How big is your email list? How responsive is it?

Those are the two questions you should be asking yourself regularly. Because your email list is more important all the time. Your ability to raise funds sustainably depends on a list of connected, responsive donors.

The bigger and more engaged your email list, the more income streams you can unlock: single gifts, monthly giving, peer-to-peer, even planned giving.

Direct mail used to take care of all that. Not any more. Mail is still in the picture, but email is taking more of the job.

The most important thing to keep in mind about growing your email list is this: You need to keep working at it. You can’t just run one campaign and get good long-term results.

There are two avenues for growing your list: Maximizing your existing channels and lead generation campaigns where you reach beyond your core of donors and others who know you.

How to pick the low-hanging fruit

Start with the online traffic and attention you already have, then work on these two things:

1. Optimize your website for signups: Make your sign-up pages easy to find throughout your website and make them easy and compelling.
2. Use social media: Promote sign-ups directly from Facebook, Instagram, etc. (e.g. Climate Council’s Facebook “sign up” button).

In both areas, the key is to give people a reason to sign up: offer them interesting stories, impact updates, or other inspirational content. Merely promising a “newsletter” is not likely enough. They need to get some kind of value from it. Just sending an email newsletter about how awesome your organization isn’t going to do that job.

Reaching out for new donors

Once your website and social media name capture is working, you can start doing dedicated campaigns to actively grow your list.

For this to work you have to have an exchange of value: supporters get something meaningful they want in return for giving you their email address.

Here are some of the things you can offer:

• Petitions: They should be about hot-button issues your potential donors really care about. It also needs to be believable that signing a petition can have some kind of impact on the issue, usually because they’ll be seen by someone in power. Remember, one of the main reasons anyone supports your organization is because of what it says about them!
• Pledges: These are somewhat like petitions, but are more purely about making a statement. Things like: “I care about our planet and pledge to reduce my carbon emissions!” or “I stand with [person] facing unjust prosecution.” It needs to be something your people understand and are passionate about. Social proof – the idea that a lot of other people are doing this thing – is important: “Join the growing movement of people who….”
• Hand-raisers: Easy actions such as, “sign a message of support.”
• Value exchanges: Usually information-based things, such as ebooks, downloadable guides, reports, even actual books. They must be on topics of importance to your people. Webinars about topics of interest are a growing value-exchange medium.

Once someone gives you their email, you need to keep engaging them on the same topic that got them involved. That includes asking them to give. This is an ongoing project that takes time and effort.

Not all signups are equally effective. It’s important to learn what works best to get people to sign up and to eventually make donations. Be sure to track conversion rates on sign-up forms and campaigns.

Also, test different signup offers and different messaging (headlines, images, stories, etc.). This is how you find your best offers and fine-tune them over time.

The big must not do

Don’t buy email lists.

Buying lists can still work for direct mail, but it really doesn’t for email. Overwhelmingly, bought email lists are low quality and filled with people with no affinity to your cause.  They also erode donor trust.

The last few weeks of the year are the heart of the Fundraising Season. It’s “go big, or go home” time for many of us. Download the Moceanic Calendar For Successful Year-End Fundraising, a simple guide to year-end fundraising, full of tips, ideas to help you maximize your fundraising during those critical weeks.

Related Blog Posts:

• Secrets for Effective Fundraising Subject Lines
• Beyond the Subject Line: More Secrets for Getting Your Fundraising Emails Opened
• 4 Almost Magical Ways to Get People to Read Your Fundraising Emails