Effective Email

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Article: How Can We Avoid Being Labeled "Spam"?

When sending out large email communications, an organization can run up against the issue of being labeled as “spam.” As spam filters grow more aggressive, and popular opinion against unsolicited emails grows, an organization’s email blast can become...

Article: How Do I Know If People Read Our Emails?

Tracking the results of an email blast is an important step for an organization in order to determine not only the success of the campaign, but also to plan for future blasts. Open rates, click through rates, unsubscribes and bounces all give...

Article: How frequently should emails be sent to clients for on-line fund raising campaigns?

How often is too often for a small nonprofit (budget of ~ $1,000,000) to send out email appeals? Do donors get fatigued with too many emails with asks? First and foremost, start by respecting your readers when constructing e-mail correspondence. For...

Article: How frequently should email be sent?

This depends on the goals for your email, the type of content you are sending and, ideally, the preferences of your email recipients. General Guidelines: Mail at least once a month. Mail less often than this, and you risk being forgotten by...

Article: How Can We Create Well-Formatted Emails?

There are many small components that go into crafting a compelling email message. One must always remember that their constituents get multiple, sometimes hundreds of, emails every day, so emphasis must be put on standing out in the crowd. This...

Article: What's a Good Balance for text and photos in Emails?

Through HTML, email can be improved stylistically by photos, graphics and text styling. But many people use email clients that automatically take out photos, graphics and styling, or use mobile devices that show text-only versions by default. A good...

Article: What's a Standard Reference for Churn Rate?

When an organization maintains an email list, they must acknowledge that the information contained in the list is changing constantly. Some people unsubscribe, some emails become defunct, and people join the list. This constant shifting can work...

Article: What are some of the software tools commonly used for email outreach?

There’s dozens – possibly hundreds – of different email services that can help you to manage your list, create effective emails, and get them into your supporters’ Inbox. Several have particular relevance for nonprofits. VerticalResponse...

Article: What free software tools are available for email outreach?

First off, I never recommend starting with “free” (as in beer) as a requirement for software. Email outreach software is in general not terribly expensive – it’s easy to find good options for $20-$30 per month, especially if you’re not sending emails to...

Article: What’s the downside of just using Outlook to send personal emails to a bunch of people through the BCC line?

I’d advise you to look beyond Outlook and other personal email browsers if you’re going to be sending more than a few dozen emails, or sending to a list on a periodic basis. Tools like Outlook have a number of substantial disadvantages. First, putting...