How to Make Your #GivingTuesday Email Blast Effective

Since most of #GivingTuesday’s gifts are digital, you need a great email appeal. Let’s talk email basics!

• Warm your list! I recommend sending out an email blast a week or several days before your #GivingTuesday blast. This is called warming the list. It allows you to weed out those emails that bounce back or are undelivered. You might announce that you will make a special appeal and ask them to watch for your blast. Whatever you send should help you clean up and prepare your list for #GivingTuesday.
• Craft a great subject line. This is the key. If the subject line does not capture their attention, they will not open it. Then, no matter how compelling your “ask” is, you will fail to gain dollars. One of my all-time favorites was used last year to raise funds for a birthing center and was entitled “I cannot let that woman die…”
• Use short sentences and paragraphs. Remember, most will read your email on a smartphone. The longer the text of your email, the less likely they will read it.
• Use bold and underlined text to focus on key points to which you want their attention.
• Keep the email short with three to four paragraphs, each having two to three sentences.
• Make sure you have a clickable link within the body of your email that takes them directly to your giving page. Here is a sample https://brentwoodbaptist.com/stewardship/
• Put the giving link in multiple places. Since most are reading it on a smartphone, you want to make sure they can easily find the link to give.
• Include a PS that gives one last link to the giving page.
• Craft and send a compelling text message later in the day on #GivingTuesday, with a link back to your giving page. Text giving is one of the fastest growing forms of giving, so use it! Remember to also send a thank you note to those that give this way.