Here are some things worth knowing, from the Bloomerang Blog, at Your Year-End Fundraising Pep Talk:
- Your donor does not read every fundraising email you send. So, send more. Seriously, It's much more likely you are sending too little email than too much. Open rates tell the story: Most of your emails get trashed without a second look. (See How much fundraising mail is too much?
- Do not sweat the unsubscribes. They were never going to give anyway. Some people just shouldn't be on your list. That's okay. Let them leave.
- Typos happen to all of us. Someday it will happen to you. That's okay. In fact, some typos might be good for your bottom line (see Sign the enclosed placenta: The weird power of errors in fundraising)
- You are not 'talking down' to donors by writing at a 6th grade reading level. You are being respectful, courteous, and kind. That "grade level" is not about your reader's education. It's about your clarity. Guess what: It takes a lot more writing chops to write at 6th grade level than to write at 12th grade level. (See Why every fundraiser should write at the 6th-grade level)
- You are not being manipulative or sappy to use emotion in your fundraising. People make decisions based on their emotions. That's just the way the human mind works. If you don't like that, you don't like moving people to action. (See Why you can't leave the emotions out of fundraising)
