That monthly email newsletter: is there a better way?
Someone in marketing was recently moaning that they’d just received the “April News Update from [X Charity]”.
“Why are charities still using this tedious subject line?” they asked.
“Why are charities still even sending a monthly email newsletter?” someone else chipped in.
Well, quite. Why do you send a monthly roundup of your charity news? When was the last time you took a step back to question what you’re doing?
What should you say?
Here’s a truth that we all really know: nobody reads a long email.
We all get far too much email in our inboxes every day, and the ones that get read are the short ones that are easy to immediately action. We might flag a longer email to come back to later and read “when I have time”. But in a lot of cases, that time will never come…
When a company or charity sends a lengthy email with a month’s worth of different news and actions to take, it just feels tiring and overwhelming. You’re likely to find that lots of people never read to the end of your email (you can clearly see this if you look at the links people click on your long emails). Lots more never read it at all, and others unsubscribe because even though they wanted to support you: “I just can’t be a good enough supporter who reads all the stuff you send me.”
So we suggest charities keep emails very short and very simple with one call to action.
How about:
One quick paragraph about something your team’s working on that week [chip in a fiver]
One nice success story from a beneficiary [click to read more]
One prayer request that’s immediately relevant to that day [please pray]
The subject line should describe what’s in the email. Who’s excited to read “April Update from the Wildflower Association”? No? How about:
We’re planting a mile of flowers by the M4 today
A few photos from last week
Sound less like a newspaper and more like a friend.
Sending news little and often can work
How often should you say it?
What are the dangers of getting email frequency wrong?
Not often enough:
Subscribers lose interest in your cause and stop opening your emails.
Subscribers forget who you are and how they got on your list and unsubscribe.
Subscribers who don’t remember signing up may report your emails as spam.
Email providers can filter infrequent emails from the same address into spam.
All of the above affects your email deliverability, meaning your email starts going into the junk folder of even the keenest people on your list.
Too often:
Subscribers feel overwhelmed and stop opening your emails, or unsubscribe.
Subscribers feel nagged, get annoyed and mark your emails as spam.
All of the above affects your email deliverability as well.
But what feels like “too often” depends on the audience. The simplest way to tell what people want is to let them choose. Can they choose a weekly tip or a monthly story when they sign up? Can they easily change lists later?
Your most interested and most “powerful” groups will want to hear from you more often, so segment. Think about your regular givers – they invest money every single month in your cause – they really want to be involved in what you’re doing. What about people who volunteer with you? They’re also very committed.
In general, more frequent emails (maximum weekly) can reduce unsubscribes and increase engagement.
If you’re no longer creating a long monthly email with four pieces of news on it, you can split the content into four separate short emails that are much more likely to get read and acted upon.
For your keenest supporters, a very short email once a week that sounds personal does not feel intrusive or a burden to read. In fact, it makes them feel like they’re in the inner circle of your charity, close to the action. It makes it feel like you are “their charity”, and that sets the stage for them to talk about you to their friends, volunteer, and donate to you whenever they want to be generous.
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We love writing and managing charities’ email news. Please get in touch if you need help with your lists, strategy or producing great emails.
