5 ingredients for a great email
1 A consistent sender name
Have you ever received an email with an unknown sender name and forwarded it straight to your spam folder? Your email recipients are no different.
If a supporter has subscribed to your mailing list, they want to hear from your charity. So make sure every email you send is from your charity's name in order to foster consistency and trust. The exception may be when contacting major donors who'd prefer to have a more personal contact name.
This will make your emails look less spammy than if they were sent from lots of different colleagues.
2 Well thought-out subject lines
It's a huge shame to put together great copy for an email, only for it not to be opened because of an uninspiring subject line.
Subject lines which use urgent language, evoke an emotional response or correlate with real-life events (Brexit?) can all help to get your emails opened.
"Well, this is about to get awkward..." is a unique subject line Scope used for their campaign to help people feel more comfortable around people with disabilities. The subject line rouses curiosity and prompts the reader to open the email.
To improve your email open rates, it's always good to test a variety of subject lines to find which resonate with your audience. Adding emojis to subject lines is also worth testing, to make your email stand out in a text-heavy inbox.
Remember
Most people tend to read emails on their mobile phones, so try to make sure your subject lines aren't more than 50-70 characters long.
3 Personalisation
It’s clear when you’re just another contact in a mass email campaign. Personalising your email subject line, greeting and sign off can make your donor’s feel that bit special and more receptive to the rest of your message.