What are the Best Practices for Donation Follow-Up Emails?

In the midst of Covid-19 (Corona Virus), we at JDS WebDesign hope everyone is safe, washing their hands frequently, sneezing and coughing on their elbow, and practicing social distancing.  Over the next several weeks, we plan on blogging about making your website more business-friendly.  We will have some tutorials on our favorite plugins and features, which will make your site more efficient.

One of the areas that most faith-based and non-profit organizations fail to do, is to follow up with anyone who adds their email to your donation solution.  And if this is not a feature of your donation solution, then we suggest that your organization look for another donation solution. So when should a follow-up email be sent? After a donation has been sent, or when a potential donor abandons a cart (fails to complete the donation).  The answer is both.  Obviously, the follow-up emails will be different, but both are opportunities to gain loyal clients/customers. What are the best practices?

Customer Base

Your emails should be customer-centric. The tone should be very friendly and helpful (especially for an abandoned cart). Your email should make the customer feel welcome and appreciated. Your email should not focus on your organization, but on the customer.  This could be the last time that your organization will have to create a positive environment.

Brief

Keep your email brief. Your email is not a blog post, where your organization is writing 500-plus words. Keep it simply short (KISS). Remember if your organization is making the email customer-centric, then long emails tend to focus too much on your organization and not the intention of the email.

Call to Action

Your email should have included a call to action. This is non-negotiable. The call to action should be to promote another donation or complete a donation (especially for an abandoned cart). Or your call to action could be to send your customer to another page, such as a gallery, event, or testimonial page.

Personalize

Your email should be personalized.  Include the donor’s name in the subject line, and the body of the email. Make sure your organization thanks them for visiting your donation page, whether it is an abandoned cart or not. Your email should give your organization’s phone, email, and address information for any questions or concerns.

Aesthetics Appeasing

Pay attention to the aesthetics of your email. High-quality images, relevant content, and good grammar is a must. Do not use stock images. Stay away from catchy phrases, such as “did you forget something” (for an abandoned cart).  They know that the purchase was not completed.  Focus on providing some additional information on why their donation can assist someone or something.

Measure

Analytics. Analytics. Analytics. By the way, analytics is the measurement of the behavior of a visitor to a page, or email. Measure how many visitors click on your call to action. Do they make another donation? Do they complete the original donation? If the call to action sends them to another page, then how long are they on the page? If your organization is sending them to a gallery, or testimonial page and they are staying on that page for two (2) minutes or more. It is a safe bet, that they are reviewing your gallery images or reading your testimonials.  Which is the behavior that your organization is desiring?

If your organization is in need of a donation solution with a Marketing plan, then contact us at info@jdswebdesign.biz or 678-718-5489.

Image courtesy of Lucas Favre.

 

JDS WebDesign is a Web Design and Brand Marketing Agency located in Marietta, Georgia.  We create AWESOME on line presence for Start-ups and Influential People/Organizations.  To learn more about us or how we can help you and your organization, you can contact us or schedule a meeting.

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