MarTech Interview with Ann Fellman, Chief Marketing Officer at Bloomerang

In your esteemed experience, could you kindly share the challenges that nonprofits and small businesses often encounter in the realm of email marketing?

The first challenge in email marketing is that many organizations aren’t able to devote enough time (or any time) to building curated email lists. These lists, also known as segmented lists or simply segmentation, are vital to develop personal relationships with many supporters at once. If the sender does not send the best appeal to a specific group of people (e.g. those who care about the mission or those who have participated in a particular action), or reach out to enough people (because there was not an intentional strategy to collect emails), the organization will struggle to achieve the results they desire.

The second challenge is that organizations often miss the benefits of incorporating an integrated campaign to support their email marketing efforts. It’s important for organizations to prioritize a consistent look and feel across email and the other channels used to market the organization’s message. Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) should explore different ways to spread their word across multiple channels (threads) and be willing to amplify their messages consistently. It’s best to think about the message first and then define the ideal channels to deliver that message. And, it’s critical today for NPOs to understand how their different audiences engage across different channels – knowing this will help organizations tell a compelling and consistent story.

Given the decline in response rates for fundraising emails, could you please share proactive steps for nonprofits and small businesses to optimize campaigns and foster deeper donor engagement?

The number one thing nonprofits and small businesses should optimize in their campaigns is diversification and personalization. It’s essential for organizations to assess their current landscape and understand that the way people donate is evolving. Start first with uncovering how and why donations are happening. Organizations will need to be flexible and meet donors where they are. The current inflation pressures are causing donors to be more selective with their giving. Spend time to reflect and adjust to ensure that programs are activating initiatives and asks that align with their prospects’ current giving behaviors and interests.

Would you be so kind as to elaborate on how Bloomerang’s CRM, personalization, and automation play pivotal roles in building impactful relationships, particularly for organizations with limited resources?

Nonprofit organizations need intuitive and easy-to-use marketing tools that allow them to stay in touch with donors regularly and keep them informed and engaged in their cause. To grow their donor network and inspire their donor base to give generously, nonprofits will need to invest in personalized marketing campaigns. At Bloomerang, we help NPOs easily create, send, and track timely personalized emails and mailings. The built-in donor email and communication tools in Bloomerang means a sender doesn’t need a separate email system to create and send segmented and personalized emails and newsletters. For today’s time-constrained nonprofit professionals, having this all in one place makes it easy to create the above-mentioned segmented donor lists and then send personalized appeals. It’s also easy to schedule emails (e.g. part of a series of pre-, during and post-campaigns), so nonprofits can send the most relevant communications at the desired time.

In addition, Bloomerang’s platform strengthens email deliverability by scanning and validating every donor email address. We also offer the ability to easily design and print appeals and acknowledgments in large quantities to save time. Ultimately, users of Bloomerang can optimize where their time is best spent and focus their efforts on personalizing content that best resonates with their donors and ultimately increase donor engagement and retention.

With a focus on personalization, could you kindly share specific tips for tailoring email content to create a sense of direct engagement and appreciation among donors?

Yes! There are a few personalization techniques nonprofits can develop to engage their donor base and improve overall email performance. Supercharge the email subject line to be eye catching. This means using active words to incite immediate action—this could also mean including direct numbers, such as naming the exact amount needed to reach the fundraising goal. This allows nonprofits to keep the message concise and direct, while still emphasizing the importance of their campaign.

Including emojis where and when appropriate can help to add more personality and set the tone of the message. Consider looking at the call to action (CTA). Make it clear and strong by focusing on one key action for people to take and repeat it throughout the campaign. And A/B test different CTA phrases (I.e., “Join Us” or “Count me In”) to see what gets the best response. Another boost to consider is adding social proof next to the CTA. Things like 745 people said “yes” last week or a quote from a recent donor on why they gave can inspire donors to engage more quickly and feel the urgency of a mission.

Remember, there is a real person (the donor) on the other side of your message. Every donor is unique, and nonprofits should speak to them directly with relevant and personalized messages that show the connection between what they care about and how it aligns with that nonprofit’s mission.

In your esteemed opinion, how pivotal is the element of attention in achieving success in email marketing? Could you kindly shed light on effective strategies?

A successful email marketing strategy for fundraising needs to be thoughtful and planned, rather than whipped together last minute. Map out the experience and journey–even print it out and review it. Would it grab a donor’s attention?

The average response rate for a fundraising email was 0.09%,an 18% decrease compared to 2021. Now, layer in how many emails we all receive on a daily basis. Knowing this reality, fundraising emails need to have the right stuff to stand out (capture attention), make an impression (draw people in), and compel an emotional response (persuade people to act). The main reason people open emails is they believe there’s something in it for them, so the more personalized an email can be, the better. If a donor feels they are being spoken to directly and are having a conversation with the nonprofit, they’ll feel more connected and inclined to give. A good test to consider is to think about the emails one would receive, read, and respond to. Pause for a moment and ask what made the connection work? Is there an element of inspiration from the email?

For nonprofits and small businesses fine-tuning their fundraising efforts, we would greatly value your insights on how reporting tools contribute to tracking success.

Consistency leads to increased fundraising – meaning consistently seeking ways to care for and value donors through email campaigns. Donors want to know how they’re making an impact. By using a donor management platform to segment campaigns, donor lists, and annual planning in one place, nonprofit organizations can easily generate comprehensive reports that make it easy to highlight a donor’s impact. At Bloomerang, we provide built-in automated reporting tools that track activity, membership, and engagement levels. Nonprofits can capture several insights from the data and dashboards, and the automatically enriched donor data is  updated nightly. Teams can further dig into the events, donor activity, and factors that affect donors’ giving habits and inform better decisions for future campaigns.

Additionally, could you kindly suggest key metrics for organizations to focus on, ensuring continuous improvement in their email marketing strategies?

Click-through rates, form submissions, donation amounts, donor counts, and donor retention rates following a campaign are good key performance indicators NPOs should measure to gauge the impact of their email marketing. For example, a nonprofit might deploy an email campaign to a group of one-time donors looking to secure additional donations from them. A very good metric might be that 60% of recipients opened the email. An even better metric would be if 75% of those who opened the email, donated for a second time, or perhaps 68% of those who opened the email donated a larger amount than they did the first time. But before launching, it’s important to start with the end in mind.

The metrics to focus on should be based on what each NPOs goal is for their email campaign. Define what is “good” for a specific campaign. And, this may change from one initiative to the next or be different based on a specific segment. KPIs that look at response rates, retention rates of donors or volunteers, or an increase in funds raised are places to start. Begin with the basics to measure the success of a campaign and use those learnings to improve future campaigns.