HMC is a creative agency founded in 2011 that uses creativity and community engagement to promote social good. The document provides tips for creating effective email newsletters, including delivering content people want to read, testing subject lines and sending times, segmenting lists, varying message frequency, using analytics to improve, developing clean templates, and including "easter eggs" to boost engagement. The overall strategy is to build relationships and provide a good subscriber experience.

1. THIS IS WHY NO ONE
READS YOUR NEWSLETTER
Tips, Techniques & “The Basics”
UPDATED: MARCH 2014

2. Who IS HMC?

3. Creative Agency for Good

4. WHO IS HMC?
• Founded in March 2011
• Here’s My Chance (HMC) is a “creative agency for good”
• HMC empowers organizations to capitalize on the
influence of community, content, and social impact
• Using our creativity to make a positive impact on the
planet is a core mission and part of our business model

5. Dave & lansie
• DAVE GLOSS
• Co – Founder and CEO
• Avid Meditator
• Creative Strategist
• dave@heresmychance.com
• @davidgloss
• LANSIE SYLVIA
• Director of Engagement
• Ampersand Enthusiast
• Fundraising Maven
• lansie@heresmychance.com
• @fancylansie

6. ELLIOT COWAN
• Creative Director of Here’s My Chance
• Very British
• Masters in Industrial Design
• Soccer fan, tea drinker, sneaker addict, swimmer, street art fan

7. WHAT will we talk about?
• How you should think about an e-newsletter & why you need it!
• Content delivery
• The little details (subject line, titles, who is it from)
• Testing & data analysis (sending times, volume, A/B testing, lists)
• Design & templates
• Easter eggs?
• Strategy
• Extra tips & tricks – ta da!!

10. DELIVER CONTENT that
PEOPLE WANT TO READ

11. • Once you've captured somebody's attention, it's yours
to lose.
• Develop a reputation for giving your constituents what
they want, and they'll be more likely to read your
messages out of habit.

12. TELL THEM WHO
IT’s FROM
• The "From" line is often the first thing people look at
when your message arrives in their in-box.
• I believe e-mail should come from a person, not an
organization. I use the format "First Last, ORG."

13. WORRY ABOUT YOUR
SUBJECT LINE
• Subject lines have become even more important as
webmail and smartphones have become ubiquitous.
• Try to keep them factual and descriptive of the content
of the message.
• Try to avoid going with the first thing that pops into your
head.
• For more, Kivi Leroux Miller has great suggestions –
www.nonprofitmarketingguide.com/blog/2010/11/03/7-tips-for-email-subject-lines

14. TEST, TEST & TEST
• There's no reason to go with your gut instinct when so
many email providers have A/B test functionality built
into their dashboards these days.
• And, even if yours doesn't, it's worth the effort to build
your own test lists every now and again, especially for
your most important messages.

15. TRAFFIC
VERSION A VERSION B
20%
Conversion
Rate
25%
Conversion
RateWINNER

16. TRY PLAYING WITH
SENDING TIMES
• People are most likely to look at a message when
it pops up on their screen with little competition.
• Industry standard is people look at messages just
before they go to lunch, just after they get back,
and just before they head home.
• There is even a theory that Saturday morning is
the best time, too!
• Look when you get things sent to you from your
newsletter subscriptions.

17. SEGMENT YOUR LISTS
Even if your organization is focused on a single issue,
cross-sections will respond differently to your messaging in
spite of their shared interest in your mission.

19. • Segment people by:
• Job type
• Organization
• Gender
• Activity level (number of events attended, messages opened, etc.)
• Subject line can be different or even change the entire
message.
• Social media has taught people to expect a more
personal experience.

20. VARY YOUR MESSAGE
VOLUME
• Some of your constituents will want to hear from you
MORE often than others.
• Some of your constituents will want to hear
from you LESS often than others.
• If someone attends lots of your events and
opens all of your emails it is an opportunity
to contact them more often.
• Look for the best opportunities to
reach out to the unengaged.

21. DATA IS KEY. USE IT TO
YOUR ADVANTAGE!
• You need to keep track of how often your subscribers
want to hear from you.
• Which subject lines work best?
• What time is the most effective?
• If you don’t pay attention and look over your data you
won’t be able to improve.

22. • This goes back to the whole "deliver content people want
to read" idea…
• If your constituents know that your message will just ask
them to donate again, they'll likely get tired of it.
• Mix it up!
• Send out important news, a free offer,
a cool conversation happening on your
Facebook page.
• Build a relationship with your members.
Don't always ask
for something

23. • A nice, clean, easy-to-read and understand template can make
it more likely that your subscribers will want to open your
message.
• It is good to have multiple templates that have different
functions, such as…
• Latest News (1 large picture and article for special events)
• General Email (multiple pictures and stories)
• What’s been happening (summation after events)
DEVELOP A GOOD
EMAIL TEMPLATE

26. INCLUDE SOME
“EASTER EGGS”
• It helps to find out how many people are reading
emails all the way to the end.
• It's okay to include fun links in your messages;
bonus points if you can make them relevant to
the content.
• Vary the placement, so they'll have to at least
scan your entire message to find them.
• This is just another form of engagement,
and engagement is the name of
the game!

27. DEVELOP A STRATEGY
• It's one thing to try a few of these suggestions to boost your
open rates, another to plan it out.
• Lay out a plan.
• Implement it.
• Record the results.
• Tweak the plan.
• Try again.
• Treat your subscribers well and they'll reward you by actually
reading the messages you spend so much time putting
together.

28. BONUS TIPS – TA DA!
• CLEAN YOUR LIST! - It's more important to have an active,
engaged list than a big list that never does anything.
• PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS – It’s the same as the ads that are on
your screen after you’ve visited a store online. You can do the
same.

29. UPCOMING events
& webinars

30. Questions?
Elliot Cowan
Creative Director
elliot@heresmychance.com
www.heresmychance.com
workwithus@heresmychance.com
@hmctwit