Email marketing is really important to GOSH Charity. We use it to speak to our supporters all over the country. They could be gearing up to do anything from climbing a mountain or running a marathon, to hosting a bake sale or organising an event at their child‘s school.

It’s so important to use email appropriately, and when you do there are huge benefits to the charity and your supporters.

From our experience, here’s how we believe charities can benefit from email marketing:

1) Starting your conversation

Contact with your supporters is vital to beginning and maintaining a good supporter journey.

Whether it’s the introduction to their event, a message to check in and see how they’re getting on with their fundraising, or to wish them good luck the night before an event, email enables you to tailor your communication to the right level for that supporter and the challenge or event they are taking on.

2) Putting stories at the heart of the campaign

Your supporter has chosen to fundraise for your charity and there’s a good reason for that. It could be because your cause means something to them personally, or they think it’s a worthy one to get involved with.

Email is a fantastic place to remind your supporters of this. Sharing a case study of someone who has been helped by your charity is a powerful way to show the real difference your supporters are making.

Use real life examples to help encourage your supporter to the next stage of their challenge.

3) Essential essentials

As a fundraiser you’ll already be well aware of the huge amount of important information that needs sharing ahead of an event.

Sending it via email means it’s easily accessible to your supporter and importantly, trackable by you. You can see whether your supporters are opening and reading the key details they’ll need ahead of their event, and you can optimise your emails accordingly.

4) There’s no ‘I’ in team

It is useful to show how your supporter is part of a fantastic team, making a real difference – ‘Team GOSH’ as we have here.

You do need to make time and space to acknowledge their effort and success within the wider team context. Personalising your content will help you let them know they really do matter and their individual efforts are making a difference.

5) Setting up your signposts

Email marketing is just one of many ways we communicate with our supporters. But it’s not the only one. You can use email to prompt people to start communicating with you in different ways.

Including links to relevant parts of your website about other campaigns they might be interested in, or to your social media pages for quick and bitesize updates from the charity can be a great way of building further engagement. This will ultimately help lead to a lasting supporter relationship.

Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity raises money to support the most urgent needs of Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and the seriously ill children the hospital cares for.