Stories For Relationship Building Too
A couple of weeks ago I posted on the importance of stories to support fundraising.
It goes without saying that stories support donor engagement of all kinds.
Kimberly Haywood at the March of Dimes provided this impressive illustration …
“I wanted to let you know the March of Dimes did something interesting for our Prematurity Awareness Month e-communications.
We featured a e-mail series of a mom, whose son Xander was born premature. He’s one of half a million babies born too soon each year. Our strategy was to divide her story up into 4 emails, and each was written by the mom in her own voice. Each email was authentic, compelling and written with a cliffhanger to keep the constituent connected and interested in how the story unfolds. It generated lots of interest and was very successful in opens and clicks: One email alone generated 1,000 new ‘likers’ to FaceBook and in 24 hours we accumulated 50,000 clicks between Facebook and Twitter.
Although this approach was not a blockbuster for straight fundraising, we feel it’s one part of a balanced diet of communications to engage the constituent deeper into our mission, which in turn will lead to increased support.
Here’s the sample email Kimberly sent me.
Nice job Kimberly and March of Dimes … you deserve a raise!
Tom
P.S. In case the navigation above doesn’t work for you, use these direct links to the four installments in the story of Xander.
Part 1: http://marchofdimes.drivehq.com/_National/PAM10/PAM101103a.html
Part 2: http://marchofdimes.drivehq.com/_National/PAM10/PAM101110a.html
Part 3: http://marchofdimes.drivehq.com/_National/PAM10/PAM101117b.html
Part 4: http://marchofdimes.drivehq.com/_National/PAM10/PAM101201c.html
One response to “Stories For Relationship Building Too”
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This is really helpful. Any chance that the email subject lines could be shared as well? With those playing a crucial role in getting our emails opened, it would be great to know what “hooks” worked.
Thanks!