Despite the proliferation of digital communications media – notably texts and social platforms – email may still be your best opportunity to engage with your audiences (as I wrote in back in 2010).

A blog from the Wall Street Journal announced the death of email in 2009. Then, blogs and RSS were supposed to kill email. Now it’s social media.

Yeah, but… the first thing you need to sign up for any social platform is an email address!

You may have heard that “young people don’t do email.” Here’s why you shouldn’t listen:

  • “Young people” are diverse. It doesn’t make sense to lump them all into one category.
  • You can’t afford to concentrate only on what young people do (or are purported to do). When all of your donors are under 30, then we can talk about using only channels that people under 30 prefer.
  • The data say otherwise. In a 2014 survey, 70% of millennials said they checked email in bed. More than half checked email in the bathroom! A more recent study found that millennials generally preferred email to interact with brands they cared about.

Here’s evidence nonprofits should find useful. M+R’s survey of (a small sample of) nonprofits found that 20% of online revenue in December 2016 was generated by email appeals, up from 16% in 2015. (The full article is worth your attention: “Everything in 2016 Was Terrible Except December Fundraising.”)

Sure, spam and “inbox fatigue” are real problems. In “The Triumphant Return of the Email Newsletter” (2015), Harvard Business Review unveils the secret: offer well-crafted, interesting, and personalized content. Unlike “sponsored posts” that show up whether you want them or not, an email newsletter can become a welcome guest in potential donors’ inboxes.

I could go on and on, or you could check out EmailIsNotDead.com.

The bottom line is that email:

  • Is one of the least expensive communications tools
  • Gives you more ways to track – and learn from – recipient behavior than any other medium
  • Helps you maintain good relationships with people who have already shown interest in your cause and your organization

Email shouldn’t be your only communications tool, but it certainly should be one arrow in your quiver.

Don’t know how to start? Can’t keep up with your daily/weekly/monthly email schedule? Wonder what to send, how often, to whom? Contact me!