Nonprofit Expressions

Do your email newsletters get read? Do they go straight to the SPAM filter? Do you get a lot of people unsubscribing?

There are plenty of factors contributing to the effectiveness of email campaigns. We are going to examine four main criteria and formulate a report card for you to use on your email campaign: first impressions, value of content, SPAM prevention and convergence effectiveness.

The purpose of an email campaign is to create convergence with the end user: build top of mind awareness, increase sales, drive people to a website or create warm leads. There are many different aspects of an email newsletter campaign which play into the effectiveness of that campaign. Of course, the ultimate test is the converge rates after an email has been mailed, but there are many methods of increasing click through rates, as discussed below.

1. First Impressions

The look & feel of the e-newsletter should match that of your organization’s branding. It should draw the reader in and create a feeling that matches it’s purpose: for example, if you are The American Red Cross, it should be professional and serious. If you are a children’s athletic organization, however, it may need to be fun and friendly. Brand repetition and top of mind awareness are very important!

The newsletter should be conventional with other types of online news sources. It should include a newsletter title, date and maybe an edition number.

The SIZE of the email should fit inside the average email inbox. An average email is 500 pixels wide, and your newsletter should not exceed the length of two page scrolls. The size of the email alone can drastically change a user’s experience. A newsletter which is so large that it is overwhelming may prevent the user from reading it at all.

Pleasing to the eye:
Dimensions in Pixels:
Reflection of branding and purpose:
GRADE:
———————————————————————————–

2. Value of Content

This is where you want to make sure you give readers a reason to stick around: a place to  donate, volunteer, visit your website, etc. News Flashes create a sense of urgency while a Tip of the Day suggests valuable solutions.

The newsletter may also includes a letter from an individual in the organization that helps the newsletter to be more personal.

FREE RESOURCES are an excellent method to pick up warm leads (people who are interested in your products). If someone will pick up a free resources by clicking through to go to your website, they may also want to donate or contribute in another way.

Sense of Urgency:
Timeliness:
Relevancy:
Engaging:
Develops Trust/ Credibility:
Offers valuable resources:
GRADE:
———————————————————————————–

3. SPAM Prevention

It is extremely important that your emails, especially if they are sent regularly, get past SPAM filters. SPAM filters rank incoming emails on a scale of 1-10. If the newsletter has too many “red flags,” for example, using words like “free,” “$$$,” “Save,” “Discount,” etc, then the email will be sent straight to a user’s junk mail.

Audience Acceptance:
Subject Line:
‘From’ and ‘To’ Lines:
Non-use of SPAM alert words:
Non-use of SPAM alert colors:
Use of bold, blue, plain text links:
One-click Unsubscribe:
GRADE:
———————————————————————————–

4. Convergence Effectiveness

As discussed in the beginning, the most important item at the end of the day is whether or not your purpose was met. I would suggest sitting down with a few staff members, defining a purpose for the campaign, and brainstorming about how you could increase your click through rates.

We have chosen criteria based on proven methods of effectiveness. It is also important to note that although you may have a number of click through links, the likely hood of readers actually clicking through is based on the value of the content combined with giving readers a reason to converge.

Inclusion of a Navigation Bar:
Forward to a Friend Link:
Placement of Images vs. Copy:
Personalization:
Placement of Most Important Information:
Click-through Links:
Subject Line:
GRADE:
———————————————————————————–

BRAIN STORM ON WAYS TO IMPROVE!

Notes: Although it is good to have the newsletter match the branding of your website, it should be different enough to identify it as an email newsletter. Another rule of thumb is that newsletters should be conventional to web standards. For example, many websites and newsletters offer click through links in their headers!

The long-term effects of consistent communications
————

What’s the point of sending out email newsletters? It seems like a waste… having to write all the articles, paying someone to do the graphics design… making sure to follow all those laws… and for what?

We’ve come up with a few good reasons to conduct an email newsletter campaign, and a couple invaluable ones. First, let’s go over the logic:

1. Conducting Online Campaigns
The whole world is on the wide web. Why wouldn’t you do an online campaign? It is true that nothing replaces direct mail, personalized letters and Christmas cards… but when you get a 10 to 50 percent open rate on an email newsletter, versus an average 1 to 10 percent on a direct mail campaign, its kind of a no brainer.

2. Using Email Newsletters
If you are still reading, that means you have a brain. Of COURSE you do. You want to conduct and online campaign! You can ask your supporters to make donations online, volunteer, take action, forward information to friends, establish credibility, acknowledge partners, make announcements, and so on.

Email newsletters are the backbone of such a campaign. Why? Because consistency is critical. Potential supporters require contact with your organization at least 5 or 6 times before they recognize it. Give your organization top of mind awareness, keep current donors happy and grow your email list all at the same time!

3. Give Value to Your Supporters
Why should they donate to your organization? Your donors, volunteers and potential supporters need to know WHY. Tell your audiences about your endeavors, services, special needs, and provide advice and information that is valuable to them.

Now for the practical reasons:

1. Save Money
2. Save Time
3. Save Resources

Snail mail costs are rising. Printing costs are rising. Sure, you need someone who is computer literate to help you send out your email newsletter, but tell me that you won’t save money by not buying stamps? You can also reach your audience with almost no delay! You don’t have to wait for the printing turnaround or mailing cycle. PLUS your secretary will love you for not making her lick all those envelopes.

4. Greater flexibility
5. Better feedback
6. Detailed reporting and statistics

Today’s technology can tell you exactly WHO opened your emails and what links they clicked on. This data will help you understand their reader behavior so you know where to invest your time writing, creating tips and so on.

Email Newsletters and Churches
According to ChurchMarketingSucks.com, email newsletters may become a primary delivery vehicle for church announcements. This is a great way to cut down the clutter, save time and money, and engage church communities in online interaction (chats, forums, blog comments, etc).

Start Your Own Email Newsletter:
Nonprofit Expressions can create, write, send and analyze the consumer behavior around email newsletters. We can also do complete online campaigns! Contact us for details: info@nonprofit-expressions.com.

In 2006, Compassion By Design was brought into existence to equip church leaders with the best tools to lead their congregations deeper into ministries of compassion. “As modern American Christians we tend to see the mission field as primarily international, while our unsaved neighbors are desperate for the love of Christ,” said David Mills, founder, Compassion by Design. 

To bridge that gap on a practical level Compassion By Design offers a Needs Assessment Kit which allows leaders to connect their community’s needs with their congregation’s gifts and abilities. Founder David Mills summed up the purpose of Compassion By Design: “Helping ministries find effective ways to serve their communities.”

Another Compassion By Design service began as a way to meet a need in the faith community. Mills saw a lack of government and grant aids being secured by churches and faith-based nonprofits. His response was to use his personal grant writing expertise to pass along the skills to others in conferences and training sessions.

How Nonprofit Expressions is Using Technology to Help

Nonprofit Expressions was able to take Mills’ ideas and vision and incorporate them into the Compassion By Design website. The site needed to have a crisp, attractive feel that quickly directs visitors to the right information. The initial marketing strategy of the site is opt-in email campaigns. Mills also blogs regularly which Nonprofit Expressions made available through Wordpress.

The next step in effectively marketing Compassion By Design was the addition of e-commerce, using the OS Commerce Solutions package (an open source application available online). Podcasting software is installed and are coming soon! The website design is easily read by search engine spiders because everything, down to the tabs at the top, is CSS based. The site is coded in XHTML 1.0 transitional and CSS 1.0. The site is also Secure Socket Layer capable for secure credit card transactions.

The New Concept

Currently, the entire website is in a state of transition as we are implementing AJAX type technologies to give the site a Web 2.0 interface and a highly user friendly information structure. When we re-envisioned website we wanted to take the process a church leader goes through in the Compassion by Design system and make it very easy to understand.

Our most important goal in the process was to make sure a new visitor and potential client can understand the grander scheme of why Compassion By Design’s system is a new, smart way to both plant churches and increase an existing churches impact in the community. We want the new site to have the “fresh” and “polished” look essential to the web 2.0 transition the web is making. Behind this new look is a new array of technologies that will make diverse information easier to connect and digest, while giving the visitor an experience that looks and feels very simple.

The site has many surprises in store for the new year on the site re-launch date of January 1, 2008. The new feature list will include a collaborative community network enabling teams to work in unison via file and document sharing, communication tools, and members only restricted areas all tying into the existing email marketing and ecommerce software. We are proud to be helping Compassion By Design bridge the web 2.0 gap and step into the forefront of the web revolution in information sharing and ownership.

Look for the new and improved Compassion by Design Website and Internet community on January 1st at: www.compassionbydesign.org

By Aaron1.
Get listed in the Search Engines. This is maybe the most simple of the ideas in this article - but its a good place to start. Most websites receive over 80% of visitors from Google, Yahoo, and MSN. For that reason alone many of the strategies I will discuss relate directly to how to get in the top search results of the search engines. You cannot spend to much time or energy making sure you show up in the search engines. For starters check and see if your site is listed on google and yahoo. In the search bar type “site:yourdomainname.com”. What should appear is every page indexed by that search engine. If you do not show up, you do not exist in that search engine. If only a few of your hundreds of pages show up it means the search engine didn’t index all of your pages. We will get into why later.

2. Keyword Phrases are “Key.” Every time someone looks for something in a search engine they usually type in a word, or several words. We call this the “keyword phrase.” You need to figure out what keywords really work for your site, by knowing what people actually type into search engines to find the information or products you offer. This is too complex to explain here, but a good Search Engine Optimization company can tell you exactly what phrases you need to know.

3. Every Page Needs a Title. The title of your page is the first thing a search engine reads, its also what appears in many search engines. If you’re home page is titled “Home” it actually can show up as Home in the search engine results. Be specific with your page titles, and use your keyword phrases in them.

4. The first Heading on your page should read like the title of the top story of a newspaper. Make it big, bold, understandable, and most of all use your keyword phrases. This is the second stop on the search engines visit, and may also appear in the search result pages when people find you.

5. Heading’s are bigger than subheadings. This is not only common sense, but the search engines feel that your h1 heading tag is more relevant to the page content than your h2 heading tag. So make sure your code actually uses semantic XHTML (the code should describe the document contents). If you use your website title in big h1 on every page you are making a big mistake. Use your keyword phrase in your heading, and related words in your subheadings.

6. META its important. You have probably heard of a META tag before if you own a website. No its not a birth defect or a medical bracelet. Its a piece of code that is hidden in your website. Every single page of your site needs them. The first one it needs is a description tag. This tag tells the search engine what the page is about. The text you put here will often end up in the search results page as well.

7. Keywords in the META. You keywords also belong in the meta section. You should have a keyword tag with the relevant keyword phrases in every page of your site. Each one should represent the page its on. (hint: every keyword phrase in the tag should exist on the page itself) for an example of a keyword tag and a description tag see the following:

8. Make Your First Words Count. When you begin any web page article or text you should make sure that your keyword phrases are right in the first couple sentences, somewhere in the middle once or twice, and again at the end. You are trying to make sure the search engines know what the article is about, while still writing for people to read.

9. Anchors are Not Just for Ships! Anchor tags (xhtml tags that create a link between two documents or pages) are very important in telling search engines what a document is about. Search engines assume you will link to other pages and sites with relevant content. So make sure your links use keyword phrases, and are descriptive. Example of a good link: (Blue mountain bike maintenance) where the entire line is a link. Example of a bad link: (read about blue mountain bike maintenance here ). where the word “here” is the link, leaving out all the describing text.

10. Make Sure the Crawlers Can See Your Entire Site. When search engines “crawl” a website they can only read text. They can’t see images, video, or flash. So make sure your site has plenty of text, and VERY CRITICAL, make sure your links are in text somewhere. If you only link from one page to another in a flash movie, or using images the crawlers may not even try to take a look at the pages you link to. If you want to see what pages the search engines have index type “site:http://wwww.yourwebsite.com” into the search engine you want to check.

11. Map it! If you want to make sure google and yahoo get to take a look at all of your pages you need to create an XML sitemap. This is really a very simple process use the sitemap generator.

12. Send Your Sitemap. Google and Yahoo want to see your sitemap so they know what pages to index. Submit to google here, and submit to yahoo here.

13. Every Page for Itself. In the world of “search” - every page on every website in the universe is competing for the same search traffic. That means unless google and yahoo can figure out what your page is about you will often be left out in the cold on page 1,234 of the search results for your search keyword phrases. Make sure you remember its every page for itself, not every site for itself. Every page should be a complete thought. Every page should have specific keyword phrases associated for it in the META tags, content, headings, and links. If you always remember this you are a step ahead of the competition. (Are they really even competition if you show up as result number 4 on page one and they show up as result number 1 on page 64?)

14. Do Some Reading. If you want to get good at the search engine game read some authors who have had success with them.

15. Get Local. If you are a local business who needs local business (you don’t sell watches online to people in china) you should get local with the search engines. Local Search is somewhat new, but very important to local businesses. You need to poke around and make sure you are listed in google’s directory results for local search. You should also check on yahoo, yellowpages.com, and other local search websites. Make sure you show up the same way you expect to in the local phone book. In todays world many people don’t pick up a paper phone book very often when they have search at their fingertips on the work computer, on the cell phone, even on people’s tv’s.

16. Get Some Links. This is a double edged sword in internet marketing. Not only can a visitor click on a link from another site to find you, the search engines assume your website is more important the more links you have pointing to your site. So ask websites that are not your competition but still relevant to your business. Remember to ask them to use descriptive text when creating your anchor’s, even better yet email them the text you want them to use. (NOTE: you can offer to link back, but its not as great an idea when thinking about search rankings.)

17. Get Listed in Online Directories. Directories like Google’s are free to get listed in, and they can count as links! Not many people actually search directories these days, but they do produce some traffic, and the links are worth their weight in gold. (NOTE: Yahoo’s directory is a complete ripoff. Unless you have a million dollar web marketing budget just forget it and move on to the free listings like google.)

18. Write an Article… or 30. Writing articles people can use in newsletters, and on websites is a great way to earn some links, introduce yourself to some readers who might grow to like you. You should write short, concise, fun articles about a topic that relates to your organization. You can them list them in an article source directory for people to use for free. These are a great way to get links because you can write a three or four line bio at the bottom of the article and put a link to your website in it.

19. Start an Industry Blog. Blog’s are the communication tool of the future. I mean who really knows whats going on in an industry like the people working there? Skip past the PR pro’s and the spin doctors and read a blog. Better yet - start a blog! What do you know intimate personal, in-depth information about? If it relates to your business you should be blogging about it. People in your field of work, and people interested in your business will want to hear what you have to say. Blogs are also a great way to earn some links because people will start linking to your articles.

20. Are You Newsworthy? Here is a tip, when you submit a press release “over the wire” it ends up on computer screens all over the world. If what you have to say is truly newsworthy it could end up in publications like CNN, Fox News, USA Today, the local paper, or on blogs. If your organization does anything newsworthy you should let the world know. Not only is the news a great form of advertising, but its free. Make sure to include your web address on any and all press releases you send out.

21. Does Your Business Card Advertise Your Website? How about your office stationary? What about all your printed materials? You spend money on your printed materials so remember to make the most for your dollar and advertise your website URL on everything you can print it on. I have even visited a few websites I saw on the side of car doors.

22. URL on the Television. Many times companies forget they can advertise their website in other advertising. It gives people an immediate place to get more information or read further about your organization. So if you are going to be on the radio, TV, or even in the newspaper anytime soon remember to advertise your website URL.

23. Install Your Signature. Microsoft Outlook is like today’s mail room. But what is a good mail room without stationary to write your letters on? If you forget to put your key information in your emails via signature, you are missing out on free advertising. Put your name, position, organization, address, telephone number, fax number, email address, and URL in your signature. Its like having your business card in every email you send.

24. Give Something Away. A great way to drive some traffic to your website is by giving something away for free. As a nonprofit a great way of doing this is to get a local business to donate it. Offer the business advertising in return, and you shouldn’t have to much trouble finding a willing donor. Then advertise your giveaway on your email contact list, your mailers, in the newspaper, (NOTE: If it is for a cause it is newsworthy) and even on a sign out front.

25. Start an Internet Newsletter. One of the best forms of advertising I have had personal experience with is email advertising. If you develop a good list you can send out a newsletter and drive hundreds if not thousands of people to your website. At one point earlier in my career I corresponded with over 7 thousand people a week via email. I was having conversations with over three thousand of them via email using personalized form responses. If you do not have an email list you can send a newsletter to, you should start collecting addresses today. I know many clients who advertise almost exclusively through email newsletter. It just works.Stay “tuned” for Part 2 of ‘Website Marketing Strategies’ - we will discuss guest blogging, rented email lists, and more!

By Jennifer

Nonprofits today have a flood of choices when determining the best way to communicate with their donors and publics.Email advertising… Press Releases… Direct Mail Postcards… Radio ads?

Choosing the right option at the right time can be confusing and overwhelming. But worst of all - it can be ineffective. Combined correctly, however, they can become the ultimate communications campaign to increase donations, sell a product - or even get publicity (free media coverage!)

Integrated Marketing Campaigns are when an organization strategically unites all of the forms of communication so that messages and campaigns are consistent and more effective.

The Trend

Large companies often have two or three different communications branches: Marketing, Advertising and/or Public Relations. Let’s look at the differences:

Marketing:

Planning and implementing a mix of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the organization to the client. Examples: advertising, shipping, packaging, selling.

Advertising: A paid, public, non-personal, persuasive message by an organization to existing and potential clients. Examples: radio, television and pop-up ads.

Public Relations: The methods and activities used to establish and promote relationships with all of an organization’s publics. Publics include all the people who share a common interest with an organization, like customers, donors, employees, community leaders, the media, competitors, etc. Examples: donor development, media relations, crisis management.While the goal of Advertising and Marketing branches is to sell a product or service, Public Relations focuses mainly on relationships between the organization and those key publics and stakeholders. All of these branches play an important role in the growth of an organization.

The importance of integration (IMC)

With three branches going in all different directions, you can imagine how it would become difficult to have one goal. And with the branches not working together properly, a company’s relationship with its audience could be permanently damaged.

The solution? Integrated Marketing Campaigns.

Looking Out for Your Publics

Imagine your audience sitting in front of the television or surfing online—if they see your TV commercial or pass their mouse over a banner ad, no one stops to recognize the particular work of either the marketing, advertising or pubic relations department. What consumers recognize is limited to the company name, logo and basic idea. The best way to make the consumer’s connection with your company stronger is to keep everything consistent.

IMC and Your Nonprofit

You don’t have to hire an expensive company to conduct your IMC campaign. In fact, you don’t even have to major in communications to use this method! You can start with a few simple tools and a team dedicated to success.

Tool 1:

Media Planning Guide>The market strategy and planning worksheet available to our newsletter subscribers will take you through a six step method to outline your situation, strategy, identify your tactics and how to evaluate its effectiveness. Go to www.nonprofit-expressions.com/media-guide.html for your free copy.

Tool 2:

Putting It Together and Making It Work from Amazon.com>There are endless books on IMC and the method. Go to this Amazon.com book link for one example.

Tool 3

: Integrated Marketing White Paper>Integrated Online Marketing with Direct Mail Fundraising (Adding a New Communication and Donation Channel Increases Donations). Read the White Paper here.

Tool 4

: The Nonprofit Expressions Method of IMC>Nonprofit Expressions is not an advertising company. We are not a web design company. We are not a market research company. Nonprofit Expressions is in the business of communication. We want to make sure you know your audience and that your audience knows you, whether your target public is a businessman looking to support your ministry, or an internal support staff member. Nothing will happen without relationships and relationships are impossible without communication.For a free communications assessment or a complete list of resources, please contact the author at jennifer@nonprofit-expressions.com.

After re-envisioning our website and our branding, testing out some Ajax methods for organizing and displaying information, we have decided to show some of them off on the website!

Ajax is an important new technology on the Web because it significantly improves the user experience. An example of this would be the revolutionary mapping software now in wide use, Google Maps.

More Ajax-based web applications are in development and use all the time. The transition the Web has been making to a more user-friendly and intuitive environment is probably unnoticed by many web surfers, and this is ideal. The average web surfer probably just knows that the web is becoming easier to use, even though they may not know exactly how or why.

The improved version of many websites that is transforming the World Wide Web is being termed “Web 2.0.”

This change is not insignificant, and Ajax is not just a new bell or whistle. Improving the experience people have on your website is very important and should be considered by all serious site owners. This brings us to the website owner topic of the day, user experience.

The user experience is not trivial or technical mumbo jumbo. It is really just the type of experience a person has while visiting your website. How would people describe their recent visit to your website? Would they say it was easy to use, they found the information quickly and the pages were attractive? Did it remind them of other websites they like or was it the worst web experience of the day?

The truth is most websites would fall into the frustrating category. This is simply because the best sites on the web today are intuitive, well thought out by their creators and adequately researched. As a developer myself I know many clients would be happy to cut some meat out of the website budget by eliminating “user testing” and “visitor research”. While these are often expensive parts of the puzzle, they can also be the most important steps to creating a website people will enjoy visiting.

In reality all websites that are very successful (Digg.com, Facebook.com, Google.com) spend hundreds of man hours making sure people can understand how to use their websites and developing ways to present information in a pleasant manner.

Finding out if it is time for a re-design is easy if you only follow these two steps:

1. Find a person who does not work for you or your organization/business/church. (You need a truly unbiased perspective)

2. Watch the unbiased person use your current website. Ask him/her to complete a few pre-defined tasks, such as finding a piece of information or looking for a specific page. Then do not give them any advice about how to do that. Offer NO HELP! Just sit and watch (and bite your tongue).

This exercise should tell you whether or not your website is easy to use.

If your tester struggles or seems confused, it is time to re-think your website!