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TESTIMONIAL

"Karen, these emails are terrific. Your emotional framing of the issue is great, as is the 'Send a lifeline' language you've conjured up."

Stephen Mills,
Creative Director,
Natural Resources Defense Council


View Karen's most recent ClickZ columns on B2B Email Marketing.

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Fundraising Emails

Polar Bear E-Appeals Bring in 10X More Donations

Polar Bear Email #1
Polar Bear Email #2

My first assignment for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) was to write an e-appeal campaign on the terrible plight of the polar bear, the first animal to face extinction from global warming.

During the creative briefing with the client, we reviewed the perils facing the polar bear. I had heard many of the effects of global warming before, but there was one fact that put a chill down my spine. There had been reports of polar bears drowning as they struggled to swim greater distances to disappearing Arctic ice sheets.

The thought of this happening to the world's strongest swimmers literally haunted me. In my mind, I could envision these magnificent Arctic creatures struggling during their arduous swim and finally giving up from exhaustion and sinking into the icy Arctic sea.

The challenge, though, was to convey this all in a subject line of 45 characters or less!

Email #1 Subject Line
Polar Bears Drown: Click to Send a Lifeline

That's where some of my B2B email training came in. I've learned that to catch the attention of busy executives, you need to front-load the first 15 characters of a subject line with the most compelling "key words". In this case, the three words, "Polar Bears Drown," summed up the whole tragic story.

For the 2nd part of the subject line, I wanted to encourage people to contribute, but did not want to use the tired phrase of "donate now." Instead, I used the phrase, "Click to Send a Lifeline", which ties into the drowning imagery and spurs the natural desire to help.

Here's the email that readers saw when they clicked. Like most fundraising emails, the message features an eye-catching photo, a caption, and a "donate now" button - which basically tells the whole story.

The message itself, which was sent during the holiday season, is written to highlight the stark difference between the "warm and fuzzy images of polar bears that are everywhere you look" with the "reality at the North Pole which is much more grim."

The whole approach seemed to resonate with donors. This email brought in over $220,000 in donations in 2 weeks - almost 10X the average email campaign, which typically brings in about $18,000. Based on its success, we sent this follow-up email.

Email #2 Subject Line
North Pole to Melt by 2040: Urgent Polar Bear Appeal

The week before this email was written, The New York Times reported a new scientific study grimly predicting that the Arctic summer ice could be gone by 2040.

Since this email was being sent out so close to Christmas, I decided to refer to the Arctic as the North Pole. The idea that for the next generation, the North Pole might really be a myth was chilling.

And so, this email started off, "Yes, Virginia, there really was a North Pole ... and polar bears ... and all sorts of amazing Arctic creatures. But they're all gone now."

The photo showed open water - a future-forward picture of what the Arctic Ice will look like in the summer of 2040 - with no ice.

While this email did well, generating over $80,000 in donations (which is 4X more than the usual email campaign), there are two reasons it may not have performed as well as the first one. First of all, this email was a follow-up, so all the "low hanging fruit" may have been picked off in the first email. Secondly, there was no heart-tugging photo of the polar bear. It may be that people are moved more about helping animals than they are in protecting landmasses.

To me, the success of this pair of polar bear emails reinforces what I learned in "direct marketing 101." Rather than writing in generalities, it's more effective to focus on specifics that will capture the reader's attention. For example, instead of saying in a general way that terrible things are happening to polar bears - focus in on the most shocking aspect of their plight. Or when talking about global warming, don't talk about the big issues, which are too overwhelming for people to comprehend. Instead, talk about what you're going to tell your children when there's no more North Pole.

By the way, if learning about perils of the polar bear moves you to want to help, go to www.polarbearsos.org to:

  1. Sign an online Official Citizen Comment to help win critical Threatened Species Protection for the bears (deadline April 9) and
  2. Send a lifeline by donating online.

If you are looking for emails that resonate with your readers, contact Karen for a writing consultation.

Karen's ClickZ Columns on B2B Email Marketing