The document provides guidance on creating effective e-newsletters. It discusses including an attention-grabbing subject line, trustworthy sender, personalized content if possible, branding, relevant imagery, segmented content, calls to action, sharing buttons, contact info, and unsubscribe options. The document also provides tips for good formatting, content that informs, educates, or appeals to emotions, consistent branding, and evaluating metrics like open and click-through rates.
3. Today’s Goals:
Understand the elements of an awesome e-
newsletter
Find out how to target your audience
Learn how to increase your audience engagement
8. E-mail examples
What do you like about these examples?
What do you notice these e-mails have in common?
Do you think these examples can be improved
upon?
11. Every Effective E-mail Has:
1. An attention-grabbing subject
2. A trustworthy sender (“from” section)
3. If available, personalized content
12. Every Effective E-mail Has:
4.
Organization
branding
5. Relevant
Imagery
6. Segmented
Content
7.
Obvious, Focu
sed Calls-to-
Action
13. Every Effective E-mail Has:
9. Secondary
Call-to-Action
7. Relevant
Content
8. Context
for Content
14. Every Effective E-mail Has:
10. Social
Sharing
Buttons
11. Contact
Information
12. Unsubscribe
Option
13. Privacy
Policy
15.
16. Good Form
Include images (but not too
many!)
Align left
Make Content “scannable”
Table of Contents
Headers
17. Tips for Good Form
600 px wide x approx. 750 px
Best info up top
Use tables in your HTML
Chunk text
Bullets, line breaks
Pictures relevant to content
Breaks up the monotony;
Keeps attention
18. Possible Layouts
One column – announcements, invitations, visually
heavy
Two column – frequent communications
Three column – information heavy
25. Subject Lines
Best Practices
Tell them what’s inside
Get the Media Guide for Less with This Code!
Make it a list
Conference Discount, Immigration, & Summer Camp
Top 10 Blog Posts of 2012
Ask a question
Don’t “Get” Twitter? Try These Tips!
26. Subject Lines
Best Practices
Talk about what’s trending now
See The Workshop at Coachella
Personalize
Steve Franklin wants you to join him May 7
MARIA, won’t you join us May 7?
KEEP IT SHORT!
28. Avoid Spam
The CAN SPAM Act
Don’t use false or misleading header information
Don’t use deceptive subject lines
Identify the message as an ad
Tell recipients where you’re located
Tell recipients how to opt-out of receiving future
email from you
Honor opt-out requests promptly
Monitor what others are doing on your behalf
29. Avoid Spam
Use an e-mail delivery service
Have a text version of your e-mail
Avoid attachments
Maintain a good text – to – image ratio
Ask to be “whitelisted”
31. Evaluation
What’s working?
Who’s engaged?
What are your audience’s habits?
What content do they find most compelling?
32. Open Rate
Your open rate is the percentage of people who have
opened your e-mail (of the # of people to whom you
sent your e-mail)
33. Open Rate
Average = 15 – 18%
Increase your rate:
Opt-in /double opt-in
Segment lists
Send at different times
34. Click-Thru Rate
Your click-thru rate is the percentage of people who
have clicked a link in your e-mail (of the # of people
who opened your e-mail)
35. Click-Thru Rate
Average = 1 – 10%
Increase your rate:
Accurate subject lines
Highlight what you want readers to click
Consider a change in format
36. Unsubscribe Rate
Your unsubscribe rate is the percentage of people
who opt out of your mailings (out of the # of people
the e-mail was sent to)
37. Bounce Rate
Your bounce rate is the percentage of people whose e-
mails were undeliverable (out of the # of people the e-
mail was sent to)
39. Frequency Tips
How fast can you produce interesting, relevant
content?
Quarterly?
Monthly?
Bi-weekly?
Daily?
What does your audience want?
Tell your audience how often to expect an e-mail
when they sign up
40. Frequency Tips
Best times to send
Morning Commute (7A – 9A)
Evening Commute (5P – 7P)
Depends on message
Hinweis der Redaktion
This is my inboxIn today’s age, it’s hard to get your message across with all the other messages coming at your audience, competing for attention.How do you stand out?
Emails and e-newsletters are called “permission marketing” – meaning people are allowing our messages into their inbox. They’re opting in to our messages.The challenge lies in keeping people interested once they sign up, so that your carefully crafted communications, don’t end up in the trash.
Take a look at the packet in your folders. Take a few minutes to study the examples provided and talk among your peers about what you notice about them.10 MINS
WRITE ON BOARD AND TAKE A PICClear brand identityLinksHeaders / spacersEverything is written concisely and spell-checkedSocial buttonsSCANNABLECALL TO ACTIONWhere is most of the information? TOP of page
To Mercy Corps URL
This is the result of a study that used eye-tracking technology to view where the eyes went in an effective newletter.- Their images are to the left – eyes go to visualsAdAge consistently wins Webby Awards for its e-newsletters.What do we learn from this?
In your packet, which ones are which?
Because web 2.0 has decreased our attention spans, you need to get to the point of your e-mail as soon as possibleSubjectHeadlineFirst line of contentFirst pictureFirst call to action
A good nonprofit e-newsletter will strengthen connections, increase retention, and increase support
If you have the option of using someone’s name, use it.1 call to action per story
Point of your newsletter is to inform and engage, NOT BROADCASTWhat does your audience want? ADDRESS THEIR CONCERNS.In 2011 “over-solicitation” was the second most reported reason for donors to stop givingYou can SKIP introductions – “hi from the Executive Director” up top“Although this text was only three lines long on average, our eyetracking recordings revealed that 67% of users had zero fixations within newsletter introductions.”
What’s wrong with a subject line like this?All capsExcessive punctuationExcessive charactersLong!Tag words: free, discover, secrets – go straight to spam
Eye catching phrase
Short 50 – 70 characters max – anything more runs off the inbox screen & and is more likely to be deleted
Most of us as nonprofits don’t have to worry about this, because this act refers to marketing messages, and as non-profits we’re not often selling anything
Your org’s needs (the communications you want to get across) should meet what the audience wantsDetermine what engages your supporters through trial and error
You want under 2%, if it’s higher than that, re-evaluate your form and content!
Less than 2%, if it’s higher, overhaul your list.
Response is slightly different from a click thru rate because a click-thru is measured from the web version of your email, too.8-9% normal; depends on calls to action