Nonprofit Expressions

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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:
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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:
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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:
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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:
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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!

Chat rooms seem designed for teenagers and stay-at-home moms. For today’s website owner live chat technology can make a huge difference, but not through a chat room…

When someone even says the word “chat” images of AOL and Yahoo go through many people’s minds. But these free-for-all chat venues are a disappearing thing. Internet predators, virtual worlds and spammers have made sure of that. Today’s chatters go online to places like second life or onto the xbox live for live voice chat. Historically, adding a chat room to most websites is simply a loosing proposition because a chat room requires people to constantly be in the online “room.”

Chat can still be a vital component for your website. First, we must re-consider what we should expect from chat, and what it can offer us.

We must think of chat as another mechanism for communication with website visitors, and as a method of creating personalized interaction with the website. We are currently running live chat on three websites. Two of our own, and one of our clients.

The first consideration is commitment. Yes - you must be committed to being available online for chat on a regular basis. This doesn’t have to be as tough as one might think. You should erase images of being barraged with chat requests every 3 seconds, it’s just not going to happen. On occasion however you will have the opportunity to chat with one of your website visitors in real time, one-on-one.

This personal interaction is priceless. To date, I have only chatted with a few of our website visitors. After only the first time I knew this was a feature I should keep on my website forever.

In the process of having live chat (good live chat anyways) you will also have the opportunity to see who is coming onto your website, when, and from where. This is not just analytics mind you. This is real time data you receive every time a page with a “live chat” button is viewed.

When a visitor enters my website - if I am online - I can see their city of origin, what page they are looking at, and even send them a live invitation to join me for a conversation.

Another crucial element to live chat is the trust factor. When people visit a website and they see an active “chat with the website owner” button they are gaining yet another piece of trust for the website and its contents. It is the same principle as posting an 800 number and an email address all over a website to gain the visitor’s trust.

I have become such a live chat junkie that I added a link to my email signature. Now anyone with an email from me has an opportunity to chat with me!

If you do not have live chat on your website yet, you should consider it.

Click on this link and you can chat live with me right now, and if I am not online you can leave me a message. I will call you back ASAP!

The long-term effects of consistent communications
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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.

About Website Report Cards: Our report cards are for website owners who want to improve their sites. We look at websites and formulate our report cards by evaluating four main criteria: first impressions, usability, search engine optimization and technical standards.

Website: CrossroadsChristianRehab.com

1. First Impressions
Immediately after coming to this site I know that the site host and builder is Godaddy. Having experience with Godaddy ourselves, we know that by purchasing your domain name with them that you get free hosting as well. The site is obviously built with a website-tonight, what you see is what you get type of editor.

This is what we like to call an “online business card.”

While there is nothing wrong with having a website hosted by Godaddy, these types of websites do not get found by search engines and therefore only get site traffic through word of mouth communication and other forms of print advertising.

Questions that would immediately go through my mind as a web surfer or future donor are, “How much does this site matter to the organization? Is this nonprofit just getting started, or are have they been around for a while? Is this a professional organization?” It really comes down to trust. A website is one meter in which people can evaluate - for themselves - how much an organization is worth.

As a web design and PR company we would ask, “How is this website - if at all - meeting your brick and mortar goals?” If the answer is that its not, then it can become worse than a waste of money… it can be a hindrance to future donors or partners.

Pleasing to the eye: C

Proximity: B

Alignment: Irrelevant

Repetition: Irrelevant

Contrast: C

Reflection of branding and purpose: D

GRADE: C
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2. Usability
The usability is extremely simple. The main menu stays consistent and is conventional with modern website formats. Every page is functional, some which are more appealing than others, but has no broken links or missing information.

This simplicity is one huge benefit of having a “what you see is what you get” editor for your website when your funds are low. One deterrent, however, is the constant Godaddy ad on the top of the page. While this may irritate users, it also creates a way for them to leave your site. Once clicking on the ads, the browser automatically takes you away from the site and to the Godaddy landing page.

While the purpose of the site is clearly explained in the first paragraph of the homepage, a better place for this to appear is right underneath the name of Crossroads. You may want to replace the quote underneath the name with a quick mission or vision statement.

Another problem the site probably has encountered is its inability to collect consumer data. When you don’t know who is looking at your site or offer a method to collect such data, you lose many potential donors and what we like to call “warm leads.” Although you offer a clear way to contact Crossroads, this confines the user to sending an email or making a phone call rather than submitting their information.

User’s ability to understand, comprehend and interact with the website: A

User’s frustration or anxiety associated with the website: C

User’s ability to find the site’s main purpose upon first glance: C

Consistent Navigation: A +

Easy Navigation: A +

Navigation visibility: A +

Website accomplishes functional goals: C

Use of applications: C

Newsletter Signup: F

GRADE: C

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3. Search Engine Optimization
The site only has two pages indexed in google. The pages are constructed well with lots of text, which will actually help search engine results. The site however has no valuable links pointing toward it, this is hindering search engine traffic. Since half of the information on the page is Godaddy adds, which also hurts search ranking.

A couple quick things that would help search ranking for this site are a blog to post new content on a regular basis, and keyword research. The site has no page rank information which shows its lack of incoming links. This site could be fixed for search engines rather easily.

Title tags: C (they exist but without researched keywords)

Meta tags: C (they exist but with single word keyword phrases)

Clean URLs: A

Semantic information design: A

Descriptive anchor tags: C

Google’s Page Rank: F

GRADE: C

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4. Technical Standards
The first thing I noticed is that the code is not hand written because the only comments are program generated. The site uses a table based layout, which is an old way of laying out pages, and not preferred. Other than this the site does not use any current web technologies.

Doc type declaration: A

HTML or XHTML standards compliant: F (the site has over 20 validation errors. Thats one error every two lines of code)

CSS standards compliant: A

Accessibility standards compliant: A

Well formed code: D

GRADE: C

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FINAL GRADE: Room for a Re-Design
For a free report card on your website, please contact info@nonprofit-expressions.com

Now wait a minute.. this blog is not about people like Heath Ledger dying…. Is it?

No, but his death mere hours ago in his New York apartment is lighting up the blogosphere, and although this is a very sad story of drug abuse and a life of excess leading to ultimate destruction, it is relevant here because it is a great example of the quick response of the bloggers.

The current top Technorati (a blog search engine) blog on the sites entertainment page was posted just two and a half hours after the actor was found by a masseuse who came for an apointment to the SoHo apartment.

This is incredible if we think closely about it. Before the nightly news, and long before the next newspapers will have printed it, and before some news websites had the news posted, a blogger had all the details online.

That blog is actually a part of the New York Times website. This is also very interesting when we consider the fact that many people who never would have visited the NY Times website will have read this blog. In fact without this blog being written and posted in the NY Times blog section they would have missed out on a lot of traffic and exposure.

The lesson we can take from this is that blog search engines like Technorati are looking for the most current and relevant information to dish out. In fact by writing this blog about Heath Ledgers passing (only because it is relevant at this moment) will probably drive more readers to this blog in the next 24-48 hours as his death is big news and the masses move to search for information about it.

This principle can always apply when writing current or up-to-date content. One blog article or website story can in fact produce volumes of website traffic if the article is current and relates to something people have a lot of interest in.

This article is also an extreme stretch. When I decided to write the article I needed to find something very current in the news, including Heath Ledgers name in the article only applies because any current news could in fact be used.

The best time to write new interesting and insider content is when it is likely to be news or highly interesting to the largest group of people. If you run an organization that feeds the hungry and you see a best selling author on world hunger doing an interview on the news, that moment is a great time to write on your blog about the author, or to post a review of his book on your site.

When your sector of society or industry makes news, you should be using it to your advantage!