This week, we had the opportunity to partner with Classy, a nonprofit fundraising platform, presenting a webinar titled: How to Attract, Convert, and Nurture Online Donors with Email.
We talked through three sections, covering how to attract donors with email, then how to convert them using email, and finally how to nurture donors in between gifts using email.
In short, this webinar covered email fundamentals for every nonprofit to learn from. And to give you a glimpse, here are some key takeaways from the webinar.
1. Focus on building your list and greeting with a welcome series.
To attract donors with email, first you have to be able to send them emails! It’s important for nonprofits to focus on collecting emails for their list. Once you have a subscriber sign up, don’t forget to welcome them to the list with a welcome email or welcome series.
2. The goal of your email should always tie back to the action you want your supporters to take.
Any time you craft an email—whether it’s an appeal, update, newsletter, or an invitation—you should always set a clear goal and a clear action for your subscribers to take. This will drive more email engagement and more donations as you hone in your focus.
3.Your donation page is just as important as your email appeal.
In the webinar, we talked about using segmentation quite a bit. And if you’re segmenting your donors before you send an email appeal, then you definitely need to think through how that segment will interact with your donation page. Generic donation pages may appear daunting to very low-level givers, while also unappealing to major givers. If you’re segmenting an email to a specific audience, make sure you donation page language matches that segment.
4. Take easy opportunities to nurture your donors with email.
Utilize easy ways to keep in touch with your donors. Keep your emails simple, and use the same template whenever you can to save time. Share any exciting news you have from the field with the appropriate donors, and use automation whenever possible to streamline your efforts.
Wrap up
This was a great webinar that offered a ton of information for any nonprofit interested in getting started or taking their next step with email. If you weren’t able to attend but would like to view the recording, you can sign up to see the video here.