Advice On Boosting Email Response
Here from Email Insider is some practical advice on improving response to marketing emails.
These examples are from the commercial sector, but the advice applies to online fundraising as well:
1. Make the journey creatively seamless.
2. Understand that your respondents will be viewing on devices with different usage patterns — computers, tablets, smartphones — and factor that into your presentation.
3. Take the trip yourself — walk through the entire viewer experience yourself, looking for anything that delays, confuses, makes it difficult to take action.
Personally, I think the last point is most important to email fundraisers. Yes, I’d like to see brand consistency, and I’d like to see websites optimized for different formats. But user-friendliness is crucial … and it’s something all nonprofits can work on, even if you can’t afford the development sophistication of a big corporate.
Speaking of which, the article contains links to several instructive ‘do’ and ‘don’t’ examples.
My favorite for getting it right is the Nike example, where you build your own boot. Terrific.
Tom
One response to “Advice On Boosting Email Response”
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Good tips, especially that last one. It is so easy to forget and should not only be done but done in different ways (devices, email hosts, browsers, etc).
Of course to get your emailed engaged with in any way, you first have to get it opened. In a very similar format, here’s three tips for that http://www.connectioncafe.com/posts/2012/03-march/3-tips-for-email-subject.html