24 Jul Tips on How to Write Newsletters for Nonprofits
At Idea Associates we work with many Nonprofits as a way of giving back to the community. Here are some tips on how to write engaging newsletters that will get opened, read and acted on by Nonprofits’ target audience.
Ask what your audience wants and deliver it. Your readers are incredibly generous individuals, but for marketing engagement you still have to think of them as self-centered when they are reading your email newsletter. Unfortunately, if the content isn’t immediately relevant and valuable to them as individual human beings, they’ll delete it in an instant. Even generous supporters have the what’s in it for them mentality.
Post helpful content regularly. You want people to remember you and look forward to receiving your newsletter, but you also don’t want to drive them crazy or they will unsubscribe. How often should you send your newsletter? It varies, but no more than once per week is a good guideline. Your goal is to stay top of mind without bugging your audience!
Speak personally. It is best to design your newsletter as though it is written by one staff person speaking directly to the reader. Just like a Blog, writing in conversational style is much more effective than “speaking to the masses”. Providing headshots of real people helps your readers feel like a real person is behind the message.
What do you want them to do? Once your supporters read your newsletter, what’s next? Do you have a call to action? Do you want them donate, volunteer, register, tell a friend, learn more? Include specific calls to action and links that make following through as simple as possible.
Chunk your information. Use lots of headlines, subheadings, and short chunks of text. We’ve said before that people scan, they don’t read. Descriptive headlines and subheads with active verbs and vivid nouns will grab your supporters’ attention and nudge them into actually reading the text.
What about you? How often do you send your Nonprofit newsletter? Share the types of responses you get by commenting below or posting on our Facebook page!
