Lesson 1) Tips of Email Writing

Lauren Miller reviews the importance of email to a political or issue campaign, and discusses basic structures that create effective emails. She also reviews 10 tips for writing effective emails.

Email is not dead. That's right, we said it. Email remains the backbone of any online organizing program to drive your organization's message, engage supporters and enhance everything else your program is doing. This session will cover the mechanics of writing a strong email, creating a straightforward landing page, and planning a message calendar.

Writing Effective Emails Checklist

• Develop an email calendar and coordinate with other departments.
• Create a process flow to handle rapid response. Breaking news doesn’t wait for you.

• Know your audience and what move them. Not sure? Give them a short survey.
• Segment your list and provide something for different levels of supporters.
• Keep your supporters engaged and walk them up a ladder of engagement.

• Choose 1 or 2 people from your organization who will engage with supporters.
• The voice of the email should come from this person.

• Supporters open/skim your email based on the Subject Line and From: line.
• Should be engaging and action oriented.

• First sentence should grab your supporters.
• Two-four short paragraphs, link to a landing page. Two-four more paragraphs, same link.
• Write in a conversational tone and tell your story over a narrative arc.
• Never send without an ask (e.g., sign a petition, watch a video, make a donation).

• No hard and fast rule, but as often as you have something important to say.

• Thank supporters for every action they take, and especially welcome new supporters.

• Page to send supporters from the email.
• After supporters act on the first ask, give them another ask (daisy chain).

• Monitor your initiatives and track the progress (e.g., open rate, click through rate).
• Keep the conversation going by providing updates/action items.
• Don’t be afraid to try something new.