For many nonprofits, email marketing is focused less on selling a product and more on building long-term relationships with potential donors. Features built into email marketing platforms to maximize sales may not be as relevant to a nonprofit. Instead, look for email marketing tools that automate manual tasks and make the most of your limited resources.
Here are a few email marketing tools to consider.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is one of the more popular email marketing tools out there, and for good reason. This platform offers easy ways to segment and automate your email campaigns. Set up separate messaging for your donors, potential donors, constituents, and volunteers and automate sending times depending on your goals. Mailchimp syncs with nonprofit tech tools like CRMs and online donation platforms and offers a 15% discount for nonprofits if you choose to upgrade from its free version.
Campaign Monitor
Campaign Monitor is known for its analytics dashboards, which can help you see which email campaigns are most effective at meeting your fundraising goals. The templates available in Campaign Monitor are highly customizable — you can even create personalized campaigns down to the individual supporter. It’s used by big-name nonprofits including the Cure Brain Cancer Foundation, UNICEF, Girls Write Now, and Library of America. Like Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor offers a 15% discount for nonprofits.
[Read more: Keep It Quirky: 5 Small Business Owners Share Their Best Email Marketing Tips]
Flodesk
Flodesk is a comparatively new entrant into the email marketing market, and its user experience stands out as a result. The templates in Flodesk are beautifully designed — perfect for nonprofits who don’t have a designer on call — and link to templates for donation pages and forms, enabling you to design a discrete campaign in just a few clicks. Flodesk can integrate with other nonprofit tech tools and it offers unlimited email sends each month at a flat rate of $38/month.
VerticalResponse offers all the features you need in an email marketing platform, plus the ability to send 10,000 free emails per month as a nonprofit.
Emma
Emma is owned by the same parent company as Campaign Monitor, but offers slightly different features—namely, automation. With features custom-built for nonprofits, Emma can help your organization organize its data, reach more donors, and make the most of each email you send. This platform integrates with Eventbrite, SurveyMonkey, and other tools to help you run an end-of-year giving campaign with ease. Emma’s higher-tier pricing makes it a powerful tool for nonprofits that send multiple email campaigns a month; a subscription starts at $99/month.
EmailOctopus
Don’t let the cute name fool you — EmailOctopus has a lot to offer, starting with free email templates that allow you to create campaigns that look good on any device. For nonprofits on a budget, this platform can give you everything from drip email sequencing, custom reporting, form integration, and imported contacts to let you make the most of your email campaigns. Plus, the starter plan is free and nonprofits get a 20% discount off the paid plan.
[Read more: 5 Steps to Setting Up Your First Drip Email Campaign]
Benchmark
Benchmark email platform is perfect for nonprofits that may be a little short-staffed. This tool’s AI does the heavy lifting of managing email campaigns, even doing some of the writing for you. Its Smart Content writing tool uses AI to suggest email copy, Smart Sending will schedule and send emails for you, and the RSS email option enables you to send emails directly from a blog or other RSS feed. There’s plenty of help built into Benchmark to keep your email communications running in just a few clicks.
VerticalResponse
VerticalResponse offers all the features you need in an email marketing platform, plus the ability to send 10,000 free emails per month as a nonprofit. Along with marketing automation and integration with other nonprofit tech tools, VerticalResponse offers A/B testing and custom landing pages so you can hone in on your messaging and see what your donors are responding to best. Nonprofits can get a 15% discount on emails beyond the 10,000 free ones you get per month.
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