6 ways to excite donors to open your emails

What really makes email fundraising a heavy lift is how hard it is to get peoples’ attention. Your message is just a subject line in a long list of subject lines in an overcrowded inbox.

Here’s help, from the NextAfter Blog: How to Write Fundraising Email Subject Lines Your Donors Will Open (And Click). All with copious examples and testing data.

1. Use Mystery in Your Subject Line to Create Curiosity. Give recipients just a taste of what they could get if they open your fundraising email By giving everything away in the subject line, you don’t give them much reason to open it.
2. Send Your Emails from a Person, Not a Brand. Using a real person in the sender line (and excluding the organization name) improves response and open rates.
3. Frame Your Fundraising Email as an Opportunity. Donors aren’t all that motivated by your needs. They are motivated by their own need to make the world a better place. Focus on what’s in it for them.
4. Customize with Your Donor’s First Name. People pay extra attention to their own name. When you know their name, use it!
5. Use Time indicators. Words like today, tomorrow, this week, this morning, next Thursday, etc., can increase relevance and urgency.
6. Humanize Your Subject Lines. Make your email feel like it comes from a human being, not an organization. This means brief, conversational, not title case, slightly urgent, and somewhat vague.