What is Charity email Marketing and Why is it Important?

Email is seen as a key marketing medium for driving repeat custom and consumer engagement across a whole range of industries, but it’s a particularly important platform in the non-profit sector.

Many charities send regular email newsletters letting people know the latest happenings in their business and what sort of initiatives they are running. Those who aren’t sending them would be well-advised to start asking for donors’ email addresses in order to start building a list of subscribers and making the most out of charity email marketing.

Increase the feel-good factor

The chances are that most donors would enjoy receiving your charity newsletter on an intermittent basis. Most of those who donate to charity would love to see what their money is going towards. This increases the feel-good factor they get from donating to a good cause.

This warm fuzzy feeling is the main motive for people donating their hard-earned cash to charities. Those who donate on a regular basis via direct debit might appreciate having this feeling topped up by email. Anything that does this is surely worthwhile for charities and their supporters. These regular donors are highly important to charities so it makes sense investing in anything that keeps them happy donating, especially during this tough economy.

Increase repeat custom

Email is a marketing platform aimed to appeal to those who are already interested in your brand. The fact that it’s a non-intrusive opt-in platform means that engagement levels are generally high. It’s possible to measure these levels using analytical software as well.

Those who do email marketing properly can drive plenty of traffic back to their websites. Many retailers use offers or new products as a means of tempting subscribers to visit their website. Charities might need to think outside of the box in order to do this.

Some like to send emails showing what they have achieved thanks to generous donations. Others outline what they would like to achieve through more donations. Both strategies can be useful attracting repeat custom.

Statistics show that there is a demand for better digital marketing in the charity sector. A recent poll, conducted by Eduserv, suggested that one in seven Brits would give at least £15 a month more to charities that developed a more personal approach online. That would equate to an additional £35 million for British charities every year. With this in mind, it might be worth outsourcing your email marketing to a company with the expertise to ensure your campaign is awesome.

Why email?

Of course, there are plenty of marketing platforms that charities could use to boost donations and the feel-good factor. However, there are few as effective for driving repeat custom. Studies have indicated that email is the most cost-effective marketing platform. Charities who use this medium to communicate with their donors are likely to have more money left to spend on other promotional activities.

An email marketing campaign is relatively easy to set up and due to the speed of delivery, charities can start seeing results straight away! The sooner a charity can improve its email campaign the better.