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On the surface, it looks like the purpose of a title is to introduce the content of a webpage. But of course—you
Knowing how much or how little to say starts with being clear about your objective. Rarely is it our job to turn readers
Don’t undercut a great email by hiding it behind a poor subject line. These few words have the power to make or
I know what you’re thinking. “Subject lines”. And you’d be right. Subject lines are hailed as the ‘be all and
Have you ever visited a website only to notice that ads for that site seem to ‘follow’ you around the Internet? You’ve been
What’s the magic number of emails you need to send to maximize supporter engagement and minimize fatigue?The answer is “five”. Kidding. It would
How tempting is it to ‘bust myths’ and confront your opponent’s ridiculous claims head-on!? Hint: very. Proceed with caution—countering false claims can unintentionally
Here’s how the internal dialog usually goes: “We’re torn. We see other organizations sending from individual people but how do we know if
Call it what you will. It’s the idea that when we work together, we’re part of something bigger than ourselves. If achieving
There are plenty of reasons people struggle to complete online actions. Poor page layouts, confusing language, onerous forms, and too many (or too
So you’ve cracked the code to writing a great email. The next step is to push it out to as many people
There’s more than one way to build an email list. The various types of digital assets you can use to attract people to
Okay, back up—what’s a ‘value proposition’? Think of your value proposition as the reason your reader should care about investing
SPOILER: it’s not good. Sure—you know you’re writing an email to 5,000 people. But your task is to make your reader feel like
The General Data Protection Regulation (commonly, GDPR) came into effect in May 2018. It impacts all businesses and organizations, everywhere in the world,
Don’t wait for supporter fatigue to set in before creating a plan to mitigate it. Nice idea, right? Most of us only recognize the threat of supporter fatigue after it’s infected our list. By that time, campaign, outreach, and fundraising potential has already taken a hit...
Shift to a proactive mindset. It should be possible to give your supporters a good experience from day one and build a rewarding, sustainable pattern of engagement. Having a solid retention strategy isn’t only good for you, it’s good for all of us. Most supporters subscribe to multiple lists—and fatigue is contagious. Poor engagement in one organization can harm the whole movement. Let’s fix this!
Your digital strategy shouldn’t only be designed to meet your needs; it needs to meet your supporters’ needs, too. If your supporters are switching off, that could be a sign that their needs are not being met. This symptom is pointing you to an underlying problem:
The content you send, and the frequency you send it, will either mitigate or exacerbate these problems.
Engagement patterns—good or bad—take time to establish. Trying to course-correct them can feel a bit like steering a cruise ship with a kayak paddle. Be prepared for the need to make shifts in your digital communications strategy from an organization-centric mindset to a supporter-centric mindset. Less ‘take, more ‘give’. You’ll need to embed a near-obsessive level of empathy for your supporters’ experience into every digital touchpoint. A fatigued audience can be revived—but results will require consistency and a bucketload of patience.
Okay, now that I’ve sufficiently dampened your enthusiasm and calibrated your expectations, let’s get to work. Here are 14 time-tested strategies that will boost long-term engagement.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how incredible your retention strategy is, some people are just going to outgrow you. That’s okay. If all attempts to bring them back fail, let them go.
Put thought into your unsubscribe journey. Make it simple, but gracious (the quality of this interaction can increase chances that your supporter will re-join in future). Seek optional feedback from exiting subscribers to calibrate your assumptions. Pro-actively purge the ‘dead’ parts of your list to cut digital waste, safeguard deliverability, and maintain accurate engagement metrics. A solid list-building strategy will more than make up for the loss.
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