Let’s say the annual fundraising gala is 6 to 12 months away. You’ll spend a huge amount of effort and time planning the program, sorting out details and procuring amazing items for the charity auction.
Wouldn’t you want to spread the word about your event as far and wide as you can?
For most charity fundraisers, email is the meat of the marketing campaign. A promotional email campaign can be used to generate excitement, sell more tickets, highlight your best auction items and remind supporters about the impact they have on your organization.
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Email campaigns empower nonprofits of all sizes to reach more people faster and easier.
Fortunately, creating an effective, strategic email event promotion campaign is easier than you might think.
Here at Winspire we are passionate about helping nonprofits raise more money at events. That’s why we are thrilled to unveil a brand-new resource for our blog subscribers today: the “Beginner’s Guide to Email Event Promotion” eBook!
Read on for 4 of the main reasons email is your fundraising event’s greatest asset, plus get the link to download the brand-new (and totally free!) eBook. Even better: We’ve also created a fully customizable weekly content calendar that you can use to organize and strategize emails based on the best practices outlined in the eBook.
Why Email + Charity Events = BFFs
1. It’s cost-effective.
To help nonprofits host more profitable events, we often focus on strategies to increase revenue. However email is a great way to trim costs. Email newsletters offer a quick and easy way to share information about the event for free. Since there are no printing or postage fees to cover, you can communicate with a much bigger mailing list of supporters.
We recommend using an email service provider (like MailChimp, AWeber and Constant Contact) to handle your email needs. These programs are typically low cost to nonprofits if not free, depending on the size of your organization, and will pay for themselves in increased event attendance, higher bids and saved time.
While direct mail will likely always have its place in event fundraising, email event marketing shows you can reach a lot more people for a lot less.
2. You can send instantly.
Nonprofits often need a quick turnaround on fundraising events. You have only a short time to send out important information to your donors, get feedback and track responses.
Email allows you to take care of issues in a timely fashion; no need to head to the post office and wait for invitations to be sent. In fact, an estimated 80 percent of email readers that respond do so within 48 hours.
3. Results are measurable.
Another huge benefit of using an email service provider is the use of analytic tools. These programs track important metrics like open rates (how many people opened each message) and click-through rates (how many recipients followed through on your suggested action, such as registered for your event). These are the two most common and valuable measures of an email’s effectiveness.
4. Create a personal connection with donors.
With email, you can easily segment your contact list to send targeted communication based on donors’ preferences, interests and history. Personalized content speaks directly to recipients and is more likely to get responses. Being able to evaluate what types of subject lines get more opens, for instance, means you’ve started delivering content supporters want to see, when they want to see it.
As promised, here’s the link to download your free eBook!
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Fill out the form and immediately receive a link to download the eBook and customizable weekly email content planner. Together, this resource can take your email campaign to new heights.
If you like what you see, go ahead and share the link with your colleagues, board members and anyone you know associated with marketing a fundraising event.