Why Your Nonprofit Needs Email Marketing

If you’ve been holding off on starting an email marketing program, there’s no time like the present to get started. Whether you are the director for a senior center or a volunteer for a community-based organization, there is great value in building an email list and staying in touch.

Let’s take a quick look at the many reasons why email should be an essential part of your marketing plan.

Benefits of Email Marketing

• Helps you keep in touch: The competition for people’s attention is fierce, from 24/7 cable news to social media platforms. Email makes it much easier to stay top of mind. You can send out a quick reminder that it’s time to register for a special program, or let people know when a new service is launched. Email allows you to nurture your contacts without interrupting their day.
• More reliable than social media: We’ve probably all heard of an individual or organization that carefully built their followers on a social media platform, only to have their account hacked or suspended for something that seemed innocent. And some of the most popular platforms, especially Facebook, have algorithms that can make it difficult for business-related messages to appear in a follower’s news feed unless you pay to boost the post. By capturing emails and building a newsletter list, you maintain control.
• Avoids high cost of postage: With postal fees soaring, mailing even a simple postcard to a large list of members or customers can be cost-prohibitive. If you have a printed newsletter that weighs more, it can be a real budget buster. Even those with limited tech skills can master email marketing, especially if you have someone set up a template and list for you. Some platforms, such as Mailchimp and MailerLite, make the whole process much easier to navigate.
• Less expensive than direct mail: It’s not just postage you’ll save money on by moving to email marketing. The costs associated with printing and production for direct mail have escalated over the past few years. Even if you aren’t ready to completely give up your offline mailings, you may be able to cut back and save by mixing email campaigns with direct mail.
• Quick to produce: By mastering email, you can also cut down on the time it takes to create and send out messages and invitations to your members and supporters. That gives you more freedom and flexibility with everything from last-minute program changes to updates during a crisis.

If you decide you’d like to learn more, there are several highly rated companies that have free or inexpensive virtual classes you can take. HubSpot is a popular one, as is Udemy’s Mailchimp for Beginners.

Updated on 03-19-2024