An overlooked component of nonprofit emails
Email is at the core of nonprofit communication. From partners to board members to dedicated donors, email is the main channel for providing relevant information. Statistics show that the average one-time gift from email fundraising is $57. Additionally, the percentage of donors motivated to give online by an email jumped 40% from 2015 to 2016, the latest in a continuing upward trend. However, these metrics are only the beginning. There is a part of nonprofit email that can supercharge efforts to drive awareness and donations, yet often goes vastly overlooked: the email signature.
CrowdRise, a crowdfunding platform that uses crowdsourcing to raise charitable donations, identified this space within their emails and quickly realized they could be taking better advantage of it. As a part of GoFundMe, Crowdrise has raised billions of dollars on their platforms and offers an unprecedented amount of social fundraising expertise. Trusted by some of the biggest nonprofits in the world, they felt compelled to pass their newfound knowledge of this simple yet effective outreach tactic on to their audience.
Take advantage of every email sent
Even beyond email blasts, email signatures are on every email your team members send – which represents thousands of engagement opportunities each year. For any nonprofit, maximizing these interactions with a group of people who are already accessible and primed for more information can have a tremendous impact. “That seemingly slight space at the tail-end of your email, if treated correctly, has the opportunity to be a real powerhouse for your nonprofit,” writes CrowdRise Marketing Director Gary Wohlfeill.
Using Sigstr’s email signature marketing platform, communication managers can both ensure brand consistency across their staff, and place a clickable call-to-action banner at the bottom of every single email. Specific fundraising campaigns or events can be highlighted by banners throughout the year. “By adding graphics, clickable moments, and a content forward approach, the once drab signature is now a tasteful billboard for any campaign or initiative that you want to push at that moment,” adds Wohlfeill. Additionally, the ease-of-use, customizability, and robust functionality make it the perfect addition to any non-profit’s engagement initiatives.
Research shows how important these digital touch points are for fundraising – on Giving Tuesday of this year, online giving jumped up by 28% from 2016 – and about 26% of donations were made from a mobile device. Having a compelling call-to-action at the end of an email that gives the recipient an easy option to click through and make a donation will yield impressive results. In fact, eye-tracking tests clearly reveal that an email with a branded email signature and a campaign banner attracts more attention than one without, with recipients focusing heavily on the call-to-action.
Show the right call-to-action to the right donors
The Sigstr platform allows your organization to assign different email signature banners across a variety of sender groups within your organization – if you want board members showing a different call-to-action than your volunteer coordinator, for example, you can ensure that will happen through Sigstr. Even more significant, perhaps, is the ability to target recipients of your emails. There are many players within the nonprofit sphere, and you wouldn’t necessarily serve the same CTA banner to all of them.
Sigstr’s account-based marketing functionality gives users the ability to target specific accounts or individual contacts with content tailored to each audience. You may want to show a different CTA banner to a first-time donor than you would a consistent donor. Additionally, you wouldn’t want to send the same call-to-action to someone on your volunteer list as you would to a corporate sponsor.
By leveraging these functionalities and keeping your organization top of mind in the most applicable way possible, you can turn your best supporters into Super Advocates, keeping them at the top of the “engagement ladder.”
Track conversions more effectively
Not only does Sigstr allow your nonprofit to take full advantage of an already owned outreach channel, it provides insights into tracking conversions so that you can understand what’s driving donations, ticket purchases, volunteer sign-ups, etc. Knowing which recipients have clicked a campaign can be a powerful metric for re-targeting efforts.
CrowdRise has already seen success using email signature marketing within their organization, and they’re eager to help their customers do the same. Learn more here about CrowdRise’s perspective on the importance of taking advantage of every email sent.
