The wonder of email newsletters – part 2

05Jun08

I have a further wonderful example of how not to grow your email database that I thought i’d share. I won’t say which charity this is, but suffice to say, they should know better. A lot better.

I signed up to receive emails from Charity X on 23rd March, via their website. I didn’t hear a word – no confirmation, nothing – until the 30th May. The first thing I received was a non-personalized email trying to get me to buy a gift for Father’s Day, despite having asked me for my name and birthday on signing up. Why bother asking for a name if you’re not going to use it?

Now, you might be thinking that this is going against what I wrote yesterday. After all, i’ve not received monthly ‘newsletters’ that are telling me all sorts of very uninteresting stuff that’s not going to engage me with the cause at all.

And that’s why it’s so frustrating. If Charity X had written me a confirmation email and in it stated that they don’t send regular emails, but only when they have some interesting news or a special request for help, then that would have been brilliant. Perfect in fact. I’d have received my Father’s Day email safe in the knowledge that this was obviously an important message that Charity X had felt compelled to share.

Maybe the sun coming out has put me in a bad mood. But I can’t help thinking that examples like this is why so many not-for-profits struggle to retain donors.

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