Your donors are busy. They’re tired. They make decisions all day in a world where everyone is clamoring for attention. Here’s a simple way to help them “catch” your stories.
When your supporters get a long, crowded email, they are likely to save it for later and move along to the next thing in their inbox. Even if they love you. I’m sorry, but it’s true.
Try this instead:
Write your beautiful print newsletter. Include all the key stories a newsletter needs. Then, spread those stories out over several emails.
One story = one email.
If your newsletter has a constituent story, a donor story, and a volunteer story, that gives you three emails to send with content from your newsletter. The reason you don’t want to send all your stories is twofold.
First: Because your reader is not a juggler!
Think of storytelling like a game of catch, and each story is a ball. I toss you a story; you catch it and read. If I toss you several balls at once, how many will you catch? Even if you’re super-motivated and nimble, it’s likely you’ll miss most of those balls. However, when I toss you just one ball at a time, you can easily catch it and respond.
Our donors are busy. They’re probably tired. They make decisions all day in a world where everyone is clamoring for attention. Balls coming at them. all. day. long.
This is an actual photo of your donor checking email:
You can be the bright spot in their day by tossing your people just one ball (story) at a time.
Make it easy to “catch,” and easy to toss back (respond).
The second reason to send just one story per email: It gives you more emails to send. When you send shorter emails with just one story, your supply of stories gets dripped out over time instead of vomited up all at once (sorry, but that’s what marketers call it when you pile on too much information at once: “passion vomit”).
One newsletter, with four stories = four emails.
Instead of one email with four stories that don’t get read or remembered, you have four emails. Now your supporters hear from you four times, each time with one easy-to-catch story. Now, it’s easier for them to understand and remember what you’re saying, and you’re top of mind because they hear from you more often. It’s better for everybody!
And, if you have a good email service provider, you can draft all those emails at once and schedule them to go out over time. That saves you work. Another win for you!
*I’m a Kit affiliate, so if you sign up for a paid plan with them, I get a small fee (at no cost to you) if you sign up for a paid plan.
Featured Image Photo by Zak Neilson on Unsplash
