Choosing the Right Email Marketing Software for Your Nonprofit
If your nonprofit is like many others, you have some type of email marketing software for sending email messages that support your fundraising and marketing efforts. There are many effective email marketing software products that have been available for years. However, newer tools are emerging that give nonprofits more choices and more sophisticated capabilities.
So, if you’ve been using the same email marketing software for a while or if your software doesn’t do everything you need it to do, it might be time to find new email marketing software for your organization. Let’s look at some key considerations as you think about the tools your organization uses for email marketing.
Email marketing tools available for nonprofits
Email marketing tools for nonprofits generally fit into four main categories:
- Industry-agnostic email marketing software – These tools are widely used by businesses and organizations of many types and sizes and can be cost-effective. Popular products in this category include Campaign Monitor, Constant Contact, and MailChimp.
These types of products can be a good fit if your nonprofit needs a tool with basic, solid email functionality. However, they typically do not have more advanced or nonprofit-focused features that other options might provide. - Email tools built into nonprofit software products – Several fundraising and nonprofit customer relationship management (CRM) software products have built-in email marketing tools and functionality. These include platforms from companies such as Blackbaud, Bloomerang, Bonterra, Charity Engine, Engaging Networks, Neon One, and Virtuous.
You might find these email tools to be extremely handy since they’re built into the core software you might already be using across the organization. However, if your nonprofit has more complex and growing email marketing campaigns, you might find that the email functionality included with the software lacks the more sophisticated capabilities you need. - Nonprofit marketing-focused email tools – Some newer email marketing tools have emerged that are specifically for nonprofits. Feathr is a good example of this type of tool. If your nonprofit is looking for more sophisticated marketing capabilities, you might find these types of tools attractive because they integrate with commonly used nonprofit software and support more complex marketing campaigns and AI-powered capabilities.
- Enterprise-level CRM platforms with advanced email marketing capabilities – CRM platforms from companies including HubSpot, Microsoft, and Salesforce offer sophisticated email marketing solutions that integrate with the companies’ solutions for nonprofits. These email marketing solutions are continuously evolving and increasingly support email marketing automation and AI-driven functionality, making them attractive options if your nonprofit has sophisticated and complex marketing needs.
How to choose the right email marketing software for your nonprofit
With so many email marketing tools on the market, how do you choose the right one for your organization’s needs? Here are some things to research and think about as you search for the right email marketing software for your nonprofit:
- Ease of audience segmentation – Segmenting your audience and sending targeted email messages makes your email communications more relevant to recipients and can improve response. Look for a solution that aligns with your organization’s audience segmentation needs. For example, does it allow you to segment your audience based on previous interactions, transactions, demographic data, and other areas that you want to target?
- Integration capabilities – To segment your audiences accurately, your email tool should be able to integrate with other software in your organization, such as your donor management and/or CRM systems. Consider the key systems that you use to track constituent information and make sure the email marketing software you choose integrates well with them.
- Ability to create email journeys – You might want to create email journeys, which involve the ability to set up multiple email messages and automatically send a specific message or series of messages to specific audiences based on their interactions with your organization. So, think about your organization’s marketing strategy and how advanced your needs are in this area. If you require this type of functionality, it’s a good idea to ask potential product vendors to give you a detailed demonstration of how this functionality works in their product so that you fully understand its capabilities and how easy/difficult it is to use.
- Ease of email design – Consider the complexity of your email messages and the skill level of your staff members who will create, edit, and send email communications. For example, if you include lots of visual elements, videos, and conditional content in your email communications, but your staff does not have a lot of email design experience, make sure it’s easy to build those elements into emails or at least create email templates that can be easily used and reused.
- AI capabilities – Artificial intelligence capabilities are becoming more common and have the potential to help you create email messages faster, and even build more impactful email marketing campaigns. Consider your organization’s marketing strategy, and think about how much you would like to incorporate AI in your campaigns. Some AI-powered capabilities to look for include the ability to:
- Generate initial drafts of email communications
- Identify audience personas and segments for marketing and fundraising campaigns
- Determine things like who to contact, how often to contact them, and what messages would be most impactful in your communications
- Generate initial drafts of email communications
As you can see, there’s a lot to consider when you’re looking for the right email marketing software for your nonprofit. Cathexis Partners is ready to help assess your needs and evaluate email marketing software options to find the right match for your organization. Contact us today for more information and to get started.
