Your Nonprofit Ezine: Why Should Readers Subscribe?

Award-winning writer Kathy Widenhouse has helped hundreds of nonprofits and writers produce successful content and has gained 600K+ views for her writing tutorials. She is the author of 9 books. See more of Kathy’s content here.

Three out of four organizations say they publish a nonprofit ezine or email newsletter at least monthly as a way of staying in touch with partners, donors, and prospects, according to our good friends at Nonprofit Marketing Trends.

How Do You Build Your Ezine and Email List?

Manual additions. Much of the time, readers are added to your email mailing list by you, either manually when you make a contact with them or as part of your automatic subscribing mechanism (which opts in online customers or donors) when they make a purchase or give a gift.

Opt-in additions. Yet nearly all nonprofits have a “Subscribe to Our Ezine” box on their websites (or “Get Updates” or “Stay Informed".)

Why do readers voluntarily opt to receive email through these boxes ... and how can you learn to capture readers that way, too?

Reasons Why Readers Opt In

Think about it for a minute.

All of us have chosen to opt in to various email lists at one time or another.

Why do you?

• When there is an appealing offer. If there is a compelling freebie involved you're willing give up your email address, whether for a special report, e-book, or some other information piece that meets a special need or is particularly appealing to you.
• When it’s from an expert. The publisher or blogger is recognized in his or her field for their expertise. You want to keep up with what he has to say, whether it’s about medicine, politics, faith, or football.
• When there’s helpful information. A newsletter regularly publishes facts or stories that are helpful to you in your work or a special interest. “Weekly Tips for Parents of Pre-Schoolers” or “Diabetes World” will pull in qualified audiences.
• When you want to understand the competition. Readers opt in to mailing lists regularly to get the scoop on what their competitors are writing about or doing. Joining mailing lists is an excellent way to get article and blog ideas.

If these are good motives for you to subscribe to an online newsletter, then they’re equally good motives for your readers to opt in to your nonprofit's ezine.

Make sure you motivate them. Give them what they want.

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