If you haven’t found it yet, go see the blog Which Test Won. It’s a great place to test your online direct-response smarts, because it shows two head-to-head tests — and to see which one performed better you have to cast a vote for the one you think won.
I’m going to give you an answer on a recent test shown there, at Which Email Newsletter Opt-In Form Boosted Sign-Ups by 52.8%?
It’s a sign-up page for the New York Public Library. First we see the control. This is how a lot of nonprofits handle e-newsletter sign-ups — as if everybody wants newsletters
And here’s the winner. It takes time to sell that same newsletter.
Getting folks to sign up for your e-newsletter is a critical part of building on online donor file.
As this test uncovers, you’re going to get a lot more sign-ups by specifically promoting what’s good, useful, and interesting about your newsletter.
It seems not so many folks just want another newsletter showing up in their in-box. But they’re happy to sign up for cool, useful stuff from an organization they respect.
Same stuff, different way of talking about. Very different results.
Jeff Brooks has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 35 years and blogging about it since 2005. He considers fundraising the most noble of pursuits and hopes you’ll join him in that opinion. You can reach him at jeff [at] jeff-brooks [dot] com.
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