As a fundraising coach, I take a critical look at fundraising letters and emails. It’s always thrilling to be pleasantly surprised!
Last week, I was pleasantly surprised to look in my inbox and see this email subject line:
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Email subject line: “You made this happen.”
Isn’t that a great email subject line?! I couldn’t wait to figure out what “this” was! What did I make happen.
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Then the email falls apart
Unfortunately, Milton lost an opportunity. When I opened the email, this is what I saw:
Crickets. There isn’t even a creative use of “alt” tags.
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Remember: many of your donors don’t enable images. Be ready for that!
Fortunately, when you click the “show images” button, you get to this is awesome image:
The importance of a strong email subject line
Do you see the importance of a strong email subject line? The line “You made this happen” aroused so much curiosity that I was willing to load images even after the school had fired a blank email to me. I knew the image must be really cool, so I did load it.
As you’re getting ready to finish your emails for the end of the year, please forget the awful “There’s still time” emails. Just because June 30 is the end of your fiscal year doesn’t mean it’s an important date to your donors. Your job is to inspire action, not naps!
Try something a little more creative. Like the great email subject line from Milton Academy’s email!
Agree with you on the simple and powerful language of the email subject. I love simple but effective communication. Add me to the list of people who don’t have images enabled automatically. You have to have alternate text in place for people like us.
Thank you for confirming about the alt tags! 🙂
I agree simple but effective is best! The first step is to get them to open the email without deleting it.
Thanks, Angela!