimum text size of 14px and a minimum body size for headers of 22px.
Make it tappable. Use a larger button if a link is too small to be tapped.
Limit your text. Use short paragraphs and bullet points. Make sure your email is scannable.
5. Analyze and Refine Your Campaigns
Many of your marketing efforts must be refined over time, but you can’t make changes until you know what could be improved. Data is your guidepost! By analyzing how your audience engages with your emails, you can identify what’s working, what’s not, and what can be optimized.
A data-driven approach empowers you to move beyond guesswork and make informed decisions that lead to higher open rates, better click-through rates, and more conversions.
How to implement it:
Track key metrics. Monitor open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, unsubscribes, and conversions. See if you can spot trends.
Set clear goals. Before you hit send, decide what success will look like. Do you want to achieve a certain number of email opens? Maybe you’re expecting a percentage of recipients to click through to your donation page.
Review heat maps and click data. Understand which parts of your email get the most engagement, then adjust your layout and content accordingly.
Use A/B testing. Segment your audience into groups and test different subject lines, images, send times, or calls to action to see which resonates. Test only one element at a time and ensure that your audiences are similar to pinpoint the exact factors influencing your email marketing success..
Regularly review and adjust. Use insights from each campaign to optimize the next one.
Email marketing remains one of your nonprofit’s most powerful tools when deployed thoughtfully and strategically. By building a clean and engaged list, personalizing your outreach, crafting compelling subject lines, designing for mobile readers, and using data to refine your efforts, you can boost your email performance and deepen relationships with your supporters.
You don’t need a large team or a massive budget. You'll see better results over time with a commitment to continuous improvement and a genuine connection with your constituents. Not to mention, you’ll foster long-term relationships that will keep a nonprofit sustainable.
This guest post was written by Dave Martin.
Dave Martin is the VP of Marketing for CharityEngine. He is a digital marketing expert with a unique combination of nonprofit and for-profit experience. Earlier in his career, Dave worked in global telecommunications marketing, product management, and product development both in the United States and Europe. Dave has a BA from the University at Buffalo, an MIA from Columbia University, and an MA from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Leuven, Belgium.
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