Email marketing is a relatively easy and inexpensive way to reach existing and potential customers, without having the face-to-face interaction that phone or in-person marketing requires. Email marketing helps to build loyalty and trust among current customers, drive repeat sales and increase your sales volume. Tools can be used to help create and send personalized emails that add a personal touch to a company’s email list.
Consider including an eye-catching or emotional appeal in your email campaigns, such as a note that explains why the sender feels so personally connected to the specific nonprofit organization. In addition, leverage social media when sending out email marketing messages. The best email marketing software for nonprofits allows users to schedule campaigns, track results and perform other advanced functions.
What is the best email marketing software for nonprofits? The answer you get will probably depend on what is important to you, for instance if your non profits need help with design the better choices will be google for nonprofits or zoho campaigns.
As a nonprofit, making the most of your budget is a priority. That’s why most nonprofits choose inexpensive software that gets the job done, without compromising on features or quality. This guide will help you find the best email marketing software for nonprofits by explaining how to compare your options based on cost, features and ease-of-use. We also explain how to set up a brief test to see which suite is right for you.
Why You Need Email Marketing
Sounds like a great growing opportunity, right? Almost everyone checks their emails daily. Why not use this to your advantage? You can easily keep your customers informed and send automated emails such as welcome emails and abandoned cart emails, accesses to customers through mobile devices, customize your messages and so on.
SendPulse
If you want to reach your ultimate goal of generating more donations from your email marketing campaigns, you need to continually grow your list. One of the best ways to do that is to create sign-up forms for your website so that people who are browsing your site can easily give you their details.
SendPulse lets you choose the type of sign-up form you want to create.
When creating these forms, it’s important to think about layout and page placement so that you can generate sign-ups that don’t disturbing visitors’ flow.
SendPulse lets you choose the type of form you want to create, for example:
- Embedded
- Pop-up
- Floating
- Fixed
You can choose either a vertical or horizontal layout for the form, and you can also edit the notification text the person receives after sign-up.
SendPulse also lets you track the success of the form in generating sign-ups using either Google Analytics or Yandex.Metrica.
ActiveCampaign
Email marketing works best when it’s integrated with all of your other marketing channels. That’s one of the principle email and digital marketing tips you’ll read in any Marketing 101 tips.
For example, you could use social media to generate more sign-ups for your email newsletter.
Or you could use SMS marketing and push notifications to quickly let customers know about new campaigns or urgent appeals that need their attention.
ActiveCampaign lets you communicate with donors in different ways from the same place.
As ActiveCampaign is an all-in-one marketing suite, it provides this functionality in one channel. By integrating multiple channels in one platform, you can communicate with your donors in different ways from the same place.
For example, if they have signed up for a fundraising event, you can schedule an SMS to be sent the morning of the event to remind them.
GetResponse
People are busy, and they receive tons of emails every day.
It doesn’t matter that you work for a nonprofit organization, you still need to create engaging content that will cut through the noise. It’s not an easy task, but there are a couple of ways you can make your life easier.
First of all, the subject line is crucial. You need to personalize the subject line and make it interesting enough to entice people to open your newsletter. Secondly, you need to test different elements to see what resonates with your subscribers.
Every organization is different, so what works for one nonprofit might not work for another.
GetResponse lets you test different email options to see what works.
GetResponse provides a wide variety of options for A/B testing your campaigns, including subject line, delivery time, the from field, and content. It lets you test five different subject lines for each message and personalize each one.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact provides a high email delivery rate and that is what marketers care about more than anything else. With high email delivery rate, you ensure that all your emails land directly into inbox and not in the spam box.
While many email marketing tools also have a cap on how many messages you can send in a month, Constant Contact doesn’t. This helps you send emails to a large list or run multiple campaigns in a month.
Most importantly, it lets you collect online donations securely and you can track donations on a custom landing page.
You can also send an email invitation with RSVP capabilities—Yes, No, Maybe—built-in. Your subscribers would be able to respond easily to upcoming fundraisers, volunteer events, or other programs.
| Pricing | $20/mo for up to 2000 contacts |
| Discount for Nonprofits | 20% discount when you opt for a 6-month plan & 30% discount when you go for a 12-month plan |
| Trial | 30-day trial but requires you to signup with your credit card |
| Customer Support | Call support is from Mon-Sat & Chat support from Mon-Fri with fixed hours. |
| Features that stand out | High email delivery rate, Easy to use editor |
| Refund Policy | No refunds |
MailerLite
It’s a beginner-friendly email marketing tool that’s good for small or mid-size non-profit organisations.
With MailerLite You get a drag-and-drop editor, landing page, and form builders all in one email platform.
You can use their tag system to create different categories of people and send them targeted emails. The automation builder is easy to use and provides 4 options at any point – delay email, send email, any condition (email opened, link clicked etc.) and action.
MailerLite doesn’t have a dedicated section for reporting so it’s not recommended if you need comprehensive reporting. You will find “Stats” under “Subscribers,” and “Reports” under “Campaigns”. These stats and reports will give you the key metric required to judge the email campaign performance and list health.
| Pricing | Pricing is straightforward – based on number of subscribers. All plans get access to all features. |
| Discount for Nonprofits | 30% discount on paid plans |
| Trial | 14-day free trial to premium features |
| Customer Support | Email & Knowledge base for all plans , Live chat for premium plans. |
| Features that stand out | Segmentation is easy. Landing page builder, pop up form can be created. Easy to use. |
| Refund Policy | No refunds |
Sendinblue
SendinBlue is a feature-rich platform that provides not just email marketing but also SMS, landing page builder, Facebook ads integrations, signup forms, etc.
You can find templates for creating emails as well as landing pages. If you know HTML or have your own code, you can create these from scratch too. Their editor is an easy drag-and-drop type.
You can choose from the 9 pre-built workflow templates or create something from scratch. The workflow editor is also visual and all you need to do is select the element to add.
To maximise your open rates and increase engagement, you get a ‘send at best time’ option that will automatically send an email based on the time when the recipient is most likely to open it.
For reporting, you get the basic metric (open rate, click-through rate etc) and also email click-map, google analytics integration and geo-tracking.
You can also use SendinBlue to send SMS to your audience.
| Pricing | Pricing is based on the level of features provided & email quote per month. Lowest paid plan is $25/mo which comes with 100K emails/month & only some set of features. |
| Discount for Nonprofits | 20% on all paid plans |
| Trial | Forever free plan with restriction of 300emails/day |
| Customer Support | Email for all plans. Phone & live web chat for premium & enterprise plans. |
| Features that stand out | Robust automation, SMS functionality |
| Refund Policy | No refund unless there is technical error from their end |
Moosend
Moosend is an email marketing platform suitable for small to midsize businesses. It provides an intuitive experience across all its features – email editor, landing page, automation flows etc.
Apart from drag-and-drop editor, you get 40 email templates to choose from. These can be used for various use cases.
For segmentation, you can add different triggers to then add certain subscribers into different groups. For example, if a recipient clicks on a link in a previous email, then you can add them to a list of potential donors, volunteers etc, who might be interested in a specific cause and follow up with more emails in your targeted automation sequence.
Their segmentation does more than just adding first names to your emails. It provides behavioral content based on subscribers’ tags.
They also offer a pay as you go plan. This would work if your non-profit sends email only during certain months or doesn’t have a fixed requirement each month.
| Pricing | Pricing is based on number of subscribers and features required. Although it’s pretty simple with 2 paid plans. Lowest price is $8/mo for 1000+subscribers. |
| Discount for Nonprofits | 25% discount on all paid plans |
| Trial | Forever free for upto 1000 subscribers without adding its own branding like other forever free services |
| Customer Support | Live chat, help documents and webinars |
| Features that stand out | Website live tracking, list segmentation and landing page creation |
| Refund Policy | No refunds |
Kindful
Recommended for: Nonprofits of any size looking for donor management and CRM software that integrates with the best-in-class email marketing providers.
Favorite feature: Kindful BCC. Even if you’re using Gmail to send your emails, you can take advantage of Kindful BCC to track all of your email communication with your contacts and donors.
Favorite integrations: With Kindful, you don’t have to give up the email marketing software you already know and love. Simply connect your software and your data will automatically sync both ways, allowing you to segment your communication to different groups.
Kindful works with:
- Mailchimp
- Constant Contact
- Emma
- And many more apps
Pricing: Monthly, contact-based. Kindful’s pricing starts at $100 per month, and it’s free to integrate Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Emma, and any other apps you use. Nonprofits also receive free phone and email support from our Nashville-based Support Team.
Basic Features of Email Marketing Apps
- Ready-made Customizable Templates: You can design the appearance of your emails to attract more customers
- Automated Messaging: Automatic delivery system
- Segmentation: Easily segment your customers based on set criteria to send more personalized emails
- Reporting: Track customer behaviors, revenue, campaign performance, and other metrics
- Deliverability: Reliable delivery and delivery timing
- Email Sending Limit: Consider how many subscribers you need to send email to before choosing the right app for you
- A/B Test
- Easy Integration
- Pop-up Sign-up Form
Conclusion
Nonprofit marketing software is an online form of advertising software that lets nonprofit organizations create a landing page for advertising campaigns and capture email addresses of potential donors and volunteers. These tools for nonprofits also let you track your campaign’s performance, send out newsletters, and create donation forms.
The best email marketing software for nonprofits is a tough question to answer. There are many factors like costs, storage limits, mailing list size, and additional free features that can impact which email marketing software is the right choice for your nonprofit.