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New episodes coming July 11, 2024! As a small business owner, you need to be a lot of things to make your business go—but you don't have to be a marketer alone. Join host Dave Charest, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, and Kelsi Carter, Brand Production Coordinator, as they explore what it really takes to market your business. Even if marketing's not your thing! You'll hear from small business leaders just like you along with industry experts as they share their stories, challenges, and best advice to get real results. This is the Be a Marketer podcast!
Today on episode 53 of the be a marketer podcast, it's another ask Dave episode, and I'm answering your questions about how a non profit child welfare organization can use email marketing. This is the Be A Marketer podcast.
Intro voice:Be a marketer.
Dave Charest:I'm your host, Dave Charest, director of small business success at Constant Contact. And I help small business owners like you make sense of online marketing. And on this podcast, we'll explore how to find the time to be a marketer. Remember friend, you can be a marketer. In a Constant Contact, we're here to help.
Dave Charest:Well, hello, friend, and thanks for joining me for another episode of the Be A Marketer podcast. Today, we have another Ask Dave episode, and we have a great question for you. But before we get to that, it's not only an Ask Dave episode. We've also got another guest with us here today that I'd like to introduce to you, Kelsey Carter. Kelsey, hello.
Kelsi Carter:Hello. I'm so happy to be here.
Dave Charest:Kelsi is our new brand production coordinator, and we're excited to have you here. Thank you so much for agreeing to jump on to this craziness with me.
Kelsi Carter:I don't know if agreeing was the and the right course because you're just like Kelsey, you have to do this. No. Of course, I'm very happy to be on here with you. You have some great content, and I'm excited to help you coordinate it.
Dave Charest:Well, like I said, we're excited to have you here. I think it's a good opportunity to have people take a break from just listening to me since people you know, I've been doing this while we're doing this. This is episode 53, so we've been doing this for a while. Some people know about me. Well, what do people need to know about you, Kelsi?
Dave Charest:Do we need a fun fact here?
Kelsi Carter:I think we do need a fun fact because you love it so much. So my
Dave Charest:Hold on. Before before. I don't necessarily love it so much. It's just that that's a thing that we've done at Constant Contact for many years. So we like to you know?
Dave Charest:But it is fun to hear something that you might think is a fun fact. So now I've heard a couple of them, so I'm curious as to which one you're gonna share now.
Kelsi Carter:Oh, should I do 2 for the price of 1? No? Oh, maybe I will.
Dave Charest:Or maybe you'll do a surprise one. I don't know. I could.
Kelsi Carter:So I used to be a zookeeper for York's Wild Kingdom in Maine, and there, I would actually run the snake photo booth. So I would have a boa constrictor around my neck, and I would place it on people and take their picture. So that was definitely I used to want to be a zoologist, so hence, working at a zoo. So, yeah, that is pretty exciting, I think. And then another fun fact, I guess you deserve it, is that I'm an ordained minister.
Kelsi Carter:So if anyone needs to get married, I am your girl.
Dave Charest:Well, there you go. Enamored with this idea of you just randomly putting a snake on people and scaring them and taking their picture versus them actually asking for having it done.
Kelsi Carter:But Well, people have asked if I could should combine the 2. Should I put because I snake on people and then get them married.
Dave Charest:Yeah. I think I like it. I like it. Well, like I said, excited to have you here, And I know you have a question for us, so why don't you, let us know what it is?
Kelsi Carter:Yeah. So we have a question from Amanda who is a marketing and communications coordinator at a nonprofit child welfare organization. So she asks, how can a child, nonprofit welfare organization utilize email marketing? I send info about donation opportunities and events.
Dave Charest:Excellent. Okay. So this is a great question, Amanda. Thank you for sending that in. So I'm going to assume here we're talking about, again, a child welfare organization.
Dave Charest:So we're talking about activities, programs, things like that that put children in safe environments and help them flourish and do all of those things within the local community. Right? And I think one of the things that's really important to and this is important just across all marketing, I think, but if you start to look at just nonprofit work specifically, at the end of the day, it's really all about community. And it's about the people that actually dedicate their time, their energy, their money to really help the organization succeed. And so when you're talking about the work that you're doing, I think it's really important to do it in a way that positions that as a reality.
Dave Charest:Right? You're not doing this on your own. You need these people within your community to support you in order to be able to do the things that you're doing. And so when you communicate, particularly through email marketing, you can either be what I'll call self focused or inclusive and, like, you focused. Right?
Dave Charest:So this is the stuff that you've helped us do versus, again, being, like, hey, this is what we did. And so let me give you an example here. When you think about, let's say, you've got a message where you could say, hey, this organization has gotten so much done this year. The organization continues to do amazing work and accomplish so much to help the community we serve. So take a moment to look through our 2023 annual report, and then you've got, like, a CTA that's just, like, read more.
Dave Charest:Now, again, all of that stuff is not untrue. It shares what the organization should be proud of accomplishing, but, again, it's that very self focused thing versus, again, what we wanna be as inclusive with it. And so instead, I would say, like, take that type of messaging and always apply this to what you're doing and saying something along these lines instead. Your continued support has helped us get so much done this year. Thanks to you, the organization continues to do amazing work and accomplish so much to help the community.
Dave Charest:So take a moment to look through our 2023 annual report And then with a call to action, have that be see what you've made possible. And so it kind of changes the dynamic of that email and the communication as a whole because if I'm to receive that, I'm feeling involved in that. And particularly, if I've been a donor or volunteer or part of that community, I wanna feel involved because I have been. And so it just changes the dynamic of that. Does that make sense?
Kelsi Carter:Yeah. Exactly. I think it's important for your audience to see the impact that they're making. And even in those emails going off of that, they can include, like, success stories. They can highlight Amanda works for a nonprofit child welfare organization.
Kelsi Carter:They can highlight a family or success story. So stuff like that is really important.
Dave Charest:Yeah. I think just storytelling in general, again, I think this applies to every type of business, but particularly nonprofit because it's all about here's what's happened. And because it's a nonprofit, you're usually talking about some type of inequity or something like that that has, like, a challenge you're trying to overcome. And so, yeah, I think that's just a good point. Yeah.
Dave Charest:Just thinking through, like, how do you tell that story, and how do you make people feel involved and see the reality of what they're able to actually help with when they're donating whatever it may be, whether time, money, or anything like that. I think another thing to really think about too is if there are going to be times and I think you should send personal letters from the people involved with the nonprofit. So this could be people like your executive directors, all the people like the volunteer manager, like whatever it is. And I think when you send those things out, you really wanna make sure that you're sending those with I think it's important to use the personal name sometime. Right?
Dave Charest:So it's not just from the organization, but if you're going to use the person's personal name, the person's personal. But if you're gonna do that, you really wanna make sure there is some type of identifier there that lets people know that this is coming from the organization that they recognize, and I think that's the big difference. So in another life, I was a marketing director for nonprofit theater, and it was called Astoria Performing Art Center, and we shortened that to APAC. And so from time to time, if I were sending something out or the executive director, we would use our first names and have at APAC in the from name. That way people would know, hey, this is Dave, not some random person that's emailing you because I have gotten emails like that from businesses and nonprofits.
Dave Charest:And I'm like, who's this? I think I was saying that there's somebody like a Bianca emailed me the other day, and I was like, who's Bianca? I don't know what this is all about. But it happened to be from a program that I use. And I'm like, oh, well, if I knew the program, I'd be like, oh, okay.
Dave Charest:Like, I recognize that. And so I think it's really important for somebody to just get that personal touch, but also in a way that they're gonna know that, like, oh, this is from this particular group.
Kelsi Carter:Yeah. Exactly. And I think too, subject line is pretty important. Of course, we've discussed this in the past on podcasts. But being clear and concise, even like a call to action, but also just making sure you're segmenting your list so you're sending to people that the content is appropriate for the audience.
Kelsi Carter:Because I've I've gotten emails, I'm signed up for New Hampshire SPCA, so I get newsletters all the time. But then sometimes, I feel like I get things that aren't really relevant as to why I subscribed. So that to me, I immediately just don't open the email.
Dave Charest:Yeah. I mean, if you think of the number one way when you're like, hey, how do I improve my overall results from what I'm doing? Segmentation to me is the number one way to do that because you can be more relevant in the content that you are sending. And I think it's also important to just think through those lists that you're going to try to build, and you have to be building those lists all the time. And that means make that a priority to make sure that as you're meeting people, whether they're volunteers, they're donors, if it's staff, board, you have all of these different people that you'll end up talking to, particularly important to the nonprofit vendors, mentors, parents, right, in this use case of the child welfare organization.
Dave Charest:Whether you're in person, you're in print, online, you wanna make sure that you've got a way to capture that so that you can stay in touch with those people. Again, keep continually telling those stories, show the benefits of the work that's being done from the people that are donating their time or money. And a good way to do this with your constant contact, of course, is you can create lists within your account and think through what those things would look like. But you can also create forms that go directly to those lists. And you can create a more kind of catch all form that also allows people to choose the list that they wanna be on if that makes more sense for you.
Dave Charest:But a sign up landing page is a great way to do this. You can even use that like a QR code, for example, that points to that page. It's amazing how the pandemic has really made QR codes come back into fashion and people understand maybe there'll be a menu on the other side of that QR code. But in this case, you can point to that sign up landing page. Right?
Dave Charest:And so then that allows you to actually start to get more specific with the types of information that people will receive from you as you brought up. And this you can even, like I mentioned, allow them to kind of sign up for those lists on their own by choosing, by letting them see that on the sign up form. And then that is just gonna allow you to be more specific in that messaging and just get better results. I think the other thing to really think through here too is just figure out what your frequency is gonna be. And this is something that I think is not just typical of nonprofits because I know everybody's strapped for time, But because it's time and resources that really come into play here, that oftentimes you're saying, like, okay, I'm gonna send once a month maybe, And I'm gonna include all the information because it's been so long between the last time I've sent anything that I've gotta catch everybody up.
Dave Charest:And what that really ends up doing is actually hurting you more than helping you because people tend to not spend a lot of time with an email if we're being blatantly honest about it. They'll look at it, they'll scan it, and if something catches their eye, maybe they'll click through. Or if a story particularly gets them, they'll finish and they'll you know, it'll pull them in. But if you've got just a whole bunch of stuff in there, it becomes almost like a, okay. Let me see what's going on because we tend to scan 1st online, and you just end up at a certain point dropping off and people don't even pay attention to what's at the bottom of the newsletter, for example.
Dave Charest:And we see this time and time again when we look at, for example, And where the concentration of clicks is happening within your email. And you'll see and where the concentration of clicks is happening within your email, and you'll see that drop off dramatically after maybe the 3rd link. And so it's important to really think about, okay, if you're trying to put so much into an email, you're 1, spending a lot of time on that particular email. And so I want you to think about maybe changing your workflow a little bit here so that instead of spending a whole lot of time on one email, maybe spend that time on 2 emails that now you're gonna send twice a month versus benefit from a higher frequency of send because people will, again, be thinking about you more often because at the end of the day, this is always about keeping your business, your nonprofit, whatever it is top of mind, and you're making it easier for people to scan that information and get what they need from it. So I think, personal note maybe at the beginning, a little introduction to the newsletter that highlights some things to think about.
Dave Charest:And then after that, limit yourself to 3 sections if you can because that's gonna allow people to kinda get more from the newsletter. And people are gonna get more of that information, and you'll often find where, like, oh, it was in the newsletter. You didn't see that? And people are like, no. I didn't I didn't see that because it was buried all the way down the bottom.
Dave Charest:Right? And so just something to think about there.
Kelsi Carter:Yeah. And to go off that too, I think a lot of people nowadays are viewing emails on their phones. So the danger of having so much information on your phone is that people are just gonna see it. It's gonna look a lot of text. They're just gonna scroll or just not even like, just click it as soon as they open.
Kelsi Carter:So that's something you wanna be conscious about.
Dave Charest:Yeah. Yeah. And I think even just think of 2 where are the places where you can use some automation. And particularly, this important. I think when you think of we mentioned those lists, for example.
Dave Charest:So imagine I'm a new volunteer and I get added to that volunteer list and I automatically get an email that tells me some details I need to know about being a volunteer. What are the things I need to know? Or if I'm a new donor, right? And like all of those things are great ways that you can start introducing yourself, letting people know what they need to know and start to build those relationships that are so important for a nonprofit in order to be successful that you can start to use those automations that kinda pull things in. What are we missing, Kelsey?
Dave Charest:Anything else?
Kelsi Carter:I think you did a great recap. We covered automation, segmentation, knowing your audience. I think this is all very helpful for people for nonprofits.
Dave Charest:Yeah. So again, just to kinda refresh or close this out here. Right? Make sure that you're you make it about the people that you're sending to. I think that's first and foremost really important.
Dave Charest:Think through the list so you can segment and even automate the communications that you're sending to particular people. And then think about having that regular send frequency. I'm gonna push for at least twice a month so you've got the opportunities to break up some of that information because I know there's usually a lot of things going on and limit yourself to those 3 sections within the email beyond the intro, of course. Amanda, I hope that helps and answers your question and gives you some things to think about. I think one other thing I'm going to mention that one of the things I've been learning as I have been talking to people, I was just in DC recently talking to some people after a keynote presentation that I did.
Dave Charest:And I wanted to mention that I think if you heard some things here today, write down the things that you're like, yeah, that's a good thing to do. Then look at that list of those things that you feel are a priority and then choose one of those things and move on that. Take action because what we're finding time and time again is marketing is one of those things that becomes a nice to do sometimes. And this whole podcast is about, you know, how do you really find the time to be a marketer? And a lot of times, it's about making something a priority, putting something in the calendar, and then working towards that thing.
Dave Charest:And if you don't do that, it's not gonna get done. And so I just wanted to give you a kind of system or methodology to kind of attack that with. So if there's anything you heard here today, write it down, choose one thing, and take action on that. And, hey, let us know how it went because we'd love to hear what type of results that you're getting from that. A couple other things that I'll mention that I think can help on the nonprofit side too is if you're involved with a nonprofit and you're probably using some type of tools to help access or help you manage what you're doing from a nonprofit perspective, make sure that you're taking a look at some of the tools that actually integrate with Constant Contact, so you'll help make those connections that will help you thing with things like lists and managing your contacts and all of that type of stuff.
Dave Charest:I'm thinking of things like DonorPerfect, Omatic's Blackbaud Raiser's Edge, Eventbrite. Even tools like Canva and Vimeo are also ways that you can shorten that cycle and save yourself some time if you make those connections and help you get better results with that. So I'll include some links in the show notes to give you some information there. Also, I think we need to remind people, Kelsi, if they've got a question for me, for you, for us, whatever it is, we wanna hear it. Yeah?
Dave Charest:Right? We do?
Kelsi Carter:Yeah. Absolutely.
Dave Charest:So if you are a Constant Contact customer, you can head right on over to the Constant Contact community to post your question for an upcoming Ask Dave episode. We'll also include a link in the show notes for that. Alright, Kelsey. Thank you so much for being here. And listener, thank you for being here.
Kelsi Carter:Thank you.
Dave Charest:I hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Be A Marketer podcast. If you have questions or feedback, I'd love to hear from you. You can email me directly at dave.charest@constantcontact dot com. If you did enjoy today's episode, please take a moment to leave us a review. Your honest feedback will help other small business marketers like yourself find the show.
Dave Charest:Well, friend, I hope you enjoy the rest of your day and continued success to you and your business.