I’m writing a new e-book to be published this spring by our good friends at Network for Good on how you move from doing a print newsletter to an email newsletter. If you’ve been through the process, you know it’s not as easy as it sounds!

Do you keep doing the print version, or for how long? How does the content and frequency change? How do you get email addresses for people you’ve only communicated with in print? How do you explain all of these changes to your supporters? You have many strategic decisions to make about your newsletter that go way beyond the technical decisions required to actually get a decent email newsletter out to your list (we’ll cover those in the e-book too).

We want to include lots of examples and stories in the e-book, and that’s where you come in! I’ve set up a quick survey to collect some of your thoughts and experiences about this process of moving from print newsletters to email newsletters. If you are anywhere in this process from just considering it to having completed the transition, I’d love for you to take the survey.

Thanks!

Don’t see the survey form below? Go here.

Love the daily blogging? Great! If not so much, switch to Kivi’s weekly email newsletter with blog highlights and then unsubscribe from the blog’s emails.

That’s the question that the MetroWest Health Foundation asked today on Twitter.

Turns out that the current name of the e-newsletter is  . . .  ”E-Newsletter.”   Here’s what it looks like.

I do have a ton of nonprofit e-newsletters in my inbox called “E-Newsletter” so it’s not like that’s a horrible thing. But the fact that everyone does it also argues for being a bit more original. Plus I’m just not a fan of being so literal about everything we do. (Side note: Read Katya’s post today on why you should not call your annual appeal letter your “annual appeal letter” in the actual annual appeal letter copy! I agree wholeheartedly.)

I don’t know what MetroWest Health Foundation should call its newsletter, but here is how I would work through the decision.

First: Where’s the Value to Readers?

Why do people want to get the newsletter in the first place? What do they get out of it?  Newsletter names like “Healthy Hearts” or “Faces of Hope” would fit this description. You can also put the category of reader in the name, like “The Memo for Busy Moms.” Conveying that value or that sense of membership in the name reinforces the decision to read it.

Second:  What’s Special about the Content?

What stands out about the content? Is is truly timely,  a la “News Flash,” or is it full of advice and resources a la “News You Can Use”? Or is there a play on words related to what you do? For example, animal shelters often use “Tales” in their titles as a play on cat and dog tails.

Third: Fill in the Blank

If you are still struggling, trying filling in the blanks as a brainstorming exercise:

Your ________ Update

The ____ Post

________ Weekly (or Monthly)

________ Insider (or Inside ______)

______ Tips (or Tips for _________)

_______ Buzz

_______ Times

Other synonyms to play with are Bulletin, Brief, Dispatch, Note, Report, and Digest. Add some adjectives.

Here are some other e-newsletter titles that I discovered in my inbox:

National Parks Conservation Association: Park Lines

Grist: Daily Grist

North Carolina Zoo: Zmail Update

The Land Trust for Tennessee: Today’s On the Ground Update

National Wildlife Foundation: Kids Connection

NC Wildlife Federation: Wildlife Wire

Center for EcoTechnology: EcoBytes

What’s your e-newsletter called? Do you have any suggestions for the MetroWest Health Foundation?

Love the daily blogging? Great! If not so much, switch to Kivi’s weekly email newsletter with blog highlights and then unsubscribe from the blog’s emails.

This Thursday (April 7, 2011), I’m presenting a webinar called “Rethinking Your Nonprofit Newsletter: Making It More Relevant for Today.”  I first presented this webinar back in September, and one of the big questions that people wanted to discuss was:

Is it better to keep your email newsletter to members only or make it openly available?

You can replace “members” with “donors” or any other exclusive subset of your mailing list. The question is basically the same.

The answer to this question really comes down to value.

Just how valuable is the content in your nonprofit’s newsletter? Is it more valuable to you to get that information out to your community, or is it so valuable to them that they would call you on the phone looking for it if they didn’t receive it?

Many nonprofits include a newsletter as a member or donor benefit, and therefore don’t send it to others. And in many cases, I think that’s a horrible decision that doesn’t match today’s information economy, nor today’s content marketing strategies. You want to present your organization as a helpful, knowledgeable source on your topic, and you want to do that with anyone who will listen (or read in this case), which argues for more open distribution.

Most nonprofit newsletters are, in fact, more valuable to the organization than to the reader — you are trying to get the word out about this, that, or the other. You would LOVE your readers to share the information in your newsletter with others (whether via forward to a friend or social media).

So why wouldn’t you send that newsletter to anyone who has requested it, regardless of whether they are paid members?

Yes, I’m talking to associations with paid membership dues too. Look at the content you are putting in your newsletter. Could it just as easily appear on your blog, or website home page, or Facebook? If yes, then it’s not really “members only” material in my book.

If you really do want to send something out to members only, you have to make it good. REALLY GOOD. Something that they can’t find anywhere else, at least not in that format, or that quickly. It has to be so good that when they don’t get it, they notice quickly, and miss it. Not having it creates a void, or lets problems they had solved by becoming a member creep back up on them. That’s the kind of content that is worth paying for, and worth locking down behind a pay wall or members-only e-newsletter.

Everything else is just a wasted opportunity on your part to build rapport with others who are not yet paying for the membership (which should be providing value in lots of other ways too — not just via a newsletter).

If you want to learn more about how I think nonprofit newsletter strategy has changed, and needs to continue to change, I hope you’ll join us Thursday!

Love the daily blogging? Great! If not so much, switch to Kivi’s weekly email newsletter with blog highlights and then unsubscribe from the blog’s emails.

Think about your nonprofit’s newsletter. Does this sound familiar?

• You send it out 4-6 times a year.
• If it’s in print, it’s more than 4 pages long.
• If it’s an email, you have to scroll through more than three screens to see it all.
• It’s all about the work your staff is doing.
• It’s written in the third person (“The Center invites community members . . . “)
• Everyone in the office hates newsletter time.

If you see your newsletter in any of these points, it’s time to rethink your strategy.

I’m hosting a free webinar ($10 donation requested) called Rethinking Your Newsletter Strategy on Thursday, September 23 at 1:00 p.m. ET (10:00 a.m. PT).  We’ll take a hard look at nonprofit newsletters and talk about why we do them in the first place. After all, they are time-consuming to produce and if you are printing and mailing them, they can be very expensive too.

We’ll also look at the five critical elements of a successful nonprofit newsletter:

Frequency: How often should you send it out?

Direction: How much of your content reviews the past versus previewing the future?

Personality: Who is featured in the newsletter?

Next Steps: Does the newsletter inspire action, and if so, which ones?

Integration: How well coordinated is your newsletter with your other online and offline communications?

Adjust the five newsletter "sliders" to get your newsletter just right.

Think of these five elements as sliders on a mixing board. You can adjust each element up or down depending on the particulars of your nonprofit, with the sum position of the sliders blending into a newsletter that’s just right for you and your supporters. We’ll discuss the direction that most nonprofits should be pushing these sliders today, while leaving you with the guidance you need to make the right decisions for your organization.

You may register for this webinar for free. However I’m requesting a $10 donation, 100% of which will be forwarded to Positive Wellness Alliance.

I serve on the board of directors of PWA, which helps low-income people infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS in the rural part of North Carolina where I live. Once a year, I host a free webinar where I accept donations for PWA. Last year we collected over $500, and I hope we can top that this year! I cover all of the processing fees, so your full $10 will be passed on to PWA. Julie Meyer, the executive director of PWA, will join us on the webinar to thank you for your generosity!

Get the Details and Register Now

Love the daily blogging? Great! If not so much, switch to Kivi’s weekly email newsletter with blog highlights and then unsubscribe from the blog’s emails.

I’ve been asked to contribute a chapter to an upcoming book called “Nonprofit Management 101: A Field Guide for Social Sector Professionals” that Jossey-Bass will be publishing in early 2011. My chapter will be on crafting an effective newsletter strategy.

I want to include lots of real-world anecdotes and lessons learned in the chapter. Do you have a story you can share about your newsletter experience, either print or email (or both)?

Here’s what I’ll be trying to communicate through the stories:

• Dos and don’ts, especially those that took awhile for you to grasp. What do you know now with some experience behind you that you wish you knew back when you started?
• What’s most challenging about producing a nonprofit newsletter, and how are you addressing those challenges?
• What mistakes have you made that you’d like to spare your nonprofit colleagues from repeating?
• What experiments have you tried with your newsletter and how did they turn out?
• What other words of wisdom would you share about producing a newsletter with someone new to the nonprofit world?

Any stories that help answer one or more of these questions would be wonderful! Please share in the comments or email me directly. If you email, please put Newsletter Story in the subject line.

Thanks!

P.S.  Here’s what’s coming up on the our training schedule . . .

January 21: How to Write a 4-Page Nonprofit Annual Report – A Crash Course Webinar

January 27: Integrating Your Website, Email Newsletter, and Social Media Sites

February 10: How to Write a Quick and Dirty Nonprofit Marketing Strategy

February 16: 10 Ways to Engage Your Facebook Fans

Love the daily blogging? Great! If not so much, switch to Kivi’s weekly email newsletter with blog highlights and then unsubscribe from the blog’s emails.

Print newsletters have been the default communications tactic for nonprofits forever.  Even though I now believe the default should be an e-newsletter, and we are seeing more and more nonprofits drop their print newsletters in favor of email,  print still remains an important tactic for many organizations.

If you decide that sending a print newsletter or other print communications really is the best approach for your audience and for your organization, consider these five steps to reduce your costs. (I’ll share more money-saving tips during Wednesday’s webinar, Nonprofit Marketing on Next to No Budget.)

Ask Your Printer to Recommend Changes. One of the best untapped resources for lowering your print budget is your printing provider. Call up your account representative at your printer and tell him or her that you are considering dropping the newsletter entirely because of the expense of producing it (you won’t be the only one).

Explain that you would like to keep sending it out, but you need to make some changes to make it more affordable. Ask for suggested changes to the paper, format, length, inks, etc. that could bring down the price. Most printers will jump on this right away; if they don’t, take copies of your current newsletter to other competitive print shops and see what they’d suggest.

Reduce the Size. Paper is a huge portion of your printing costs (typically 30-50%), so cutting the number of pages and reducing the size of the pages can significantly reduce your printing costs. The pieces of paper that are run through the printing press are much larger than what you end up with in your hands. Reducing the finished size of your publication by as little as a half-inch can change the way your individual pages are arranged on those bigger sheets of paper, which means you have to pay for fewer of those big sheets.  Changing the size of your document can also reduce your mailing costs. If your printer is also your mailhouse, ask for revised mailing estimates as well.

Use Thinner, Off-White Paper. Changing the weight of the paper (how thick it feels) and the brightness of the paper (how white it is) can also reduce the cost. Just how white does the paper really need to be, especially if you are covering it mostly with text? Subtle changes in brightness that few people will notice can save you quite a bit of money long-term.  And just how heavy should each sheet feel in your hands? The brighter white and the heavier a sheet of paper is, the more expensive the paper will be. The difference in cost between the same sheet of paper in a different weight can be as much as 10-15% of your paper costs. One cost-effective approach for annual reports or other larger documents is to use a heavier, more expensive paper for the cover to give the document the right look and feel, but to use a more affordable house sheet of paper for the insides.

Don’t Be Too Picky About Colors. The more colors you use in traditional offset printing, the more expensive your print job will be. Even if you decide to print in full-color, you can still reduce your expenses by printing strictly in four-color process, rather than requesting full-color plus specific PMS colors. Instead, convert all of your PMS colors to their CMYK equivalent. You can use the Pantone Color Bridge to see the differences in the colors using the two different processes.

The only time this has been a real issue in my experience is when a nonprofit is working with a corporate sponsor that insists their logo appear in certain PMS colors.  Depending on the actual colors, conversion to CMYK may not be a big deal and the sponsor may be just fine with that. But if they insist on the additional PMS colors, you may want to consider asking that sponsor to cover the cost difference, if it really is a significant increase in cost (ask your printer to provide specifics).

Prepare Your Files Correctly. The further along in the printing process that you get, the more expensive it is to make changes. Make sure your documents are proofread several times and approved by everyone who needs to see them well before you send them to the printer. Also ensure that you have prepared your digital files properly for your printer. It’s not as simple as handing over the file from the computer program you used to create the document. You’ll also need to supply copies of fonts and high-resolution images.  Using the wrong or mixed color profiles is another common problem. (Don’t know the difference between RGB, PMS and CMYK? Talk to your printer or a graphic designer before submitting your files to a printer). When your printer has to fix any of these problems with your files, you get billed for them.

What tips can you share for reducing your print expenses? Leave a comment on the blog.

P.S. Join us on August 12 for Nonprofit Marketing on Next to No Budget for more money-saving tips.

Love the daily blogging? Great! If not so much, switch to Kivi’s weekly email newsletter with blog highlights and then unsubscribe from the blog’s emails.

I’ve heard from several nonprofits lately who are only sending their 4-8 page print newsletters to their supporters twice a year. They wish they were sending it more often, but they just can’t make it happen because of time or budget constraints.

My response: What’s the point?

Updating your supporters twice a year on your work is not often enough to keep them engaged in what you do and top of mind when they consider contributing time or money. And each edition of a print newsletter typically costs thousands to print and mail, not including staff time. I really question whether the newsletter is even worth doing at all if you can only do it twice a year.

Instead of spending all that money to contact your supporters just twice, with questionable impact, you might want to try switching over to postcards. Naturally, every situation is different, but in many cases, a full-color postcard will cost about 1/3 of what a typical 4-page color newsletter will cost to print and mail to your list. That means you could contact your supporters six times a year, instead of two, for the same money.

And the best part is that postcards are much more likely to be read, because they fit right in with the way we all sort and read our mail today. In the few seconds we each give a piece of mail in the pile, a postcard can grab our hearts with a great photo (that graphic side is really important), deliver the key point we need to know, and motivate us to take the next step.

What might these six postcards focus on? Here is one possible line-up:

1. Connecting a Donor to a Result. One one side, include a photo of one of your donors — let’s call her Alice — ideally in a setting related to an accomplishment of your organization. On the text side, in three sentences, explain how Alice’s donation helped bring about this great result. Then ask your supporters to join Alice by joining a monthly giving program. Tell them where to find the sign-up page on your website.

2. Encouraging Event Registration. Promote an upcoming event, emphasizing what attendees will get out of it, and tell people how to RSVP. On the front side, include an image that represents your event theme or the good work that will come from the money you raise.

3. Urging Print Supporters to Move Online. Tell them about all the great stuff they are missing if they aren’t going to your website, reading your blog, and subscribing to your e-newsletter. Make your online offerings can’t-miss! On the other side, use a funny cartoon or graphic or a screen capture of something really cool on your website. Or include a photo of your executive director in an “I’m blogging this” t-shirt. Here’s a little more on this from Elizabeth Turnbull.

4. Thanking Your Donors. Reproduce a thank you note from someone your organization has helped on one side and on the other, give us a little bit of the back story on the person. Reinforce that it’s the donors to your organization who really deserve the thanks. Ask supporters to sign up for your monthly giving program or to take some other action in support of your cause.

5. Empowering Your Supporters. What can your supporters do on their own, in their own day to day lives, to further your mission and support your cause? Give them a quick lesson in how to do something on one side, with a picture of someone doing it on the front.

6. Asking Them to Join You and Others. Are you planning a rally? Do you need calls made to legislators or letters sent to editors? State you need them to do, explain the difference it will make, and show your supporters how to join with you and others in making it happen.

Want more? Staying in touch with your supporters regularly is one of the approaches I’ll be discussing during Best Practices in Nonprofit Marketing, a webinar on Tuesday, March 24. I’ll talk more about how to do that cost-effectively next week on Wednesday, March 11 during Nonprofit Marketing on Next to No Budget.  Registration for each webinar is $35 and they are also included with the 12-Week All-Access Pass ($97).

Are you using postcards to market your nonprofit? Share your story by leaving a comment!

Love the daily blogging? Great! If not so much, switch to Kivi’s weekly email newsletter with blog highlights and then unsubscribe from the blog’s emails.

Going from a Print Newsletter to an Email Newsletter – Webinar This Thursday – Get the Details

It seems like every nonprofit I’ve talked to in the last few months is either dropping their print newsletter entirely or carefully considering ways to cut back on the expense of publishing it (e.g. publishing fewer pages or printing fewer copies).

If you are considering moving from print to email, I recommend starting from scratch with your editorial calendar, because much of what you considered appropriate for a print newsletter simply won’t work in email. Here are a few examples:

Letter from the Director. Honestly, these are often ghastly in print because they are typically full of jargon and behind-the-scenes minutiae, all of which is exactly opposite of what works in email. If the director really loves writing that letter, then it’s time to give him or her a blog. Your email newsletter, on the other hand, should be focused primarily on the readers and what they care about and how they can connect to you and your cause. Very brief letters can work, but they must laser-focused on the reader — the letter is simply a format for content you want to share, not an open invitation for the director to ramble.

Calendar of Events. If you have a full page calendar with all the boxes for each day of the week, you can put that online (try Google Calendar, for example), but you shouldn’t try to email the whole calendar. Instead, highlight a few upcoming events and include a link to the full calendar.

Boring Photos. Group photos of your board, “big check” photos, and the like often make it into print newsletters, but waste precious space in email. Photos in email newsletters should be mission-oriented.

Masthead. This is where, in a print newsletter, you’ll often find complete contact information for the group, the list of the board of directors, the staff who work on the newsletter, and the mission statement. While you should include your contact information in your e-newsletter (CAN-SPAM rules require you to include your mailing address), leave the board and staff lists and the rest on your website. You can link to if need be.

Long Articles. Articles in email are much shorter than those in print. Shoot for no more than 500 words. If you need to go longer, include an excerpt in the email and have readers click over to your website to read the full article.

Big Display Ads. The majority of your email should be text, not images. That means those big full-page ads (or even half-page ads) that you include in your print newsletter, advertising everything from your own events to your sponsor’s products and services, need to go. You can create smaller button ads, or even better, turn that advertising into real content of interest to your readers — make what you are promoting relevant to them and to your cause.

Complicated Charts and Graphics. Email newsletters look different depending on which email program you are using to view them, making including charts and tables a crap shoot. Instead, save those items as a single graphic file (e.g. gif) and insert them into your newsletter that way. Remember, they need to be smaller because you are working with less space, so make your graphics as simple as possible.

Want more? Read “Moving Your Print Newsletter to Email – 7 Tips” and sign-up for this week’s webinar, How to Go from a Print Newsletter to an Email Newsletter, on Thursday, December 18 at 1:00 p.m ET (10:00 a.m. PT).

Love the daily blogging? Great! If not so much, switch to Kivi’s weekly email newsletter with blog highlights and then unsubscribe from the blog’s emails.

Photo by aymlis on Flickr

Profiles of donors, volunteers, clients, and other supporters are a staple of nonprofit newsletters. You can also use them in your annual reports and other marketing materials.

Today I posted 25 different questions you can ask when interviewing the people you’d like to profile. These questions will help find that special something about the person that makes them really worth profiling and that will be of keen interest to your newsletter readers (remember, you still need to write for your reader, even when you are profiling someone special in your organization!).

I’ll be sharing lots of tips on how to write personal profiles and how your nonprofit can use them during the webinar on Thursday, November 20, 2008 called How to Write Moving Personal Profiles about Donors, Clients, and Other Supporters.

P.S. Still looking for your thoughts on the 2009 Weekly Webinar Series . . . Here’s the Quick Survey.

Love the daily blogging? Great! If not so much, switch to Kivi’s weekly email newsletter with blog highlights and then unsubscribe from the blog’s emails.

Last Friday, I had the pleasure of speaking at the National Capital Gift Planning Council’s Annual “Planned Giving Days” conference in Washington DC. Planned giving refers to philanthropy in estate planning, like leaving money to a charity in your will or setting up a charitable gift annuity.

My friend Rob Blizard, who was coordinating the Marketing Track, asked me to speak about improving the newsletters that planned giving departments send out. And boy do most of them need some improvement! So, I took three hot trends in nonprofit marketing and applied them specifically to these kinds of newsletters. The presentation was very well received — thanks to everyone in the room for participating in the exercises and asking lots of great questions.

Since these trends can be applied to any nonprofit newsletter, I thought you might be interested in the slides:

| View | Upload your own

(Go to the blog if you don’t see the slideshare window.)

I’d also like to give a special shout-out to J. Erik Potter, who I met at the conference. He reads this blog and writes his own called A Blog on Giving. Thanks for introducing yourself!

Love the daily blogging? Great! If not so much, switch to Kivi’s weekly email newsletter with blog highlights and then unsubscribe from the blog’s emails.