But HOW to craft a great subject line?

Time to talk more in-depth about e-mail subject lines.  Copyblogger has some tips for crafting good headlines, which I've adapted to help us with our nonprofit e-mail subject lines.  (Don't you love the challenge of nonprofit marketing?  Unlike traditional products and services marketing, when you're fundraising you're selling something less tangible.  You're selling the good feeling of making a difference!)

• Direct Headlines go "straight to the heart of the matter."  Something like: Our New Blog Is Up & Running.


• Indirect Headlines are more subtle, piquing the readers curiosity.  A zoo might write The Eagles Have Landed.


• News Headline-style is self-explanatory.  For example: President of Cohen-King Foundation to Receive Nobel Prize.


• The "How-to" Headline is everywhere, but can be hard to adapt for nonprofits...maybe: How To Have Your Gift Doubled, to promote a challenge grant?


• Question Headlines "must do more than simply ask a question, it must be a question that...the reader can empathize with or would like to see answered."  How Can We Stop the Violence in Chicago?


• A Command Headline tells the reader what she needs to do, such as Donate Today to Keep Livanka Park Open!  The first word should be a verb.


• Reason Why headlines explain body text that consists of a numbered list of product features or tips, such as Eleven Ways You Can Help St. Francis' School Be Even Better!


• The Testimonial Headline works "because it presents outside proof that you offer great value."  Take what someone important has said about your organization and use their words!  Mayor: "Wichita House is a vital part of our city".

Know the important difference for online writing

A post on Slate recently shared that many visitors of web pages don't scroll at all in order to see all of the content.  So something to keep in mind when you're writing for the web is that you should put your most important stuff up top.  Make it compelling enough that people will want to scroll down to keep reading!

Network For Good echoes this idea, and takes the readability concept further:

"Eye-tracking studies show that readers scan text first to see if the article is relevant to them. They typically skim the top of the page—skipping the parts that require scrolling to reach—plus any headings, images, and bold-faced terms. Effective Web pages are easy to scan quickly and pick out the main points. Put your most important information at the beginning of your article. Expand on that info with eye-grabbing elements like bold-faced subheads, captioned images, and bulleted lists."

The Network For Good article has other good points, like:

• make sure your headline makes it clear what the article is about,
• break up big blocks of text, and 
• use bulleted or numbered lists. 

As ever, our job as communicators is to make it easy on our readers.  Attention spans are even smaller on the internet.  And if your readers don't read, they won't get a chance to be affected by your compelling copy, and then they won't donate!  

Two tricks to get more money from e-solicitations

This is a terrific article about ways to help your e-mail recipients respond to your call to action.  As fundraisers, usually our call to action is going to be DONATE NOW!  How to encourage people to do it?

• As always, make it easy.

People skim because they don't have a lot of time to leisurely read all the e-mails they get.  Have you heard the new term for "not-spam-but-not-from-someone-you-know-either"?  As in, the myriad e-mails you get from companies or organizations that you actually signed up for.  It's "bacon."  (Hat tip: Future Fundraising Now.)  It's not spam, but it still clogs up your arteries, I mean inbox.

So make it easy for people to see what to do.  Use a button, not a text link.  Make the button large, and easy to read, with bright, eye-catching colors.  

• Make it urgent.

Don't let people think, "I'll get around to it."  They never will, and the e-mail will disappear to the bottom of their inbox.  Use words like "now," or "today," to compel immediate action.

What mixing up friends can tell you about crafting appeals

Like many of you, I am on Facebook.  Do you ever—just momentarily—get friends on Facebook who have the same first name confused?   Especially if their profile picture isn't of them.

I can't be the only one, can I?

It got me thinking:  if I, while reading Facebook, an activity that I apparently enjoy, still only skim names (causing me not to absorb a person's last name, thereby getting people with the same first name confused), what does that say for the people who read your fundraising appeals?

Now, some people will sit down with your letter and read it carefully, all 2 or 3 or 4 pages of it.  But most will just skim it, while holding it over the trash can (how treacherous for your dear appeal!) and deciding whether to reply or pitch it.

Obviously, you want them to reply.  Immediately, before it falls off their radar.

So this is our challenge as fundraising communicators:  we have to evoke emotions strong enough to compel people to act, and we have to do it in such a way that it will happen even when they only skim our letter. 

This is why we leave a lot of white space.  Why we strategically use bold font, underlining, bullet points, and some combination of the three.   Why we repeat our message and call to action.

After you spend all that time carefully reviewing your letter, try to skim it.  Invite others to skim it—really, tell them to make sure they skim. Then find out what they got from it, and how it affected them (if at all).  Before sending it out, make the necessary changes to get your message across when you have a reader who isn't really reading.

Tips to grow your e-mail list

Alan Sharpe says,

"Most visitors to your website will not donate during their first visit.  You need to start a conversation with them. A conversation that starts with e-mail."

So instead of focusing on asking for money on your website, ask for e-mail addresses.  Start that conversation.

How to get people to sign up?  Check out this article written by the great Pamela Grow; I thought my head was going to fall off from nodding so much in agreement with it.

A few highlights:

• Your homepage, and in fact every page on your website, should contain a sign-up box for your e-newsletter.  And above the fold, i.e. you don't have to scroll to find it. 
  
  
• You have to offer a compelling reason to subscribe; "Sign up for our e-newsletter" is not one.
  
  
• Wouldn't you love to know everything about your donor/potential donor, like their birthday, snail mail address, favorite color?  Of course you would, but you can scare people off by asking for that much info.  Just start with an e-mail address and name. 
  
  
• You already know that thanking people is an important part of development.  The sign-up box should redirect automatically to a thank you page, and your new subscribers should receive a welcome e-mail as well. 

Fonts and readability

Fonts may seem simple, but a debate about them can get heated; some people are passionate about fonts.

Many people say that the easiest fonts to read on paper are serif fonts (such as Times).   And there is some research showing that online, since most fonts are sans-serif (for example, Arial), people have grown accustomed to reading them.  So when creating your website and e-newsletters, you may want to choose a sans-serif font.

This post on Neuromarketing discusses the studies that show that people deem a task to be easier when it is written in a clear font vs. one that's harder to read. 

You don't want people to think that making a donation is difficult.  Anything that stands in the way between a person an a task has the potential to divert them from doing it—I am obsessed with this study about leaving the door to a cooler of ice cream open.  That resulted in more than double the amount of people taking ice cream than when it was closed.  (It's just a door!  And ice cream is delicious!)

Also, you should use a very dark font against a white or very light background.  Don't use a white font on a dark background (except sparingly), or a lighter-colored font on a white background.  

I will continue writing about small things you can do to increase the readability of your communications, so stay tuned...

Make it easy for your readers and they'll repay you

Want to know an easy, proven way to get more donations through your fundraising communications?  It's using the Flesch-Kincaid readability test on your writing.

If you use Microsoft Word, running the spelling and grammar check will also give you a Flesch-Kincaid grade level.  Go to "Word Options" and choose "Proofing." Make sure "Check grammar with spelling" is selected.  Under "When correcting grammar in Word," select "Show readability statistics."

You want to get a grade level no higher than 7; fundraising letters written higher than that level have a lower rate of return.  This is a tested, statistical reality.

The Flesch-Kincaid test uses a formula that rates text based on average sentence length, and average word length by syllables.  So, if you need to lower the grade level given for your writing, shorten your sentences and choose words with fewer syllables.  However, avoid choosing words that are shorter but less well-known.  That may lower the grade level rating, but won't actually increase the ease for your reader—this is one of those instances in which a human is smarter than a computer.

Also keep in mind that the Flesch-Kincaid analysis treats semicolons like periods.  Do your readers a favor and, if you've used any semicolons, rewrite in order to separate that single sentence into two.

And if you don't use Microsoft Word?  Use this to determine the Flesch-Kincaid grade level of your writing.

Messaging essentials

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know how much I like clear, concise, simple ways to improve your fundraising communications.  The amazing Katya Andresen has a terrific blog post with 8 things to check before you hit send, go to print, or get up in front of an audience.  Just go read it.

A great end-of-year fundraising letter

Happy New Year, everyone!

As fundraisers, the end of every year is always a busy time (especially if your fiscal year matches the calendar year), and I hope everyone has recovered so we can all make 2012 the best year yet!

I want to share with you a fantastic end-of-year email appeal from the year before last. I have heard non-fundraisers discussing it, saying things like "I don't normally donate, but this email made me want to give," etc. It's from 350.org. It makes terrific use of multiple donate links, spacing, and text bolding, but I'm going to break down in detail what makes it so great.

From: Bill McKibben - 350.org

Subject: We hate doing this.

We can begin with the "From" and "Subject" fields. First of all, it has the name of a human in the From field, you know, like an email from an actual person. Secondly, what a strange, intriguing subject line. Doesn't it just make you want to open it? 

Dear friends,

This email violates all our precepts here at 350.org -- it’s the time of year we do something we hate, which is asking for money.

We hate it for two reasons:

One: many of our supporters are in the poorest parts of the planet and have no money to contribute. Even in rich parts of the world it’s been a tough year. If you don’t have funds to spare, don’t even think about giving.

This acknowledges the tough times that many people are facing in a way that is sensitive, but not a downer. The truth is you don't want to remind people too much about the current economic situation; it has a chance of deterring them from donating.

Two: Far more than we want people giving money, we want people taking action. That’s our first, second, and third priority -- that’s what we ask for 9 times out of 10.

But we’ve had so many people taking so many actions this year that this whole 350 project has grown like crazy. It’s completely great. And it means we need the resources to coordinate it all, to make it more than the sum of its parts.

This portion emphasizes the organization's successes over the year. But if you ask me, it's a subtle reminder that maybe the donor didn't do, physically, as much as he or she could have. The reader might feel a bit bad about that. The reader might want to write a check to ease that feeling of guilt.

So today, we’re asking you to donate to help the movement grow. Click here to chip in whatever you can.

Our crew is small and frugal -- and we’ll make your donations go far. We’ve never had a busier year than 2011: we stopped a massive oil pipeline, ran activist trainings all over the world, had our third giant day of climate action, orchestrated a creative project to take over the airwaves, joined forces with the Occupy movements, and on and on and on.

It truly was a banner year, and our crew has put together an amazing “Top 11 Moments of 2011” recap. Check it out here.

Again, reminding supporters of the work that has been accomplished over the past year, but, more importantly, reassuring the reader that her money makes a difference and the organization's "small and frugal" crew will "make your donations go far."  

Next year is going to be big. We’re going to try and take on the oil and coal and gas companies directly -- strip away their subsidies, and take away their political power. To do it we need not just your activism but, if you can swing it, your financial help. Most of us (me included) are volunteers, and the young people on the staff are paid too little. But they make up for it with big-hearted effort; if we can raise more money we can hire more of them, in every corner of the planet.

This does a nice job of inspiring the reader with hope for what's to come in the following year, and reminds him of the hard work that the staff and volunteers put in. People respond to the hard work and sacrifice of others; this is why 5K runs, 3-day walks, marathons, etc. are successful fundraisers. (I mentioned this before in my post about what the Occupy movement can teach us about fundraising.)

You’ve already helped this year -- helped take the passion and creativity of thousands and channel it into real, tangible progress on our climate trouble. If you can help a little more before year’s end -- well, we will put it to good use. Click here to make a donation.

This year surprised me a lot. I didn’t think I’d spend some of it in jail, and I didn’t truly think we could slow down the Keystone Pipeline. But I’m mighty glad we did -- and I’m ready to be surprised again in 2012.

Informing/reminding that the letter writer went to jail for the cause? Talk about sacrifice and dedication! It inspires this feeling: "If Bill can go to jail, I can write a check, can't I?" Especially because right before it he recognized the supporter: "You've already helped this year."

So many thanks,

Bill McKibben for 350.org

Again, thanks and recognition. And it's a very genuine, very human sign-off. When in doubt, ask yourself: What would a person say? At the end of the day, the letter is from a person, to a person. That connection is what development is all about.