Low Engagement? Here’s How Nonprofits Can Revive Their Email Marketing Strategy

Email marketing for nonprofit organizations remains one of the most cost-effective and lucrative channels. A high-performing email marketing strategy can nurture one-time donors into recurring, convert volunteers into donors, and transform donors into advocates for your cause.

Despite this potential, many nonprofit organizations struggle with low engagement. These signs include declining open rates, falling click-through rates, and high unsubscribe rates. In this post, we will discuss these common challenges and provide effective solutions to address them.

Why Are Email Engagement Rates Falling?

There are many factors that may contribute to falling email engagement rates. The first factor is sending too many emails, leading to fatigue. By crowding your donor’s inbox, you may be neglecting their email preferences. Your subscriber may begin to view your email communications as a nuisance, and quickly navigate to the dreaded ‘unsubscribe’ button.

Beyond sending too many emails, sending irrelevant communications may cause your email engagement to suffer. Remember, your donors and constituents have short attention spans. They are inundated with requests across their inboxes, texts, and various social media accounts. Let’s say, you are hosting an in-person event in San Francisco, and you send an email invitation to your entire database. A donor based in Virginia may be off-put by this request, and this may lead to disengagement.

Another contributing factor to falling email engagement rates is one-size-fits-all messaging. In today’s hyper-personalized world, donors expect tailored communications that align with their specific interest and affinity with your cause. If you don’t deliver targeted appeals, your click-through and open rates may suffer.

In addition to generic messaging, donors may disengage from your emails if you lack compelling storytelling. Donors connect most deeply with the constituents and communities you serve. Without sharing these stories, your emails lack heart and may cause disinterest, leading to a lack of engagement.

Powerful storytelling and compelling, stimulating email design go hand-in-hand. If your design appears outdated with lackluster graphics or has a poor mobile experience, your subscribers may quickly fall into a disengaged segment.

Beautiful design only matters however, if your subscribers open your emails. Consider your subject lines’ effectiveness in grabbing your subscriber base’s attention. By continuing to use “[INSERT MONTH OF YEAR] Newsletter” for your subject line, you may witness declining open rates.

Finally, if your subscriber list is filled with inactive or incorrect/undeliverable email addresses, your email deliverability will naturally suffer.

To improve engagement rates in email marketing for nonprofits, there are many tactics to implement:

Solution #1: Refresh Your Email List with Re-Engagement Campaigns

Every so often, it is important to run a re-engagement campaign to your subscriber base. The purpose of a re-engagement campaign is to drive inactive subscribers to engage with your content. This type of campaign reminds your supporters as to why they initially decided to subscribe to your email list.

To run a re-engagement campaign, first identify your inactive users. These may be subscribers that haven’t opened any of your last 11 emails or perhaps they haven’t opened/clicked an email in the last three months. Your organization should define your own internal definition of inactive or unengaged subscribers.

Next, craft a specific message to this base. This message could be along the lines of “We miss you! Since you last engaged with us, we expanded our organization’s work to include six more counties in our programming. Take a look at what we’ve been working on.” This email could link to a blog post or landing page with more information on your most recent programming.

You could also remind your subscriber the initial reason as to why they subscribed to your list. Were they interested in your volunteer program? Then, include messaging such as “Are you still interested in supporting our volunteer work? Let us know!” The call to action may be a survey with questions regarding their volunteer program interests.

Consider including multiple emails within your re-engagement campaign and track the overall campaign performance including open and click-through rates and conversions.

Ultimately, the keys to a successful re-engagement campaign are to have a clear CTA for each email and personalized messaging that aligns with that segment.

Solution #2: Use A/B Testing to Optimize Subject Lines and Content

A tried-and-true method to increase your email engagement is to experiment with A/B testing. In A/B testing, create two separate email campaigns where all email components are the same except for one variable.

For example, you may deliver the same content but experiment with two separate subject lines. You can also experiment with testing CTA placement, email length, and visuals. By experimenting in this way, you can determine which email was more effective based on the results – open rate, click-through rate, or conversion rate.

To generate the best insights for your A/B tests, you must consider both the frequency and structure of your testing. Conduct your A/B tests consistently – this could be once a month or once per campaign. Consistent testing allows you to accumulate your learnings over time whereas with infrequent testing, you may be unable to identify real insights.

The structure of an A/B test is just as important as the frequency at which you test. If you do not define a clear goal for your test, then you won’t know whether it was successful. For example, does placing the CTA above the scroll increase conversion rates? Or, will an emoji in the subject line generate more opens? By testing one variable at a time, you can easily identify which element contributed to the results.

Finally, to garner any real statistical insight, be sure to leverage a large sample size and divide your audience randomly to avoid bias.

Solution #3: Segment Your Audience for Greater Relevance

Segmentation is a powerful tool to drive personalization and engagement in email marketing for nonprofit organizations. Using donor data collected within your CRM, such as StratusLIVE 365, you can target donors based on various characteristics. These segments could be based on donor demographics, giving or engagement history, or interests. By sending targeted asks to these groups, you will generate higher response rates.

Examples of donor segments may include first-time donors, lapsed donors, or monthly givers. For example, to effectively target first-time donors, your email content may focus on providing educational content regarding your cause. This content type matches this donor group’s characteristics as they are new to your organization. For a newly engaged donor group, it’s important to capitalize on their enthusiasm and send more frequent communication.

This strategy may differ greatly from your email campaign to your monthly givers. Your monthly givers are familiar with your cause and will be more receptive to programmatic updates related to the causes they have supported. They may expect more infrequent but in-depth emails that describe how their gifts advance your mission.

By tailoring your email content to the unique characteristics of your audiences, you demonstrate that you know and understand their preferences. When they feel ‘seen’ by your organization, they will be likely to engage.

Solution #4: Leverage Storytelling and Impact Messaging

Giving is an emotional experience. To connect with your email subscribers, incorporate storytelling within your email messaging. Stories appeal to your donors’ emotions and trigger an emotional response to respond.

Powerful nonprofit stories are person-centered, visual, and results-focused. Person-centered stories focus on the identity of one individual that has been positively impacted by your cause. Putting a face with a name can garner more compassion that writing abstractly about a general group that has been supported by your organization.

Incorporate descriptive language, images, and videos within your storytelling. These strong visuals draw people in and will improve their recall of your organization. Finally, your stories must be results and impact-oriented. How did the lives of your constituents improve? Did the students in your reading programs score higher on reading comprehension? Or, how many pounds of trash were collected in your most recent volunteer event? By connecting your supporters with your constituents in emotional and impactful ways, you will generate strong email results.

Bonus Tip: Automate Your Campaigns for Consistent Engagement

A final tip to improve email marketing for nonprofit organizations is to use automation. Automation removes the guesswork out of email marketing by delivering a steady communication drip. This consistency keeps your organization top of mind with your subscriber base.

By scheduling these emails in advance, your organization gains efficiencies that allow you to focus on other initiatives. Sit back, monitor your results, and tweak any messaging that may not resonate.

Another benefit of automation includes the ability to incorporate personal touches. For example, you can build email automations based on specific triggers such as joining your email list or attending an event. These emails should contain information and calls to action that correspond with that trigger – such as a post-event survey, calendar of upcoming events, or photo gallery or video with event highlights.

Through the integration between Dotdigital and StratusLIVE 365, nonprofits can leverage donor data to trigger these personalized marketing automation campaigns. These campaigns can be tailored based on factors like donation history, giving level, and cause interest. Through these campaigns, nonprofits can achieve remarkable results that increase engagement, drive recurring donations, and improve donor retention.

Email marketing for nonprofit organizations will continue to remain a critical engagement channel. Through leveraging these strategies such as re-engagement campaigns, A/B testing, and automation, nonprofits can significantly improve their results. Evaluate your email tools and processes regularly – knowing that even small tweaks can make a tremendous difference.

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