06 Jan Email Marketing for Nonprofits – Email Protocol for your Constituents
An Introduction to Email Marketing for Nonprofits:
With any nonprofit, it’s extremely important to be able to communicate and convey the mission of your organization to those interested in supporting your cause. With limited resources and the nature of nonprofit organizations, you can’t afford to bombard your contact lists with an assortment of untargeted emails. This not only overwhelms the contact, but can also leave an unpleasant impression associated with groups that constantly email contacts in an attempt to solicit donations.
In order to execute an effective communication strategy between the organization and its donors, volunteers, partners, and sponsors, you must first determine how and when you communicate with each group of individuals. The key to a successful email campaign is to create different types of emails you should be sending to your database.
Marketing for nonprofits should be a blend of a well-run machine made up of volunteers, sponsors, partners and donors. Your email campaigns should be focused around engaging those groups effectively. In this pocket guide, we’ll cover five types of emails that you should create and send to your database. Each type of email serves a very specific purpose and targets a specific audience, which will help generate an effective communication strategy within and outside of your organization.
Emails About Your Organization.
The goal of this email is to act as an introduction to your new subscribers and contacts. The importance of this email lies in the fact that it is one of your first emails to new contacts and is an informational overview of your organization and its mission. People generally don’t want to receive these often. They’re often not as fun or engaging as your fundraising emails, but provide the unique opportunity to make a lasting first impression with new contacts while keeping your current supporters up-to-date with what you’ve been up to.
Many organizations use different marketing tools and choose to send weekly or monthly digests to keep their supporters or fan base current on events, goals, and future plans. And no matter how much supporters love your organization, it’s still important for to keep them up to date of organizational changes.
How To Segment This Email.
Supporters: You should focus on providing a general overview of your organization and its mission in the email to your supporters. This email should serve as a way to educate the public on your cause and provide ways for them to get involved.
Sponsors: Like the email to your supporters, this email should include a broad description of your organization and your mission. This email should include details on how businesses can contribute to your cause through sponsorship opportunities.
Partners: The email targeted at potential partners should include information about long-term sponsorship and collaborative opportunities that businesses and other nonprofits can learn more about.
