Boost your results on e-appeals

E-appeals, email blasts, email appeals, no matter how you call them, they are good business for nonprofits — especially for small and medium sized nonprofits whose limited donor base prevents them from receiving a price break on their traditional direct mail pieces. There are all sorts of very exciting things you can do with e-appeals, from sending different messages to different groups (segmenting) to tracking your results with unprecedented accuracy (open rate, click through rate, etc.). When done right, e-appeals can work better than traditional direct mail because they require a lower investment upfront and produce comparable results.

The key, of course, is that the e-appeal must be done right. There are a lot of factors that affect the success of email appeals, including the subject line, the design, the inner copy, and even the time of day the appeal is sent.

The one thing you must keep in mind is that an e-appeal is not an emailed copy of your traditional direct mail appeal. People read from their screen completely differently than they read from paper. E-appeals need to be shorter than direct mail pieces, and the text needs to be broken up. Bullet points are a nice addition.

But if you really want to boost your results, especially with a rented list, there’s one thing you can afford to do with e-appeals that you can’t even dream about with traditional direct mail. Push more for a response — any response — and less for a cash gift.

I know, that’s crazy talk, but in this case, crazy works.

With rented lists, you get to keep the information of anybody who responds to your email. They don’t have to give a cash gift. They just have to click through and voluntarily give you their information. Then they’re yours for keeps. So with a rented list, it’s to your advantage to make it as compelling as possible for people to respond.

Ask your potential donors to sign a petition. Ask them to send a note to one of the people (or pets) you serve. Ask them to commit to pray. You can ask your donors to give, too, that’s ok. But let them feel that they have done something worthwhile by simply responding — because they have — they have given you their information to keep. And someday, if treated right, they will give money.

Need help developing a successful e-appeal? We can help with each step from strategy to copy to design to delivery. You only need to ask. Contact us at info@tbullgroup.com or 919.741.5072.