Anatomy of an Email: 10 Simple Steps to a Great Email Appeal
Is your team ramping up for the end of year giving season? Hoping to build on your campaigns from last year?
Earlier this week we gave you some helpful tips for crafting a powerful email to your subscribers. Today, we have dissected dozens of successful email blasts to reveal the anatomy of a great email appeal. Use this 10-step guide for assembling your next appeal to supporters this holiday season!
The 10 components of a successful email appeal:
- Subject Line: Consider this your first pitch and what gets subscribers to open your email.
- Greeting: The “Hello.” It sets the tone. Choose a greeting that matches your organization’s tone. Note: If you’re auto-populating names, make sure it works before sending out!
- Hook: This is arguably the most important part of the email (and also the toughest to write). This is what gets members inspired and motivated to read further and take action or give. It’s typically short and sweet, and sometimes also appears as a ‘call-out box’
- Pitch: Your first ask. 1-2 sentences that bring home the importance of action.
- Ask String/Button: How your readers will act! Suggested button words: ‘donate,’ ‘give,’ ‘take action.’ Some work better than others depending on your membership - test it!
- Supplemental Information: This is the supporting information for your hook-the chance to further explain the value proposition or argument made in the initial appeal. This is also your opportunity say more about your cause.
- Second Ask/Pitch: Ask again! A repeat of your call to action at this point can remind your subscribers of exactly how you want them to respond.
- Salutation: Close with something your subscribers will remember. Some organizations have used this as a unique branding item, such as “thank you for all you do” from MoveOn.org.
- Signer: Use an individual name rather than the name of your organization. It makes it more personal.
- P.S. (optional): Another chance to make a pitch or provide more information. Some organizations see great success with this,others do not.
Here is an example of an email that Fission drafted for the Varkey Foundation for their Global Teacher Prize competition. It was a call to action for subscribers to nominate someone or apply for the Global Teacher Prize before the impending deadline. This particular campaign was highly successful with a 4.36% click through rate, more than double the industry average.
Example: Call To Action for Global Teacher Prize Applications
| Subject Line | Cammie, what would you do if you won the Global Teacher Prize? |
| Greeting | Hello Cammie, |
| Hook | What would you do in your classroom, school or career if you won the Global Teacher Prize? The 2015 winner, Nancie Atwell, donated the $1 million dollar prize to the Center for Teaching and Learning to help fund tuition assistance and books. |
| First Ask/Pitch | With only 4 days remaining to turn in your applications, it’s time to start thinking about how you would use the global stage to further educational excellence and the impact of teachers. Apply today and share what you would do with the Global Teacher Prize! |
| Ask String/Button | |
| Supplemental Information | We’ve featured several amazing educators over the last few months whose lives have been changed by their participation in the Global Teacher Prize. In September we brought you the story of 2015 top 10 finalist Phalla Neang, who pledged that she’d open schools all across Cambodia for blind and deaf students. Nancie and the top finalists were featured on BBC News, NPR, CNN and other media outlets, and finalists were greeted as heroes upon returning to their home countries. That’s because all of them shared one incredible thing in common: they were all world-changing teachers! We can’t wait to spotlight incredible educators for the 2016 Prize. |
| Second Ask/Pitch | |
| Salutation | Yours Sincerely, |
| Signer | Vikas Pota
Chief Executive of the Varkey Foundation |
