A nonprofit welcome email series gives your organization the chance to solidify its relationships with new donors.

This 3- to 4-part series properly introduces your nonprofit, welcomes first-time givers, and helps them get to know your work and its value. Through these tailored messages, you can gradually guide these donors to deeper levels of involvement.

But you can’t just deliver the same welcome email series to all of your new donors.

Your organization has a variety of acquisition channels, so you have to talk to new donors according to their specific entry point to your organization.

Below are best practices on how you can create targeted email series that engage three main segments of new donors.

Audience #1: First Time Donors — send one email per week

First-time donors have made a direct gift to your organization. This means they were compelled enough to give, but they may not be fully committed to your nonprofit yet. Before you plug them into your regular newsletter list, use a welcome email series to introduce your organization, educate them about your mission, and begin cultivating the relationship.

Tips to Engage First-Time Donors

  1. Inspire them to adopt your mission. These donors were interested enough in your mission to donate, but you need them to buy into the overall value of your organization. Accomplish this by showing the results of your great work. Photos and videos of the people you help can bring your impact to life, so be sure to include these in your welcome series.
  1. Include a call to action at the end of each email. Keep in mind these donors just gave, so you don’t want to hit them with another appeal to donate right away. Go for the soft ask approach in your first email or two.

You can invite readers to:

Then, the final message in your welcome email series can present a more direct ask, such as:

Audience #2: Third-Party Donors — send one email per week

Third-party donors are a very special group of supporters. These are the people who give to their friend’s or family member’s personal fundraising pages. This means that they gave to your organization because of a personal relationship to the person asking for a gift — and not necessarily because they were moved by your mission.

Naturally, you can’t treat these donors the same way you would treat donors who responded to a direct appeal. Some, or most, may be completely unfamiliar with your organization and its work. Create a highly targeted engagement strategy that builds trust with these donors and nurtures these brand new relationships.

Tips to Engage Third-Party Donors

  1. First, send a personalized thank-you message. After the campaign is over, send a short, personal, heartfelt thank-you email from a staff member. This message should simply thank the donor for their gift. An excellent idea is to mention the fundraiser he or she gave to. This shows you have a keen interest in supporters’ involvement, and it also reminds the donor that someone they trust believes in your organization. Then you can offer a soft invitation to learn more about your work, such as providing an article about the cause or a blog post of a beneficiary’s story.
  2. Start by offering valuable resources and information. Gain donors’ trust by educating them about your organization. Offer videos, infographics, or blog posts through your emails.
  1. Weave in soft asks gradually. After your first couple emails, ask third-party donors to follow your social channels or share a story, photo, or video on their own profile.
  1. Add donors to your newsletter. After you’ve established initial rapport with these donors, you can add them to your regular newsletter.
  2. Wait a couple of months to send your next donation appeal. Until then, continue to deliver engaging content and track your open and click-through rates to learn what donors respond to. Use this time to build their confidence in your mission to give again.

Audience #3: Event Attendees — send one email per week

These people were first introduced to your organization through one of your fundraising events. Hopefully, they had an amazing time and learned a lot about your work, but this interest can wane if you don’t follow up effectively. Craft a tailored welcome series for event attendees that strengthens their connection to your event and organization.

Tips to Engage Event Attendees

  1. Create a custom email series for every event. If you send a default email series to every attendee — whether they participated in a bike-a-thon, gala, or holiday supper — you can miss your chance to keep these donors interested. More than likely, each supporter attended an event that aligned with his or her specific interests. Keep these attendees engaged by sending them targeted content based on the specific fundraiser they attended. In order to do this, you need to create a follow-up welcome email series for each of your events.
  1. Send your first email within a day of the event. This initial message should thank people for attending and rallying around your cause. As a best practice, write this email beforehand and schedule its delivery right after the fundraiser.
  1. Report the event’s success. In your second email, summarize the event and its success. Share how much was raised, and explain how the funds will be used. Include photos or videos to remind attendees of their experience and sustain their emotional momentum to join your mission. Include a call to action to take a survey about the event or check out your bigger photo collection from the event.
  1. Send a schedule of any upcoming, related events. Use your third email to offer a list of upcoming events these attendees might be interested in. If you don’t have any upcoming events, send an impact story and ask them to keep an eye out for new opportunities to get involved.

Make your first impression count.

When new donors receive targeted content right from the start, you increase your chances of sustaining their interest in your organization.

A tailored welcome email series allows you to start the relationship off on the right foot and gradually take it to new heights. Take the time to create personalized messages for these specific audiences, and you can keep their support for the long haul.

For a deep dive of nonprofit welcome emails, as well as examples, get the complete Guide to Welcome Emails.

About the author: Elizabeth Chung writes about nonprofit fundraising and marketing for the Classy blog. She enjoys pastries, Wes Anderson, and watching Wes Anderson movies while eating pastries.

Color will make or break your next email campaign. Sound too bold to be true?

When your email message is opened, you have a split second to make a good impression. Long before any of your words are absorbed, your reader sees the appearance of your email.

And color is the first thing that makes an impression. Will the impression be that your business is polished, professional, and trustworthy?

Or will the impression be that your business is scattered, disorganized, and hard to communicate with?

Let’s aim for the first one, shall we? Here are three ways you can create a winning color scheme for your next email campaign:

1. Choose colors that make sense to your ideal customer

Hopefully you’ve envisioned your ideal customer as you wrote your email campaign. You know who you’re aiming for, and what their challenges are. You have an idea of their age range, and maybe their predominant gender.

When it comes time to design your email campaign, keep that information at the top of your mind.

Remember, you’re not designing your campaign for you. You’re designing it for your ideal customer.

Think about what’s important to them, and what their lives are like. Think about the kind of consumer products they interact with, and what colors are used on those products.

Then translate what you know about your ideal customer to a set of colors that will make sense to them. Use colors they’re familiar with, and relate them back to your product or service.

2. Exercise restraint with a limited palette

Let’s pretend you’re going to create your email with a box of crayons. You do not have 64 crayons to choose from. You don’t even have eight!

Imagine you’ve been given a box of five crayons. With these five colors, you’re going to create a color scheme for your campaign.

When you use these five colors, don’t count your white background or black type. Here’s how to apply them to your email design:

  • Pick two main colors. Make these the dominant colors with a prominent place in your email header, your headlines and your subheads.
  • Pick two light colors to use for backgrounds. Use these anywhere you want a hint of color, or where you want to create a sidebar or text box.
  • Pick one accent color to use for calls to action, buttons, or the occasional arrow. This color should be bolder and brighter than the others, and should be used in moderation so you don’t dilute the effect.

Using colors with restraint is one of the most important moves you can make to master color. Pick your “crayons” carefully, and resist the urge to use the whole box.

3. Apply your scheme consistently across campaigns

When it comes to branding, familiarity breeds attention.

The response you’re aiming for when someone opens your email is friendly anticipation. And color can help you get that response.

Branding your email campaign over time with the same handful of colors will help it become a familiar and trusted presence in your readers’ inbox.

Without reading a word, they’ll know who it’s from. Your email will start out with an advantage because it will be recognized.

Start scheming a winning color palette today

Use these tips to put together a winning color palette for your emails.

Remember:

  • Think about your ideal customer and tailor your colors to them.
  • Use a reduced palette of colors for maximum impact.
  • Apply your color scheme consistently over time so your emails will be recognized as soon as they’re opened.

Still baffled by color? Let’s talk about it in the comments!

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in July 2012 and has been updated for relevancy and accuracy. 

Creating quality content takes time. I spend more than half of each workday writing articles and designing branded assets on Canva. And the rest of that time goes to planning the content, publishing/submitting it, and monitoring it once it’s published.

That’s why content curation is the bee’s knees. The fox’s socks. The ant’s pants. It takes a fraction of the time and mental energy while filling out your content calendar and keeping your audience engaged.

Think of content curation as being a DJ for your business’s channels. You want to spin the best hits from various sources and share them with your audience. A content curation strategy lets you provide value to followers, boost your social media presence, and enhance your authority.

In the words of Corinne Bailey Rae, Girl, put your records on, tell me your favorite song…

What is content curation?

Wondering what is content curation? Content curation is the process of collecting, organizing, and sharing content from various sources.

A few examples include:

  • Links to hand-picked articles
  • User-generated content (UGS) from fans of your brand
  • Interviews
  • Listicles and roundups
  • Shared social media and blog content from other creators

Now, what is a content curator? They curate these types of content in a savvy way that keeps their audience engaged. 

The benefits of content curation for businesses

Content curation is a versatile and powerful tool. You can use it to:

  • Save time and resources. Instead of spending hours researching news and trends, you can curate reliable content to supplement your posts, blog articles, and newsletters.
  • Increase your reach. Gain traction with your target audience. When you share or cite the work of others, you increase the chances that you’ll be found outside of your immediate network by people searching for relevant material.
  • Enhance your brand authority. Showcasing industry stories builds trust, demonstrating your understanding of a niche.
  • Vary your content. Keep your audiences engaged with different types of content from a variety of sources.
  • Stay fresh. By mixing curated content pieces with original ones, you can consistently deliver high-quality content without burning out your creative energy.

For example, newsletter creation can take a lot of time, and it can be challenging for brands to find new material that keeps their audience engaged. For this, a content creator could incorporate links to insightful articles from industry experts. These pieces have the added benefit of being informational (and, thus, beneficial) to the reader; there’s nothing “sales-y” about them.

Email newsletter templates often provide blocks with short snippets and links. You can use these to link to your own content or to carefully selected third-party sites. Image source: Constant Contact template.

How content curation differs from content creation

Content curation and content creation are two different processes. It’s important to create original content tailored to your brand’s goals and objectives and creating original content should be at the heart of your content strategy.

Content curation, on the other hand, involves gathering existing content from various sources, putting them together in a meaningful way, and then sharing it with your audience. Curated content should be used to support your created content.

The key is to strike a balance. Use curated content to share valuable third-party pieces and keep your audience engaged. Use original content to highlight your brand’s unique perspective and expertise.

Why should you incorporate content curation in your marketing strategy?

Curating content should inform your approach to selecting and sharing material. Here’s how that can be done:

Enhance your audience’s experience with curated content

Become a trusted advisor, a problem-solver, and a source of valuable insights. By sharing curated content, you’re broadening their horizons and introducing them to fresh perspectives. It’s like recommending a great book to a friend.

For instance, if you’re running a fitness studio, you can share nutrition tips, workout routines, and motivational posts from renowned fitness gurus. This way, you’re enhancing your audience’s experience by providing comprehensive value beyond your services.

Save time and effort with content curation

58% of people who consider themselves content creators have a full-time job, and even dedicated content marketers have a slew of other responsibilities. As for small businesses handling their marketing in-house, it’s usually one small but important part of their day-to-day responsibilities.

Creating original content is fun but time-consuming. Think of content curation as the potluck of dinner parties. You bring your dish (original content), but you also get to sample others’ specialties (curated content). This way, you can maintain a steady flow of content without exhausting your resources.

Pro-tip: Don’t just look for content to share when you have to post it. Sometimes, you’ll want to share the latest news as quickly as possible, but other times you can stockpile evergreen items to publish when you need to fill a gap.

Leverage the expertise of others through a content curation strategy

Content curation isn’t just about saving time; it’s about leveraging the expertise of others. By sharing high-quality content from industry experts, you’re positioning your brand as a knowledgeable leader. You’re saying, “Hey, we’re here to guide you, and so are these other brilliant minds.”

For example, a small marketing agency might share articles from renowned marketing experts like Seth Godin or Gary Vaynerchuk. By doing so, they’re associating their brand with industry leaders and enhancing their credibility.

This tactic works even better when you introduce the piece with your hot take. Don’t just share the content — provide your insight, highlight key takeaways, or ask a thought-provoking question. This way, you’re not just sharing; you’re adding value.

This sales and customer experience consultant posts a link to an Entrepreneur article on selling digital products, benefiting from both the work and credibility of the periodical’s staff. Image source: LinkedIn

How to curate content effectively

Not all content — or content marketing strategy — is created equal. Curated content that will perform well uses the following best practices.

Identify relevant and high-quality sources for curated content 

To be an effective content curator, you need to know where to find the good stuff. You only want to share material from reputable sources you can trust. Prioritize quality over quantity. It’s better to share one insightful article than ten mediocre ones.

Start with industry-specific platforms. If you’re in the fashion industry, for example, Vogue or Harper’s Bazaar could be your gold mines. For tech enthusiasts, Wired or TechCrunch might be your go-to sources.

Niche content found in major, legitimate publications can also be a source. For example, you can generally trust that a piece published in The New York Times has undergone a rigorous review and fact-checking process.

Then there are influencers and non-competitor brands in your industry. Social media platforms are bustling with valuable content. Follow thought leaders, join relevant groups, and keep an eye on trending topics.

A med spa reposted this content about celebrity Khloé Kardashian’s use of Morpheus8, which the med-tech company originally curated from a fashion magazine. Image source: Facebook.

Strategies for selecting and evaluating curated content 

Pick items that not only appeal to you but also resonate with your audience.

Start by aligning the content with your business objectives. Ask yourself: “Will the content be useful to your audience?” If your goal is to educate your audience about the latest digital marketing trends, a comprehensive guide on SEO updates might be a good fit.

Next, assess the quality. Is the content well-written? Does it provide unique insights? If it’s a “yes” to both, you’re on the right track.

Never forget about your brand’s purpose and values

Every time you cite someone, you’re linking it to your brand. That means that you should keep material relevant to your brand. Identify your audience’s interests and the type of content they find valuable. If you serve small businesses, an article on enterprise strategies might not hit the mark. The occasional outlier post can be fine, but you should generally try to stay on topic.

Values matter, too. For example, a nonprofit might loathe a business for its well-publicized mistreatment of its workers. If its president makes a good point on an unrelated issue, it’s probably still not worth the association created by sharing the individual’s comment.

Ethical considerations in content curation 

Content curation is not claiming someone else’s work as your own. It’s acknowledging the expertise of others and sharing it with your audience. Always credit the original source and, if possible, tag the author or publisher when sharing on social media.

It’s not just unethical to recklessly copy-paste — it’s illegal. U.S. copyright law for republishing online content allows for “fair use” of material. That often means that you can quote up to 10% of the properly cited written work, but there’s a lot of gray area.

Best practices include:

  • Linking to the original piece
  • Using just facts and data
  • Limiting the amount of direct quotation
  • Summarizing major points (but still properly attributing them if they reflect an independent observation of the author)
  • Using images that you own or that are covered by a Creative Commons license (look for the circled CC on a piece of content or for images known to exist in the public domain)

Bottom line: keep your piracy to Halloween and theme parties. Respect copyright law and always credit your sources.

Content curation should always be a win-win strategy. You get to provide valuable content to your audience without exhausting your resources, and the original creators get their work shared with a wider audience.

Different types of content curation

There are so many different types of content curation for you to consider. Try one of these always popular formats.

Interview-based content curation 

Interviews can be extremely effective. When you host one, you not only engage your audience but also tap into your guest’s popularity. They gain a platform while providing you with valuable content.

Just like how you’d invite a guest speaker to a meeting or a workshop, you can invite experts to share their knowledge with your audience. This could be through a podcast, a video interview, or a written Q&A.

Mike Matthews interviews health experts on his fitness podcast as a regular feature. This lets him drop more, high-quality episodes since he doesn’t have to write every single episode on his own. Image source: Google Podcasts

Roundup posts: showcasing the best content in your industry 

Roundup posts are like a highlight reel of the best content in your industry. With them, your audience no longer has to waste time hunting down valuable content. Instead, it’s delivered straight to them.

A clothing boutique might create a roundup of the latest fashion trends or a music blog could pull together a selection of profiles on up-and-coming artists.

This type of post lets you include multiple perspectives without having to write extensively about each one.

Compilations and top 10 lists

Think “Top 10 Marketing Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read” or “5 Podcasts That Will Boost Your Productivity.”

Lists are easy to digest, fun to read, and packed with value. That’s why compilations and top 10 lists are such a hit in content curation. They’re also highly shareable, making them a great tool to boost your brand’s visibility.

The creator of Jack’s Food Blog makes lists of other quality food blogs a regular feature of his content. Image source: Jack’s Food Blog.

There’s even a dedicated tool entirely devoted to making and sharing lists: List.ly. You can input links, images, text, and other forms of media before sharing the list through your channels. It’s also easy to update lists as you discover new items to include.

Infographics as curated content 

Infographics are justly popular. They deliver valuable information in an engaging and easy-to-understand format.

Many creators will allow you to share their infographics so long as you cite and link the original. You can also curate your own by compiling data and insights from various studies and reports.

Not confident in your design skills? Don’t worry. There’s no shortage of intuitive tools to create infographics.

Tools and platforms for content curation

The content curation software market is quickly growing as more marketers and individuals use it to help them feed their audience with valuable content. From social media platforms and content aggregators to curation tools, there’s a plethora of options available out there.

Social media platforms for content discovery and curation

If you’re looking for an easy way to find relevant content, look no further than social media. Social platforms like Facebook and Twitter are great sources of content. For social media content curation, you should follow industry leaders and monitor relevant hashtag conversations.

For more visual curation, there’s Pinterest for business. The platform is a goldmine for visually appealing content. Create boards for different topics, follow other relevant boards, and pin interesting content for future reference.

Don’t stop there. LinkedIn is a great source of thought leadership pieces. And video curation for YouTube lets you incorporate high-value videos without the associated labor.

Content curation tools and software 

Content curation should save you time and make it easier to deliver a steady stream of quality content. These tools ensure a smooth, efficient process.

The top curation tools include:

  • Pocket: An all-encompassing personal library online. Pocket lets you save articles, videos, and stories from any publication, page, or application. Collect material from a variety of sources all in one place.
  • Google Alerts: A content monitoring service offered by Google. Get notified about new mentions of the topics and keywords that matter to you, such as your brand name, industry news, or competitors.
  • Scoop.it: An easy-to-use content curation platform. The free plan lets you create and share “topic pages” while paid plans integrate directly with your channels.
  • UpContent: An all-in-one AI content curation tool that tailors content for your organization. You can even set it to distribute pieces to your audience automatically.
  • Quuu: A social media curation tool that automates and customizes collection for you. You can customize the topics and the platform will source articles, images, and videos to share on your channels.

Find a tool that suits your needs, taking into consideration your resources and the channels/content types that most appeal to your audience.

Curated newsletters and aggregators 

Curated newsletters like The Morning Brew deliver digests of the best content from your industry at regular intervals. They help you stay informed and can inspire your own curation.

Aggregators are more customizable. Platforms like Feedly and Flipboard allow you to subscribe to various blogs, publications, and topics of interest. They then aggregate this content into a personalized feed, saving you the time and effort of hunting down content or individually checking in with your favorite creators.

Elevate your content curation game and unleash its potential

Content curation allows you to provide more value to your audience at less cost. By leveraging the right tools and platforms, you can take your content strategy to the next level. Just find a good balance between crafting original content and curated pieces, and always remember that all content should serve both your audience and your brand.

Get started curating content now. Chances are that you’ve seen or read something in the last few days that impressed you and is well suited to your channels. Ask yourself: “How can I best present it to my audience?”

The principles that underlie insanely good content are the same, whether it’s something you create or something you curate. In fact, a good way to improve your own content skills is to study the best of the best. (Everything I said about not being a content pirate does not apply to crafting a successful content strategy and learning the skills to do it. Yo ho ho all the way!)

Lastly, have fun with the process. Enjoy being a content consumer, and — when you find the right material — curate a piece with your unique expert opinion, then share it with your audience. They’ll enjoy your point of view on the topic, too.

When I talk to clients about email marketing, I get a lot of questions about the best practices for email design.

One of the most common questions I am asked is: “I want to send a single-image email, what is the easiest way to do that?”

Once that question is asked, I go through all of the possible scenarios of why a customer would need to do that, which method would be easiest for this customer, and exactly why I would recommend not doing it.

The short answer is yes, you absolutely can send an email that contains one large image—but you run a very big risk in doing so. In fact, your recipient(s) may not see the content of your email at all.

If the recipient’s email client doesn’t “display images” — your message is lost

When was the last time you checked your personal email account and found that all of the images would be loaded once you’ve opened your selected email? You probably can’t remember. In fact, you’re probably more familiar with seeing blank boxes containing a large “X” like the image below.

bad-email-without-image

By having no text in an email and having your campaign run only as one large image, you run the risk that your hard work—and your message—won’t be seen by your recipients.

Why do people and email clients block images in the first place?

Technology moves so quickly these days that maybe we’ve forgotten about the wonderful world of viruses and unapproved programs downloading onto our computers. With amazing antivirus software these days, it’s not that difficult to forget.

However, before these advances, when a spammer, scammer, or just the average malicious user wanted to harm your computer, they could easily bind a malicious program to an image file within an email. An email client would automatically download and display these images and put your computer at risk for viruses.

Most email clients these days will automatically remove the images from emails and ask you to click a link to display them—if you trust the sender. Most commercial emails also contain a link that allows you to display an email as a web page as well.

Images aren’t always accessible to all

In addition to the risk that your image won’t load, it’s also important to keep in mind that not all of your contacts may be consuming your emails in the same way. For example, those who are of limited vision or legally blind may be using a screen reader to consume your content. If your email is nothing but a large image, this inhibits them from being able to read it. While alt-text is always recommended to ensure accessibility, this is meant for short descriptions of an image rather than to translate a long text-based image.

In summary: make your emails accessible to all of your contacts by using text with accompanying images rather than one large image.

It’s all about trust!

Trusting the sender is a big deal to email recipients. If I don’t know who is sending the email, or what company it’s from, I will most likely not open it.

If I do by chance open the email and see nothing in it—no text, nothing—I probably won’t download the images either. “From” names can be faked, and I’m weary to download images from an email with no text content for fear that it is a scam or possible phishing attempt.

Best practices = best results

I would suggest you resist the urge to send a single-image email to your contacts.

We can’t trust if there isn’t any text to prove who you are or what company you’re sending your email from. Plus, sending your email as a large image may guarantee that not all of your recipients will be able to read it due to lack of accessibility or an email client’s failure to load the graphic.

Bottom line: By sending a single-image email you’re not maximizing your reach or using your Constant Contact account to its fullest potential. Perhaps most importantly, you run the risk of losing the trust of those you want it from most—your customers.

Happy sending! And be safe out there!

Many of you already use email and social media marketing to promote your small business or nonprofit.

But how many of you integrate your social media and email marketing?

Here are 4 easy tools that will help you do just that:

1. Add social media buttons

Adding social media buttons to your emails is a great way to let your readers know where they can find you on various social media networks. Fans can also click the button within your emails to see your organization’s social profiles. This can help to also grow your email list.

To add buttons, make sure you’re in the “Edit” mode of a block. Then, click the “Social” tab in the tools on the left side of the screen.

Social Media Buttons Step 2

When you click on one of the networks, you can choose which kind of button you want to use. Just make sure you add the link to your page in the link box. It’s important to use your unique Facebook URL, such as www.facebook.com/constantcontact, so that users are taken directly to your page. Click the “Insert” button to add the button to your block and you’re done!

Now your readers can find your social channels and follow you.

Social Media Buttons Step 1

2. Include a Share Bar

The “Share Bar” is a row of social buttons that you can add to the top of your email that enables your readers to share your content with their friends and family via social media. To add the Share Bar, go to the “Header Options” block at the top of an email and click the “Edit” button (pencil icon). Then, click the check box, and click “OK.”

The Share Bar will appear at the top of your email just below the from name, subject line, and reply email.

Share Bar Step 3

When your readers click on any of the social buttons, they can post a link to your email on their social pages. Any of their friends or followers who see that post can click the link and read your email.

3. Publish a link to your email using Simple Share

Did you know that you can send an email and promote it on your social media channels at the same time with the Simple Share tool?

To find Simple Share, go to the “Schedule” step of your email. Click on the “Simple Share” button at the bottom of the screen.

Simple Share Step 4

Next, select the social networks you want to post to. If you haven’t used Simple Share before, click the “Add” link at the top to connect to your business’ Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn profiles.

Simple Share Step 5

Simple Share will automatically create a message for each network by using your subject line. And it will create a URL that links to your email. You can edit those messages and add a photo for the Facebook message if you wish. Click the “Save and Close” button to finish.

When your email is sent, Simple Share will post the messages you created to the social networks you selected, giving you a chance to increase the reach of your emails by sharing them with your social audiences.

Simple Share Step 6

4. Use social media photos in your emails with improved MyLibrary tools

You may have heard about the changes coming to your MyLibrary and MyLibrary Plus accounts. One of those changes allows you to add images from your Facebook and Instagram accounts. When you get the new MyLibrary tools, select the “Social Networks” tab and connect to Facebook and Instagram. Choose the photos you want to upload.

MyLibrary Step 6

Then insert them into your email newsletters. Don’t forget to tell your audience which social network your photos are from and encourage them to follow you!

Need more tips?

Check out our best practices guide: “How to Grow Your Business and Attract New Customers with an Email + Social Strategy.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in September 2013 and has been updated for relevancy and accuracy. 

Over the past few months I’ve shared a series of tips for how to generate more word-of-mouth (WOM) for your business.

Today’s post is dedicated to sharing the very best word-of-mouth tips from the people who know it best: your fellow small business owners.

All of these tips were contributed by members of Alignable, the free social network for small business owners.

Generating word-of-mouth for your business starts with providing great service for your customers. But how can you proactively generate and make WOM work for you?

Here’s how WOM has worked for other business owners just like you.

Tip #1: Thank those who refer you

There are two primary ways to thank people who refer business to you. The first is to make sure that every time you receive a new customer through an existing customer or nearby local business owner, you actively reach out and thank that person.

Sharon Michaelowicz, from Long Island Bookkeeping Solutions in Bay Shore, New York, says, “For those who refer us, we always follow up with a letter of appreciation and a small gift. Showing our gratitude helps to have them refer us again and again!”

Maria Munguia from personal tailor Jam Designs in Austin, Texas, echoes that: “When a new customer calls me and tells me who recommended them, I write their name down and next time they come in I give them 10 percent off. They’re so happy and surprised!”

Others offer these types of rewards up front in the form of a referral reward. Jeanneth Lopez of Rio Rancho Cleaning in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, offers existing customers a $20 referral fee which they can apply as a discount on their next service.

No matter how you do it, thanking people for their referrals encourages them to keep you top of mind.

Tip #2: Track your word-of-mouth efforts

Of course, rewarding those who refer customers to you requires knowing that it happened. And tracking how many customers you’re getting through word-of-mouth can help you understand the concrete effects of your efforts.

Pat Hellmandollar of Savvy Salon and Day Spa in Cornelius, North Carolina, uses software that “has the capacity to track advertising sources such as internet, coupon, friend/relative, etc. The “word of mouth” is by far the best, outranking the other sources of advertising about 4 to 1.”

You don’t need to use sophisticated software: simply remember to ask customers where they heard about you, and write it down. This will help you identify how your WOM is spreading, and who’s helping it happen.

Tip #3: Make your word-of-mouth shareable

Professional copywriter Kristine M. Smith says, “I regularly request that my word-of-mouth advocates turn their talk into written testimonials for placement on my website. It’s free advertising that is believable, traceable and verifiable.”

Asking your fans to write down their endorsement also makes it easier to amplify over social media.

“Our satisfied customers frequently talk about the products and services provided via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. It’s the best feeling — to have happy customers, and our clients putting the word out there about their experience!” says Tracy Thomas of Stellar Marketing and Business Solutions in Wellington, Florida.

Tip #4: Make it easy to spread the word in the “real world” too

If a customer loves you, make sure to supply them with extra business cards or other materials about your business so they can tell others.

Teri Evans from Yards N Yarn in Ocala, Florida, gives her biggest fans flyers they can leave at their church or post in their community center. Maria from Jam Designs gives every new client a business card for themselves and one for a friend.

Tip #5: Network with other businesses

Randy Holston of the Village Thrift Shop in Pemberton, New Jersey, relies heavily on business networking to generate word-of-mouth.

“We reach out to other businesses. We take time to actually visit their shops and make inquiries as to what they offer. We applaud and encourage their continued investment into the community where they operate. If someone comes to us looking for any good or service we don’t have or provide we refer them to our network fellows and we let them know that we sent them. Not because we are looking for anything in return, but to let them know we support them and we wish them well. Anything we can do to help you grow your business we do because it has been greatly reciprocated.”

Keep in mind that providing referrals to your customers is a benefit in and of itself. As Peg Doyle from Wellness and You in Westwood, Massachsetts, points out, “I’m very committed to recommending businesses I know and trust to my clients — I feel like that’s just another way to take care of them and be sure they get into the right hands for their needs.”

Other business owners are talking to local customers every single day. Make sure they know about you, and that you know about them, so together you can keep it local!

How can you work at word-of-mouth?

As you can see, effective word-of-mouth is about more than just providing a great customer experience. These simple tips can help you make the most of this powerful source of marketing!

Have you tried anything to boost word-of-mouth that we didn’t mention? Leave us a comment to let us know what’s worked well for you!

About the author: Eric Groves is the co-founder and CEO of Alignable, the local business network where small businesses and organizations connect and collaborate with others nearby. Eric is a local marketing expert and enthusiast who spent 10 years as an executive at Constant Contact. He authored The Constant Contact Guide to Email Marketing and believes that local businesses are always stronger together.

It’s no secret that email marketing is great way to connect with customers, prospects, and everyone else important to your business or organization.

But do you ever wish that your emails did a better job of engaging your audience?

Hopefully you’ve taken steps to get more people to open your emails, but are people also clicking and engaging with the content you send out?

Still not using email marketing? Sign up for Constant Contact and get a free 60-day trial!

Click-through rates are a great measure of engagement for your emails.

They measure the percentage of clicks that links in your email receive based on the number of people who open your email.

The importance of email click-through rates is they show you how many subscribers are not only opening your emails, but are also engaging with your content and taking a desired action.

How can you tell if your click-through rate is in good shape?

Average click-through rates vary a lot from industry to industry.

To help you see where you stand, Constant Contact regularly gathers and examines data from 200 million emails from our customers to give you insight into how your results compare to similar businesses.

Check out our Comparison by Industry Chart to see how your business compares to others in your industry.

What can you do to get better results?

Now that you have a little more information about your click-through rate, you’re probably interested in the steps you can take to deliver even better results.

After all, more clicks could mean more traffic to your website, more registrants for your events, and more people acting on the offers you include in your emails.

Getting more clicks starts with understanding a few important principles:

  • Every email must have a goal: Every time you send out an email you should have a goal in mind. Are you trying to drive traffic to your website? Increase event registration for an upcoming fundraiser? Encourage people to fill out an online survey? Make sure you’re communicating with a purpose so you can get your message across to your audience loud and clear.
  • Your email should reflect your goal: When designing your email, make sure that the content and layout of your message reflects the goal you’re trying to achieve. Keep your email focused on the action you want readers to take. Keep text down to only the essential. If you want to go into detail in your email, prioritize information so that you’re providing a link early on. That way, readers will see the link even if they don’t scroll through the whole message.
  • You need to give people a reason to act: The best way to inspire readers to take action is to provide something of value. If you’re sending an email to drive sales, including a small discount can go a long way. If you want to drive donations, offer a case study so your subscribers can see exactly what their contributions are working towards.
  • You need to make it easy to take action: Test out your email on multiple devices. Many of your readers will be opening your emails on a mobile device, so be sure that the text is large enough to be readable on a small screen and the links are easy to click. If you’re adding images with information, be aware that images might not load for everyone; include relevant information in plain text below your images so no one is missing out.

Once you’ve got these four principles down, you may still be on the lookout for new ideas to drive better results.

Let’s take a look at seven ideas that have worked well for other Constant Contact customers:

1. Cut down to just the essentials

Constant Contact customer - orange cycle

Constant Contact customer - orange cycle

Click-through rate: 22 percent

Bicycle shop, Orange Cycle, does a perfect job of keeping information down to a minimum, while still including all the essentials. Their logo and contact information appear right at the top, then they utilize a fun image that supports their brand. Next, they emphasize the sale and include a link to specific prices. Lastly, they provide social buttons to at the bottom to encourage subscribers to connect with them in multiple places.

Takeaway: Try a super simple approach, similar to this example, so readers can take in your information in a matter of seconds.

2. Motivate your readers

Constant contact customer - fluent city

Click-through rate: 15 percent

If you want your readers to engage with your content and take action, it’s your job to motivate them. In this email, Fluent City inspires readers to share their feedback by showing enthusiasm and personality in their language. Their request appears right in the first paragraph and they also include an edited image right at the top to reinforce their request and the urgency.

Takeaway: Motivate your readers by providing deadlines and using language that encourages them to take action.

3. Include the same link multiple times

Constant contact nonprofit customer - swsg

Click-through rate: 30 percent

While promoting their 10 Year Anniversary event, mentoring organization Strong Women Strong Girls included the same links multiple times to drive people to register. By providing the link twice they’re increasing the chance that someone skimming through will click through for more information.

Takeaway: After including a link once, don’t be afraid to add it later in the email as well. Some people might want more information before taking action.

4. Follow-up quickly

Constant Contact customer - Door County

Click-through rate: 24 percent

One great way to inspire readers to take action is to send an email as a follow up from another interaction. Door County Coffee & Tea does a phenomenal job of this in the email above. After a customer places their first order, they immediately follow up with a thank you message including a $10 off coupon for their next order. This is a great way to drive repeat business and click-through rates.

Takeaway: Follow up with your subscriber right after they interact with your business or organization. This could inspire them to connect with you again soon.

5. Include a video

Constant Contact customer - town of enfield

Click-through rate: 28 percent

With so much going on every quarter in the Town of Enfield, keeping the community informed of news and updates is no small feat. Rather than asking their subscribers to scroll through a long email with a list of updates, the town decided to include a video update. This is a great way to get information out to their community and increase readers’ email engagement.

Takeaway: Consider including a video in an upcoming email. You might be surprised how engaged readers will be if you present information in a new format.

6. Announce something new

Constant Contact customer - Galuppi's

Click-through rate: 39 percent

Have something new going on at your business? Let your email subscribers feel special be making them the first to know. In this email, Galuppi’s restaurant offers their contacts a first look at the new menu. They also add a promotion of an upcoming event right below the announcement. This gives readers a specific date when the might want to come in and try out the new menu offerings.

Takeaway: Generate excitement and drive action by providing your email list with an exciting update.

7. Use Buttons

Constant contact customer - gorilla doctors

Click-through rate: 30 percent

If your readers aren’t clicking on links as much as you’d like, consider adding buttons to your email. Buttons are often especially useful for mobile-friendly emails, so that readers can click links easily on smaller screens. In this email, nonprofit Gorilla Doctors, encourages people to engage with their content and donate to their cause with brightly colored, attention-grabbing buttons.

Takeaway: Try out buttons in your next email and see if your click-through rates are higher than usual. If you notice a difference, look for more opportunities to add them to upcoming emails.

With these tips in mind, you’re ready to create emails that are more engaging than ever before.

Get started today and use one of the examples above as inspiration for your next email. Try it out and come back to this post to let us know if you notice any changes in your audience engagement.

Still not using email marketing? Sign up for Constant Contact and get a free 60-day trial!