May 2000
Seven ways to use e-mail Nick Allen
Membership has its advantages Steve Hitchcock
What's up online Dan Weeks
Seven ways to use e-mail
by Nick Allen
E-MAIL REMAINS the most important part of the Internet for fundraising and marketing. It's also the cheapest and the easiest. So if you're not making the most of it, make 2000 your year of e-mail. Here are seven tips to get you going.
1. Get started!
Create an e-mail newsletter. You can use free Web-based e-newsletter services such as topica.com or egroups.com, or "list-serv" services from your Web host or Internet Service Provider, or you can host the service on your own server. As your list and your expertise grow, you can create additional lists for members, donors, activists, clients, etc.
2. Get out!
Publish this newsletter every 3 to 4 weeks to keep your organization in front of people. If you've got information that some constituents want more often, create a special newsletter for them and make sure they understand how often they'll be getting it.
3. Get content!
Include news about your organization, your spin on news coverage of your issues, calls to action for events, advocacy, and fundraising. Keep it breezy and fast-moving. Make each issue short, not more than two screenfulls. Offer 2 to 3 lines about an issue, then link to a Web page for more information. Keep it short and punchy, and explain how to "unsubscribe" in every issue.
4. Get subscribers!
Let visitors to your Web site subscribe on the home page with just an e-mail address and perhaps one other piece of data (e.g., zip code, if that's meaningful for your organization). Invite all your members, donors, clients, and constituents to sign up on every piece of mail, every call, every event. Try a contest: "Sign up for our free e-news and a chance to win a MyGroup t-shirt!"
5. Get personal!
You can "Dear Nick" your newsletters from the git-go. But as your list grows, especially if your organization deals with multiple issues and/or multiple constituencies, you should begin to tailor your e-mail newsletters -- and any other e-mail messages you might send -- based on the recipient's expressed preferences (issues, frequency) and actions (advocacy, donations, orders, etc.).
6. Get action!
Tell recipients what you want them to do: make a donation, come to an event, send a fax. Let them click from the e-mail to take action on a Web page -- a donation form, an invitation and registration page, an e-mail-to-fax form. With sophisticated technology, you can include a link in the e-mail that will take a donor to a Web page already filled out with his or her name, address, and an appropriate gift string.
7. Get private!
Privacy is important online. While most people accept the sale or exchange of their mailing addresses, unsolicited e-mail is considered spam. Post a privacy policy on your site (you can build one with a wizard at www.the-dma.org) and then never, ever rent or trade any of your e-mail addresses. If you gather mailing addresses, be sure to post your policy on renting or exchanging them. (And don't even consider any "five million e-mail addresses for $179" offers.)
Nick Allen is President of donordigital.com, a new company that helps nonprofits use the Internet for fundraising, marketing, and advocacy. Contact Nick at phone (510) 647-2700, fax (510) 647-2709, e-mail nick@donordigital.com.
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Membership has its advantages
by Steve Hitchcock
ONE DIRECT MAIL TEST does not a universal truth make. Yet I'm willing to pass on the results of a test that we conducted for one of the clients of Mal Warwick & Associates. The results of this test have a certain reliability because we've tested literally hundreds of elements of the acquisition control package for this client -- an organization, I should add, that we've worked with for more than 10 years.
In this test, all elements were identical except a phrase in the letter and text on the reply device. In both cases, the difference was "Yes, I want to support [you] . . . here's my special gift" as opposed to the control language, which read, "Yes, I want to join [you] . . . here's my membership gift."
There was no statistical difference between the two packages. Though the control language of "join . . . become a member" resulted in a few more new members.
Of course, this test should be repeated for this organization, and other groups may find they get better results without mentioning membership.
But I'm betting that "membership" will win in more cases than not.
The language of membership
And even if membership language didn't result in acquiring more new members -- or if it simply got the same results -- I'd be very tempted to stick with membership language for most acquisition mailings for most organizations.
That's because nothing -- yes, nothing -- beats a membership renewal mailing for generating net revenue for an organization. Time and time again (even for organizations that don't acquire donors through a membership acquisition mailing), asking donors to "renew your membership" (or even "renew your annual support") motivates a very high percentage of an organization's donorbase to respond. At our firm, looking at dozens of different clients, we see response rates that are two to six times as great as response rates for special appeals or requests for extra support.
(Then again, true emergency appeals can out-pull renewal mailings, but those are exceptional circumstances.)
Results keep getting better
What makes membership so powerful for direct mail fundraising is that you can do it year after year. And the results usually get stronger each year if you're acquiring new members and doing at least an adequate job of thanking them for their gifts.
These renewal mailings are also very cost-effective because they work best when they're simple and straightforward. The text for renewal letters is also easy to write. The best renewal letters include three key elements: (a) "It's time to renew;" (b) "Please renew your membership;" and (c) "P.S. Please send your membership gift today."
So, for goodness sake, please make sure your acquisition mailings at least test using the language of "joining" and "membership" -- if your by-laws allow it.
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What's up online
by Dan Weeks
Be sure to visit the very effective website of The American Civil Liberties Union at http://www.aclu.org. This site provides easy access to a wealth of information, neatly organized by issue and topic. You may also search the ACLU database - both in its entirety and through restricted searches. Becoming a member is easy, and they include a reminder that you may print out the form and mail it in - for those not so comfortable with online credit card use.
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