Can email rot your brain? According to this study sponsored by Hewlett-Packard in 2005 – yes! Compulsively checking email can actually reduce your IQ. While I feel I have a pretty good grip on email checking, it occurred to me while reading this, that (like most people) I am overwhelmed by email every day. With so much information coming at me at once, I’ve found it necessary to skim over emails for important information and disregard the rest. For example, I receive several different kinds of eNewsletters, but do I ever make it through the entire thing, reading every word? If only I had that much time… Usually I look for what’s most interesting to me (be it an article for improving my web design skills, an article on human rights in Burma, or some new and strange finding on Neatorama) and skip over the rest, or make a mental note to read more later (which usually ends up being much later…like never).
What does this mean for nonprofits sending out eNewsletters? As with any email (or any written work for that matter), know your audience. What are they interested in? What motivates them? This may seem like a no-brainer, but it is one of the most important aspects of an eNewsletter.
Also, keep the design clean and simple. Nowadays, with the ability to do so much with Photoshop and CSS, it’s tempting to get a little fancy, but when designing an eNewsletter, it’s important that the design allows the reader to focus on the content, not the other way around. Not to mention, many email providers do not fully support CSS, so that beautiful design may end up a garbled mess of broken images and x’s in your constituents’ inbox if you’re not careful. To avoid this, check the email across several different email providers, like hotmail, gmail and yahoo and tweak where necessary.
Linking back to your site is also important. Provide a link to the homepage in the header and 3-4 teaser articles. Then link to the entire article for your constituents to read more. This keeps your email short, while not skimping on content and drives people back to your website. If they are inspired by what they see and read, you may even motivate them to donate. Either way, your constituent is happy to receive an email that piques their interest, gets them passionate about your organization and is easy to read. And that just might contribute to a healthier IQ.
