Your Promotion Awaits (or “Saving loads of money for your non-profit by delivering your newsletter electronically”)
January 15th, 2007 | by Ryan Stewart |I’m certain the “powers that be” have considered delivering your non-profit’s newsletter electronically, but I also know that, in many cases, that’s where it ends - at consideration. Let’s take a few minutes to find out why the idea of electronic delivery dies prematurely and how you, as a dedicated employee, volunteer, or board member can breathe new life into this opportunity. After that, we’ll outline the reasons it makes sense for most non-profit’s to deliver online. Next, I’ll give you a rundown of exactly how to make the switch to electronic delivery in just a few easy steps. Finally, I’ll make a few suggestions for alternative/additional ways you can deliver your newsletter online.
“We fear that which we do not understand” - unkown
It’s often the case that non-profit’s and businesses alike avoid technological advance in their organizations simply because they do not understand how it works. It’s safe to say that everyone in your organization is comfortable with postal service. They can see the mail carriers, they can see the envelope and the stamp, and they have faith that the letter (or newsletter in this case) will be delivered in a reasonable amount of time. At the same time, most people with email receive newsletters whether they realize it or not. However, because they don’t realize how it works, they assume that it must take a technological genius to establish the workflow. Not true.
“It’s just not in the budget” - every non-profit officer who ever lived
This one is especially for you board members and officers. I’d like to start by turning this quote around. Hear this . . .
Your non-profit can’t afford NOT to be delivering newsletters online.
Online newsletters require nothing more than a webserver (which I’ve mentioned is free for non-profits) and about 2 hours for setup. The webserver collects the email addresses for you and delivers the messages to your list whenever you say so. Outside of that, you’re already doing everything you need to do to send out a newsletter (for instance, the writing). Without spoiling the detail that I’ll cover in a few days, I can tell you that it costs nothing to start delivering your newsletter online, but it could save you thousands of dollars.
What am I forgetting? Are there reasons your non-profit is avoiding going electronic? I’ve yet to hear a valid reason that an e-newsletter campaign shouldn’t exist, even if only to supplement the existing paper version. Please let me know if there’s some reason I’ve overlooked by posting in the comments below.
In the coming days we’ll take a look at . . .
- The pros (and a few cons) of using e-newsletters
- A step-by-step guide for setting up an e-newsletter
- Alternatives to email delivery of your e-newsletter
In summary, sending your non-profit newsletter is not difficult and it is cost free (thanks to dreamhost). Stick around for the next few days to see how you can save your non-profit cold hard cash (that can be used for programming) by utilzing a free service to deliver your newsletter electronically.
