If you're not building your nonprofit's email list (and increasing open and click-though rates), you are missing out on a huge opportunity to retain and attract donors.
This is because people prefer to donate via email. A study by Razoo shows that email is the best way to optimize the transactional aspect of fundraising.
Nine Powerfully Simple Ways to Build Your Email List
Over the next few weeks, I'm going to outline exactly how to optimize all the various different aspects of your email marketing.
These articles will be based on my own work with nonprofits, as well as big data research. (
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To start with, let's talk about nine simple ways to build your list.
1. Prominently Place Your Optin Form
An obvious way to increase email subscribers is to make it easy for people to find your optin form!
When I placed mine at the top of this page, the number of new email subscribers I acquired each week tripled!
2. Tell Subscribers What They'll Get
The other thing you'll notice about the email capture form at the top of this page is that it tells people exactly what they'll get, and exactly what to expect.
Make sure you tell them how often they'll receive emails, and what day of the week they'll receive them.
Setting expectations up front like this will also lower your unsubscribe rates.
3. Set the Tone With a Welcome Email
The moment someone joins your email list is the best time to send an auto-reply letting them know exactly what they can expect going forward.
This sets a positive tone to the relationship as well by sincerely thanking them for joining your email list.
4. Don't Forget Your Facebook Page
Because of the massively viral nature of Facebook, you should definitely put an email opt in form on your Facebook page.
In some cases, I've found that an optin form on a Facebook Page converts more effectively than a website.
5. Make it More Frictionless
An easy way to increase email optin rates is to remove hurdles. Hurdles like captcha forms and requiring more than a first name and an email to join your list.
One thing Oceana recently did to make their optin process more frictionless was use Facebook log-in.
Using Facebook log-in meant that instead of filling out a name and email, all that was required was two mouse clicks. They also made it fun by incorporating profile pictures (as shown above)!
6. Give Them Subscriber-Only Content
Email marketing 101 requires that you answer the question every reasonable person eventually asks:
"Why should I join your email list when I can easily follow your content on Facebook?"
An easy way to do this is to offer subscriber-only content, like HubSpot does with their eBooks, or Best Friends Animal Society does with their action alerts.
7. Get Them to Tell Others
The moment someone subscribes to your email list is precisely the moment to encourage them to share your list with their friends.
Above is a fun way I get new subscribers to retweet my email list (using Click to Tweet).
8. Create Beautiful Popovers
If you're like me, you absolutely hate pop-ups. They usually appear before you've experienced a site's content or even when you're still reading it!
A WordPress plugin called Pippity solves these issues by giving you control over how and when a pop-up will appear.
9. Know Your Audience
Your current subscribers are always asking themselves:
"Is this email still worth the space it's taking up in my inbox?"
The sure way to building your list requires understanding what your subscribers really want -- and consistently giving it to them.
Serving up useful, awesome content not only attracts new subscribers -- it keeps the one's you have.
What other ideas do you have?