10 Tips for Email Marketing for Planned Giving Programs

10 Tips for Email Marketing for Planned Giving Programs

Connecting with Your Most Loyal Donors

The Role of Email in a Multi-Channel Strategy

As part of a broad-scope multi-channel marketing strategy, email marketing for planned giving is a timely and cost-effective way to keep your organization in the hearts of your donors, especially your most loyal ones.
Email marketing offers an opportunity to inform, enlighten, educate, and connect with your most enthusiastic supporters. It’s a critical piece of your planned giving marketing strategy and a fantastic way to recap the information your donors read in your postcard or appeal letter.

But how do you write the most effective email for planned giving donors?

Follow these 10 tips for email marketing for planned giving:

1. DESIGN: Design email for planned giving with smart phones in mind. Clean layout with crisp photos works best. We test our emails on smartphones, laptops, and tablets to make sure the content automatically resizes.
2. TELL THEM WHO IT’S FROM: The organization’s name should be in the “From” field. If you use only a person’s name, your reader might delete the email because they don’t recognize it.
3. SUBJECT LINE: Think “less is more.” Limit your subject lines’ length to 20-30 characters. Spark intrigue and use engaging language, numbers (“7 ways to . . .”), and open-ended questions.
4. CONTENT: There are no rules to the length of an email. If you have very engaging content, readers will stay. But, for traditional, letter-style emails, it is important for your content to focus only on one topic.
5. NEWSLETTER EMAILS: While regular emails work best with one topic, newsletter emails allow you to “tease” readers with 3-4 topics of fewer than 60 words with “read more” links. This allows you to analyze the response and identify the type of content that gets the most attention.
6. CTA (Call to Action): The Holy Grail of email marketing. It could be to call, email, click a link, or fill out a form. Just make sure it’s a firm call-to-action and it’s clear what happens next.
7. FREE GIFTS: One effective tool is to give something away for free. A free offer gets more people to open the email. Whether it’s exclusive news, an offer, or a download, the reward benefits both you and them.
8. TIMING: The best time depends on your audience and your CTA. If you want someone to read an article, it might be best to send it very early. If you want someone to sign up for an event, it might be better to send it later at night. Test different times and days.
9. EXPANDING YOUR LIST: Encourage donors to invite you to their inbox. When you call or visit, ask for their email with a promise to send them valuable information. Always include a place on any response mailer where donors can add their email.
10. KEEP IT CLEAN: Typically, 30% of email addresses become unreachable within a year, so make it a habit to keep your lists updated and healthy.