“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead”.
Over the years this quote has been attributed to Mark Twain, T.S Elliot, Churchill, Cicero and others, and rings absolutely true to writing digital fundraising copy today.
Inboxes are cluttered, difficult places to navigate, so how do we rise above the noise?
Timing, segmentation, personalization, great offers and great stories to be sure, but we all know that already.
What else?
In M&R’s most recent annual benchmarking study, there are a couple of data points that really stood out for us here at THD.
- Email attributable revenue, up 25%
- Email fundraising page completion rates, up 3% (nice job on those responsive forms!)
All great news, but how is this possible when open rates, click through rates and response rates all declined during the same time period? M&R posits volume (more people, more sends) as key factor, and that’s hard to argue against– but is there more?
Is it purely volume or is it a sign that the role of email in the conversion process is changing?
There are more organizations competing for share of mind and share of wallet than ever before. And they are doing so through more channels – email, direct mail, telemarketing, display, search, social, video, native, et al.
The donor is bombarded as a result of all the “multi”, “cross”, “pan”, whatever-you-want-to-call-it-today, channel approach -- and they are self-selecting not just the organization but their preferred conversion channel.
That carefully timed and versioned email you’re sending is becoming the final trigger to convert the donor after they have been engaged with your message in so many other channels. Could it be that this is why response rates are down, but revenue is up? Are your other channels simply teeing up the best donors to respond to your email – and if so, what does THAT mean?
For one thing, let’s start with the premise that fewer and fewer people have the time or interest to read a letter style email.
Also, with all those other channels helping support the campaign narrative, do you really need to say that much? Particularly if we acknowledge that a longer form approach won’t hold the attention of your audience (this is broad strokes of course – through testing you can learn the best approach for your various audience segments).
So, it’s time to start viewing your approach to email more like digital display advertising. Bright, vibrant images that “win the inbox” and the preview panel. Start looking for ways to dial back copy. Let a headline, an image and a call to action finish the job that all the other work you’ve been doing started.
This is particularly important in mobile, where more than half your audience is opening those emails. Don’t make them scroll and read – give them a compelling visual experience that will drive to action.
Facebook paid $1 billion for Instagram and recently Mark Zuckerberg said he thought Facebook would be mostly video in 5 years. We live in a visual time.
Every day, we all receive dozens of appeals from worthy organizations with incredible stories to tell, but those stories get lost in the sameness of the layouts and paragraph after paragraph of copy. Take this shift as an opportunity to be creative and differentiate your brand visually.
