Making the Case for E-Newsletters

Jakob Nielsen posted an Alertbox yesterday with results from a new study that analyzes online user skills. The research purposely was biased in favor of folks with higher-than-average salaries; one-third of participants have annual incomes of $100,000 and above.

Although Nielsen’s research isn’t focusing on fundraising, the participants they recruited are the ideal audience for a campaign or fundraising website. So I read the lessons learned in this study with an eye toward how those could be adapted for development sites.

Nielsen sends us back to the basics with commentary that confirms:

• The continued need to write for the web


• Ongoing challenges with information architecture


• Why it’s still important to keep it simple, stupid


• Yes, jargon continues to overwhelm


• The primacy of search as a navigation preference

There also are recommendations about how to get folks to visit your site. I paused for a “what’s old is new again” moment when reading this:

“Email newsletters remain the best way to drive users back to websites. It’s incredible how often our study participants say that a newsletter is their main reason for revisiting a site. Most professional users are not very interested in podcasts or newsfeeds (RSS).”

Best way to drive traffic? Sounds like a mandate.

So … is an e-newsletter still part of your communications plan? Do you regularly send emails (HTML and text versions) announcing a new issue to your alumni and friends database? Have you created a dynamic, content-rich version of your printed newsletter on your website? Do you add extra content like slideshows or photo tours or take the time to embed links to other campus web sites? Is it easy for your site visitors to sign up for the newsletter? Or share it with a friend?

In addition to the opportunities to boost site traffic, e-newsletters also are a great stewardship tool for fundraisers. While sharing with contributors and would-be donors stories of how private support impacts your students and campus, you also have opportunities to:

• Educate donors about tools and methods others have used to make gifts, and encourage readers to drill down into your planned giving content for further details


• Reconnect alumni with faces and places on campus


• Recognize generous gifts and givers


• Gather updated contact information, including email addresses


• Ensure that e-solicitations aren’t the only emails your alumni receive from your development office

Next time I’ll post some of my favorite fundraising e-newsletters. Have some of your own? .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) a URL and tell me what you like about the newsletter, and I’ll share here.

PS: My karma must be good today! Just as I was finishing this post, I received an email announcing a new 43-page report, “Dirty Dozen: Email Newsletter Mistakes Nearly Everyone Makes.” It’s free for the download from Marketing Sherpa and shares the top 12 email newsletter mistakes and how to fix them.

Posted by Hilery Livengood
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