Not Quite Nonprofit, But Still Doing Good?

Greetings!

Many of us are members of small groups which do plenty of good in our communities, and are beginning to explore Internet technologies to assist in our work.  Because tools on the Internet are largely sold to individuals and companies (including nonprofits), these small groups depend on key individuals to act as the group's administrator and owner of the online resources.  This inhibits collective use of the tools, causes confusion when key leader owners depart from the group, and slows experimentation with newly-developed tools.

My work encouraging civic participation in local government recently caused me to realize how similar the ambitions of my local city were to those of these small groups.  Each are seeking to better perform three functions related to serving a wider audience:  publishing and distributing materials to recruit and educate interested persons in how to get things done, having more detailed conversations with those persons about the problems they are encountering;  and creating and allowing access to detailed information on the topics of their interest.

For small groups, this means:

1. Using email publishing and distribution programs to broadcast their messages, and which builds a database which can be used to provide useful followup information and contact.  
2. Creating access areas on the Internet where persons interested in the group's focus can link up, discuss each other's needs, and make plans for further contact.  
3. Having a permanent home where the group's body of content is available and accessible for all.

Local governments want their online presences to do the same things.  When I helped fashion their website presences decades ago, we used the tools available then to create easy ways to accomplish pieces of the three functions above.  This involved describing services and other content, and including links to key staff emails.  In time, however, most government websites failed to incorporate any other innovative tools and capabilities which have been developed.

So what is now available for small groups that I recommend?

First, understand that most of these resources have to be entered into by an individual who will be responsible for fees, regulatory agreements, and general responsibility for the tool.  Though it's possible to share content development and management with others, someone has to be the owner and responsible party.

Secondly, success in the use of these tools comes when you focus on user needs and interests. Newsletters, group emails, announcements, and other one-way messaging only succeed when they allow members to navigate to more detailed content on specific interest areas which engages them. Links to group Facebook, Twitter, Google Blog, YouTube, or other online social media pages provide them with arenas to comment, enroll, or ask for further information.

Last week, I used my own emails to find some nonprofits which regularly send me requests using these combinations of online emailing programs and social media presences.  Here's a spreadsheet of the results.  It's still a work in progress, but it does give us enough clues to provide directions.

In order to better understand the top three online emailing programs, I enrolled in the trial free-version of each.  I used a group of email names and email addresses which I had from a small group of which I am a member, and went through the steps necessary to use each for the purposes you have indicated you seek.

Here are my thoughts on each.

MailChimp - Easy importation of members, strong tutorials, serious emphasis on permission and double opt-in procedures. Templates = ?, linkages to Facebook, Twitter.  Cost = Free for under 500, or

Things to Know

Building a campaign is a little like baking a cake, in the sense that you should have all the ingredients lined up before you start. Find and edit your images, compile and edit yourtext, and find the right links for your click-throughs.

You'll build and design your campaigns in the Campaign Builder, where you can send a campaign immediately, or schedule it to go out later. As you get started, explore our Knowledge Base articles on Campaigns to help you along the way.

After you send a few campaigns, learn about advanced targeting and scheduling withAutomation.  

Types of campaigns

The first thing you'll do in the Campaign Builder is choose what type of campaign you want to send. There are four campaign options, each with different, flexible settings, so you can choose the one that fits your needs.

• Regular Campaigns
  The most common type of campaign, you can design and customize your content, and choose whether to send immediately or schedule your campaign for later.
• Plain-Text Campaigns
  These are the simplest form of mass email you can send. As the title suggests, these campaigns contain only text and have no formatting options.
• RSS-Driven Campaigns
  RSS-Driven Campaigns allow you to automate your email marketing by combining content from an RSS feed with user-friendly MailChimp templates. Like the other campaign types, you can control when these campaigns go out and who receives them.
• A/B Testing Campaigns
  Use an A/B Testing Campaign to test things like your campaign subject line, from name,  content, and send time. We'll send up to three versions of your email to a small part of your list, track its performance and send the winning version to the remaining subscribers on your list.

Campaign vs. Template

An important distinction we make at MailChimp is the difference between our templates and our campaigns.

As you know, a campaign is what we call each email message you send to your subscribers. Templates are the HTML files that serve as the starting point for any campaign. The template you use determines the layout of your images and text. Essentially, it's a container for your content.

The Template step of the Campaign Builder asks you to select a template for your campaign. We have a lot of predesigned templates for you to choose from, so if you aren't an HTML whiz, you'll still be able to create and send great-looking campaigns. Look for Drag and Drop templates, to make the process even easier.

If you are an experienced coder, you can also edit our templates, code your own, or create an editable template with our Template Language.

Building a campaign

The Campaign Builder walks you through the entire process to set up, design, and send your campaign. Here's a brief description of the steps in the Campaign Builder when you create a Regular Campaign.

Recipients

In step one, Recipients, you'll tell us who's going to receive your campaign. You can choose a list, a saved segment of the list, or create a new segment.

Setup

In step two, Setup, you'll input important details about your campaign including the email subject, from name and email address, and whether you want to personalize the To: field for your subscribers. This page also includes settings for Tracking, Social Media, and other options.

Template

Step three, Template, is where you choose what template layout to use with your campaign.

• Basic templates are simple layouts.
• Themes include images and color schemes.
• Code Your Own templates are completely customizable.

After you've used MailChimp for a while, you'll see templates appear in the Saved Templates and Campaigns tabs, too.

Design

Now you're ready to design your campaign! Step four, Design, is where you will actually design your campaign and add your content. Click anywhere on the template you've selected to bring up the editing pane and get to work!

You can use the navigation bar to Preview and Test your campaign at any time, which we encourage you to do often. If it looks good to you, you can move on to the final step.

Confirm

The final Confirm step shows you all the decisions you've made so far. This checklist displays whether each item is complete, can be edited, or has a problem that needs to be resolved. You can return to any of the other steps from the Confirm screen, or click toEdit or Resolve anything that needs attention.

If everything looks good, click Send to distribute your campaign right away, or clickSchedule to tell us when you want the campaign to go out. Scheduling campaigns is helpful if you plan a series of emails, or if your subscribers need your message at a specific time, but you won't be in front of the computer then.

At any time in the Campaign Builder, you can click Save & Exit to save your work so far and return to another section of MailChimp or Log out.

So now you know a little more about how to create a campaign in MailChimp. As always, check out our Knowledge Base, Glossary, or Video Index for more information.

Constant Contact - within 60-day trial, unlimited email to 100 contacts.  For $20/mo, 1 Gigabyte of storage, unlimited emails for 1 user.  For $45/mo, 2 Gigabytes for 10 users, more support for campaigns. FAQs, Videos, and Webinars available at both levels.

Welcome to Constant Contact

Get a quick informative overview of Constant Contact’s easy-to-use editor, contact management, and reporting.

1:25

Verify an Email Address

Verifying your email address is the first step to getting your email campaign ready to send. Learn how in this short video.

1:23

Managing My Settings

Learn how to customize the settings within your account.

2:45

View Your Campaign Reports

Check out trends in your campaign reporting and drill down to specifics, all under the Reporting tab. This short video will show you how.

1:47

Create & Send an Email

Get an overview of how you can create a professional-looking email, from start to finish. We'll touch on choosing and customizing your template, sending, and tracking your success with reports.

3:47

Using Your Campaign Design in Constant Contact

When our Custom Services group has finished creating your Campaign Design Template, you can edit, modify, and re-use that design in your account.

2:06

Using Survey

Surveys can help you engage, learn, and gain insights from your customers. Learn how to start customizing one in this short video.

1:21

Manage an Event

Promote and maximize attendance at an event with our Event Promotion and Registration tool that allows you to manage an event online from start to finish saving you time and streamlining your efforts.

1:11

Import Images and Documents

Learn how you can upload images and documents to your Constant Contact library from your computer, social media accounts, mobile device or our stock image gallery.

1:48

Adding Images to Your Email

Images can be the difference between someone hitting "delete," or checking out what your newsletters have to offer. See how to do it in our short video!

3:06

Add a Link to an Image

Learn how to make an image a clickable link that leads to your website. In just three minutes, we’ll show you how.

0:58

Global Colors and Fonts

See how easy it is to customize the colors and fonts in your emails to match your business.

1:47

Insert Anchor Tags

Adding anchor tags so people can easily find what they’re looking for in your newsletters is simple. In just two minutes, our video will show you how.

2:03

Insert PayPal Button

In just a couple of minutes, we'll show you how to add PayPal buttons that boost sales and donations right from your newsletter by adding a PayPal button.

2:03

Add Links to Email

Adding links to your email is an easy way to increase engagement and direct traffic to your website, social media pages or to other important content.

1:08

Insert Video Link

Videos are a great way to grab your audience's attention, so we made sure adding them to your communications is a breeze. See how!

1:20

Insert Social Media Buttons

Make it easy for your contacts to connect with you on your social media pages too. In this short video we'll show you how.

1:18

Promote Your Emails with Facebook Advertising

Create an Facebook ad that displays your latest emails to a new audience.

1:59

How to Use Social Share

Create, schedule, and manage how your emails are shared on social media sites in a few easy steps.

2:13

Collect Donations

Collecting Donations online saves you time and allows you to reach a broader audience. See how easy it is in this short video.

1:23

Add Contacts to Your Account

You can add your contacts and any number of details about them to your account. We'll show you how in this short video.

3:36

How to Import Contacts

Importing your contacts from a file is easy. We’ll show you everything you need to know in this short video.

1:59

Manage Your Bounces

Keep your list clean and high-performing by managing your bounces. In this short video, we’ll show you how.`

3:50

List Management

Learn how to add, delete, or rename your lists to keep your contacts organized and effective.

3:14

Use Tags to Segment and Target

Create targeted emails and give your contacts the information they want most by using a combination of lists and tags. We show you what you need to know in this short video.

3:54

Create a Did Not Open List

Re-engaging with "lost" contacts is an important step in growing your business. Learn how you can create a list of contacts that did not open your email.

1:29

Text to Join

Make it easy for subscribers to join your list through their mobile devices. In this short video, we’ll show you how.

1:49

Grow Your Contact List

A strong list of email addresses helps you get great marketing results, so we included lots of free tools to help you add new contacts in Constant Contact. Take a look at few in our short video.

1:17

Create a Web Sign-Up Form

In just a few minutes, we'll show you how to customize your web sign-up form and link to it on your website.

3:48

Create an Embeddable Sign-up Form

Encouraging website visitors to subscribe without taking them from your page is easy. We’ll show you how in this quick video.

2:03

Customize Your Welcome Email

With Constant Contact, it’s easy to make a great first impression. Learn how you can customize the automatic welcome email that's sent to all new contacts.

4:03

Vertical Response