If you’ve ever made a political donation, your email inbox soon fills up with political fundraising. They seem to indiscriminately share or sell names.
It’s annoying sometimes, but it’s also educational. Just the subject lines tell us something.
Most of these political emailers are highly sophisticated groups with large lists and constant testing.
Political and philanthropic fundraising are not exactly the same. But they are related.
Let me show you a few recent subject lines:
- Mark Kelly SOUNDED THE ALARM
- Elon Musk Bombshell
- what Taylor Swift just announced… NOBODY was ready for this!!! >>
- CNN just announced (Jeff, it’s BAD news…)
- You deserve an explanation, Jeffrey
- Stephen Colbert STUNNER (about Kamala Harris)
- 🎈Stephen King just announced
- Mark Cuban just DROPPED the HAMMER!
- Michelle Obama is FUMING
(I really love that last one!)
Notice a few things they do a lot:
- Mention celebrities (obviously more apropos in the political world).
- Informal tone.
- Use recipient’s first name.
- Emojis. (Just one here, but they’re pretty common.)
- Most of all: Curiosity.
Some of these techniques might work well in our world!
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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