89. Grow Your List + Build an Email Welcome Series with Firepower! - Jonathan McCoy, CFRE and Becky Endicott, CFRE

6:23AM Mar 12, 2021

Speakers:

Julie Confer

Becky Endicott

Jonathan McCoy

Keywords:

freebie

email

mission

email address

gift

people

organization

series

talk

sign

friends

reply

give

donor

feel

connect

becky

community

understand

step

Hey, I'm john.

And I'm Becky.

And this is the we are for good podcast.

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So welcome to the good community. We're nonprofit professionals, philanthropist, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.

So let's get started. Hey, Becky.

Julie, Happy Friday, everybody.

So good to be Friday. Good to see you Friday.

I wish you all could see, this is a little behind the scenes peek into we're for good, but we play our intro live every single time because it helps with, as with recording, and the things that we do while the intro is going on there to make the other ones laugh is really I don't know if it's disarming or like keeping us to break.

We got to keep it like you know, keep it light. But thanks for hanging out with us today. We have been unpacking website over the last couple of weeks because it's the home for your nonprofit on the web. Or if you're a social good business listening today, it is the place where people are coming to learn about you. And what a gift right? I mean, seriously, we come at this space with gratitude. But I hope that you're looking at it that way too. Because what a gift to have somebody on your site wanting to learn about your mission, we have dialed in calls to action, getting our sites really clear about who we are what we exist for. And let's say they've made that wonderful thing of clicking to give you their email address. Oh my gosh, it's like the gold at the end of the rainbow. Right? Yeah, I guess that's my St. Patrick's Day plug for. But it really is I don't think people understand the currency that goes along with having someone's personal email address and the way that you can one on one, connect with them in a way that could be so smart, so human, and so compelling, that would make them kind of want to come into your house and maybe look around a little bit more. So we're going to dive into what happens when you get that email address, because it's the steps afterward, that can really onboard your donor well, and have them understand what you were trying to achieve with your mission. And you can do it well. And you can do nothing. And let me just tell you, there's a lot of people that don't have a welcome series don't have a freebie and you are missing out. But we're going to get you caught up to speed today because it's so important. Totally. And I'm sorry if we kind of beat this drum a lot around here. But we talk about the value of an email address like Becky just described, because friends, we get real wrapped around what are our follower count on different social media platforms. And it's such a visual front porch to our companies and organizations and a lot of ways, but really, are you getting that jazzed about how many email subscribers Do you have, because that's really this currency, that's not going to get blocked to you. And the algorithms change or be owned really by a different entity altogether, if one of those social platforms changes the way that they work or disappears at one time. So like this is where you want to invest just simply on that front. But what we want to talk about today is now you've got the email address, now what but laying back step two, two steps, because if you have somebody in your website, and you're trying to figure out how to optimize the call to action to get them to subscribe, we want to start there. Because you know, we've talked a lot about you need to have a goal really with everything that you're doing. It gives you your Northstar. One of the goals we've encouraged you and our guests, Dana Snyder, who is really an expert in social media that's been on this past season, one of the greatest goals you can have is growing that email list. And I think we've given you a lot of reasons today of why that makes sense. But if you start with that goal in mind, it's going to inform your entire strategy on your website. If your goal is to get an email subscriber, think about how your calls to action, the buttons that are going to be clickable, the things that are going to be most obvious on your website are going to say, hey, come join for x come, you know, join our list and get x. We want to talk about what that x is today. And what's that little carrot that's at the end of the stick of why somebody would want to give you their personal email address in today's world with so many messages, what's it going to take to get that and we think it's a freebie. It is a freebie and I just am here to say the welcome email, maybe the single most important email that you send ever in your organization. Because we have one chance to make a first impression. And somebody has already taken the big leap of faith to give us their email address and say I'm interested enough that I want to look around and see what's going on here. I want to understand who you are, what your vibe is. And it is something that is such a gift to us and it's like as Mark

We want to take that little piece offering that they have given to us with their email address. And we want to create something that is so engaging, so inspiring that Yeah, we might even have something like a freebie where they could come and get value add that that would be a total surprise, I think for a lot of people. But at the end of the day, welcome. emails are four times more likely to be opened and five times more likely to get click throughs than your normal.

Yes, the welcome emails are four times more likely to be opened, and five times more likely to get click throughs. Okay, so friends, this really matters is what that means is that what you're doing with the email address, right, when someone gives it to you is, this is your moment to shine. And how are we going to make that the most irresistible thing that allows them to fall more in love with their mission feel more connected to you, and honestly know what the next right step is to go deeper in that relationship with you. So if we've been tossing around the word freebie, and that is foreign to you, a freebie in its simplest form is just something that you're going to give that has maybe some value to it. But it probably doesn't cost you anything to provide. But you're the expert, you're giving them something of value, just for signing up for their email list. So it's really simple, it probably sounds a little more complicated than it really is. So I think it makes a lot more sense. Just looking at examples. If you're a humane society, for instance, it's sign up and let us send you what to do with the first 90 days if you're new family member in the house. Oh, I love that. You know, another one I can think of is when I gave to the Guardian group, which is an awesome organization out of Oregon, we talked about it a lot that's trying to eradicate sex trafficking, they sent me an email that says, here's a quick video that's going to walk you through signs that you can look for to know that someone is being trafficked in your community. And I actually did watch it, I thought it was fantastic, easy freebie, it's right there within their expertise. If you're in healthcare, it could be a host of different topics. I mean, I think you can get more granular with this. But think about the fact you are connected to some of the most brilliant minds probably in your state. Or maybe the country develop a freebie that serves people about that particular care area that maybe you want to lift to the surface, maybe it's a downloadable guide for new moms, or something that would walk somebody through how to, you know, find the best support when walking through cancer, or whatever your topic of interest, link arms with somebody that can create value, and provide that for free just for giving an email address. And honestly, you probably have this stuff already exists, it probably exists somewhere in your organization we were talking about when we saw the other day. And it was sort of an inner city arts program. And they have a great website where they say come and look at our videos online. And it's like, right before you let them have that come and watch these videos of these children's performances. Just put a sign up with an email address right there, sign up with an email address, and we'll give you have access to these incredible performances. You don't have to create something from scratch, that's multi purposes. You know, it could be something wonderful that you have now. But we do encourage you to take a hard refresh if you do have something and find a way that it would be very meaningful. And to John's point, add value to your new subscriber. Yeah, because right away, you're just creating this really great relationship, they've asked for something, you're immediately providing that and like what a great symbiotic start to this relationship. So I think it's important that before we go any further, you've got to dial this end with automation, because this is not something that you can just be sitting around all hours of the day waiting to reply when somebody signs up. This is things that in today's world, there are lots of different ways to automate this, it may be through your CRM, or it may be through an email marketing provider, maybe through your website provider, but stand up the automation to make this happen. Because what you don't want to happen is someone to sign up and then they have to wait days, weeks to hear from you. Again, they're signing up in the moment. So you want to deliver that value as soon as possible. And through automation, that's completely possible. So get out your programs and figure out how to launch that we're not gonna go into all the detail today. But Google, literally save your life. I feel like that will help you do something so impactful without making you do anything, if you know what I mean. I mean, you are truly can stand that up one time, yes, we want you to go back and refresh and make sure that that message is fresh that the freebie is fresh, and you need to revisit that. However, you know, this will be something that saves you time, time time, which we know you all need. So another thing that we want to encourage you to do is to work on your tone. And you've heard us say this a million times. This is the time to get out of that robotic corporate voice. Because if they're really having a first introduction to you, we don't want to sound like a big corporation. We want to sound like we're a human and that there

talking to us switch that language from, we're doing this and we are trying to eradicate and turn it back on its head and talk about the donors impact. The volunteers impact what the community is doing to influence your mission. So that's moving from less we language and more you language. And we really just want to humanize the organization so that they seem like someone who really wants to get in lockstep with us to help move this mission forward, it's going to require you to be less buttoned up, you're going to have to be more relaxed, more chummy, more cheeky, get personal, um, anyone who's read any of our communication or seen any of our posts know that we tried to keep it really light. Kind of like at the beginning, we talked about this episode. But it's like, we want somebody to feel like they know someone that they can connect and relate to the person on the other side.

Perfect. So okay, we've talked about the freebie offering, that's going to get somebody on your list that's going to kick out automatically. They're falling in love with the tone, they're feeling it. So let's talk about like what happens next, like really, literally what happens next, you really want to think of this onboarding, this welcome series as a journey. It's not just an isolated event, but you're starting this relationship with someone, even if you maybe personally know them. They've never, you know, subscribed to you before. So you want to walk them through this journey together. And so if you really think about this welcome series as a journey, I think it's going to set you up in a lot better framework, because it means you don't have to literally tell them everything in the first email, you don't have to give them 40 things to do in the first email, your it's a journey. So you literally you're going to have lots of connection points over the next days, weeks, months, years, where you can tell them all the things, it doesn't have to happen on day one. But you really want to focus on it just one step at a time. I think that's a good place to start.

Absolutely. And I've seen it actually even some of the shortest ones. The shortest intros and email replies that I've seen when I've signed up for a mailing list are some of the most impactful one, they're so concise, they're so focused, and they can be incredibly heartfelt. So don't feel like you just need to add a newsletters worth of content into that email. So one little hack that we might suggest for you is to suppress your new subscribers from your regular stream of communication and tell they have received all the emails in your welcome series. So I know that's going to create a little bit of extra step and heartache probably on your upside, but it really will be well worth it because you're onboarding them in a way that makes sense. We're not usurping any of these details, you know, that could be happening now before we've actually told them who we are.

Okay, I think that's a really great point. Because as you think about the journey that we're on, it really is a cadence. And I love that word. I think it's a musical term, right?

It is

an embarrassed myself here, but I love that word, because it's about things just being in sync with each other and you want to feel in sync, this is your first opportunity maybe to connect with this donor or this prospect. And so you want it to feel logical, you want to take them on this journey. So this cadence that we're going to really unpack today is three parts. And so we want to walk through that. And this can be obviously adjusted to fit your goals a fit your mission, and you should absolutely be doing that. I think this, this overall is a good place to start. And the first one would be a welcome email. So what is a welcome email, it's the Hey, we're glad you're here. It's delivering that freebie. It's a follow up with a link to maybe provide that if they haven't received that from the click through. But it's also just super heartfelt include what your mission is, you know, include maybe a story or a video, what's a really compelling way to connect somebody right away with your mission. It's also an invitation to connect to other social channels. And again, this doesn't have to be a hard call to action. But providing those links, I think right away if somebody is really bought in, and they see that you're on Instagram, and they're a big instagrammer. That's such a great time to engage them in that way, because they're looking for ways to engage with you. Some of our favorites to have included like a founder story, like where did it all begin? And what a great place to start. It's kind of tone setting. It also feels insider ish if the founder is setting the tone for this new friendship relationship that has started.

Yeah, and I want to give a shout out to the 19th. And for anybody who doesn't know about the 19th it is an incredible female led news organization turning up the most incredible content as it relates to women and empowering women. And when I got their reply to their welcome series, it came from their editor. She said reply to this email. Here's my personal email address. Tell me why you subscribed and how we can help you. I felt so endeared to that mission immediately. And of course I took the time to do it. I wonder how many did just because when anybody asked me my opinion, clearly, I'm going to talk I'm a talker. So I just think the heartfelt component is a great way to just keep your mission at the center, keep the beneficiary and the impact at the center and just be kind In the way you welcome someone into your organization love that first one. The second one is focus on the partnership, ask them to do something to help your mission. And no, that's not good making a gift or not ready to ask them to make a gift. But we're asking them very gently if they would like to lean in to the mission of which we are trying to solve or trying to elevate. So this could be something like maybe you want them to sign a petition, maybe they could take a survey and give you really valuable information. You could give them tips on how they can advocate for your mission. Maybe you need some volunteers for a particular program. And of course, this one's my favorite, you know, just simply ask them if they could do one good thing to partner with you. Ask them why they subscribed, why they're interested, I mean, take that 19th approach and say, why are you here? What can we do to serve you, and I'm here to tell you as a storyteller, the the advantage you can get of looking inside someone's heart of why they're here, understanding their why not only does it set the tone for communications, leaning forward, but it absolutely will set the tone for future gifts that you're going to, that you're going to ask them for. Because you understand their why, and who knows, you will have find something out that you would have never understood about this individual had you not asked, and you will have content for days to share everywhere, that will be powerful testimonials. And

people love to be asked, in our experience, I think giving people the opportunity, a microphone to show the care that you want to hear their story is just not only strategic, but it's also good to be seen.

Absolutely. Okay, so

we've we've had the welcome we've done the partnership is really kind of that second one, the third email in the sequence would be the ask. And again, this could tear out longer, because we're trying to just welcome and introduce people into your mission. But it's the time to be a little bit more specific. They've had time they've been nurtured somewhat. And it's time to get specific about where do you need support. And I think this can be where you build some of that case, if you need to share a story about the ultimate service or the product that maybe that you're leading toward? Or just the impact of giving what could $50 do, please don't do all the things we're saying we're just trying to throw out some ideas, some ideas, but make the giving a number that they could attach to, you know, what does $50 do at your organization, if you had a very pointed email about, Hey, this is the power of $50 here, and you're asking for a $50 gift, you're so much more likely to get a $50 gift as a result, because again, people are going to respond to specific direct action. We know that in fundraising, we know that that's just true. Just in the same way asking someone for their story, they're probably not going to reply and just randomly tell you their story, if you don't ask. So put it out there and keep it short. Keep it visual, but do it.

Yeah. And I just think your first task is an important one. And we you've heard us say it a million times, try some stuff. You know, we don't know what the number would be. We don't know what the project would be. But if it is, if you're finding and you've tested out that $10 is the best way to get everybody in through their first gift, make it $10 steward the heck out of that $10 make them feel like rock stars for it. And don't you know that if they had an incredible experience felt that their impact made a gift, they're going to increase that gift. And that, my friends is how we not only acquire, but it is how we retain and we you know, we're here to die on that hill because we see the numbers going down on retention for our mid level and base supporters. And this is the way we're going to get them back in. So thank you, john, for the S now let's talk schedule. Because you're probably thinking, how often should I shoot these emails out because we don't want to be someone that just peppers, people who come into our organization, you know, with a fiery group of emails over and over, we don't want to overload inboxes. So this is what we would say we would say first, send that freebie ASAP. So as soon as they put in their email address that freebie needs to be triggered. Right after that the first welcome email will need to come in within the first 72 hours. And you know, if you want to be a rock star, I would say 24 hours if you're trying to set a stretch goal, but you know, if it's automated, this could be done so simply and so easily. I would shoot for the 24 hours, but we're giving you grace with 72 because we don't want to overwhelm you, and everybody has to start somewhere. And then the second email the partnership should go one week after that first welcome series. And the final one your ask should go one week after the partnership. So it's really just a three it almost is almost like three weeks where you can get all of your onboarding in and that's not a huge gap, that they'll be left out of all your others suppressed out of your other communities. So in three weeks, we really think that you could work somebody all the way to making their first gift and starting to have an incredible donor experience with you. And

you said this, but we believe this here, and we have seen it. So just be so helpful. But, you know, email is one of those assets that is digital, right? So we are not like building a foundation on a house that can never be moved. It's it is the prime medium to try stuff. So why not, you know, set this up and see how it goes. And then constantly be looking at your metrics. And that's something I want to throw out here today is just get in there and be familiar with what is your open rate? What is your click through rate? What's your unsubscribe rate? And how does it look on each of your welcome series? Is it trending up? Is it trending down? What's happening, if you get familiar with those, you're going to be in a position to where you can try stuff and pivot. Although I hate the word pivot, sorry,

I do hate the word pivot. But I actually like it. Because I do think that this is a bit of a dance when you first start out. And it's going to be a little awkward of stopping and starting at the beginning. But once you figure out your sweet spot, I am telling you, you will be the Rockstar hero of your nonprofit taking in your stats into your executive director saying our welcome series has been able to transact you know, a 55% first time gift rate, that would be shocking, that would be so culturally altering that I think it could really change the dynamic of how people come into your organization. And how you're doing what we love to say is our value number one, treating everyone like they matter. So let's go into some helpful tips. JOHN, I think one that I'd like to throw out is, again, to John's point, throw those social channels at the bottom, you don't even have to say come and be our social friend, even though we probably would encourage you to say that in directing them where to find you online. But just put those buttons at the bottom, it could be in the footer, because we want to find more ways to engage with them. That's not just email.

And then another hack that we like, is just use it as an opportunity to introduce different people throughout your mission. So you know, it's really typical that it's probably the leader of the organization, maybe that first touch point, the founder story, but use those follow up emails as an opportunity to showcase a different person that's either touched by the mission, or that works on behalf of the mission. And I think you can get creative with Who are those people in your world, they bring their own voice, they bring their own story. And we love showing that even in the signature line, how are you connected to it? What's your passion here? Just this nother level of connection, because that's what this is all about is just trying to, you know, grow connection in a really automated way.

Absolutely. And I think the last thing that we want to say is, be sure that you're not doing this once and calling it one and done. We need to be constantly refreshing our welcome series, we want to make it relevant with the times if you want to throw on your Bernie mitten meme, you know, for a couple of weeks. Well, I hope it never goes away too. But how brilliant would that have been? You know, if somebody had had that for the first month and you know, January or February, it's like be relevant be be cheeky, you know, be relatable, be authentic, I can assure you that if you can bring some humanity into the way that you engage, it is going to be reciprocated. And that is only going to lead to a more enriching experience and relationship with this individual. Okay,

so do we convince you It's time to go set up the welcome series and celebrate the email address Okay, let's not miss this. Someone wants to hang out with you. This is really to

go get it We're so proud of you. And you know, we'll have we have a lot of other freebie resources that we've outlined that we didn't go through all of them that could be some freebie ideas for you to check out the show notes. If you're having trouble figuring out how to leverage what what your freebie could be and where you could add value. We really want this to be as frictionless as possible for you. And we want web to be fun. At level up your web game. Engage. I think it's really going to be an incredible thing if you can implement a first level welcome series. You got this friends were cheering for you.

Thanks for listening to today's conversation about welcome series and freebies. You probably hear it in our voices, but we love connecting you with the most innovative people to help you achieve more for your mission than ever before. We'd love for you to come join our good community. It's free and you can think of it as the after party to each podcast episode. It's our own social network and you can sign up today at we're for good comm backslash Hello. One more thing. If you liked what you heard today, would you mind leaving us a podcast rating and review? It means the world and Your support helps more people find our community. Thanks friends. I'm our producer Julie Confer and our theme song is sunray by Remy Boris boom. Thanks for being here, everyone.