Email 101

Back in the springy haze of March, I wrote a little post about email.

Emailing your friends is still the bread and butter of winning at online fundraising. Sure, there are lots of other ways you can alert people to a Justgiving page, what with the emergence of Facebook apps and widgets and so on and so forth. Email is still kicking referral posterior though, and here's why:

It's important to recognise the concept of direct and indirect asks, and the differences they can make towards smashing your target. As I mentioned in the previous post about email, it's super-important to break people up into groups and change the message content accordingly.

You can even use different methods for different groups. Many JG'ers call close friends and family about sponsorship first, or speak face-to-face, and then follow it up with an email reminder in case they forget the url.

You can then follow it up with group emails to everyone at work and your other friends and family you might not see as often (that guy from uni whose name you've forgotten, and Uncle Bob, for example).

Once everyone's been directly asked, that's when all the Facebook / MySpace / blog widget action can start kicking into gear.

I've got loads of Facebook friends whose email addresses I don't have to hand, but I can send them all a nice link to a JG page by building a new group, or adding the Facebook app to my profile.

Purely adding the app on its own without an ask can spur curiosity from folk you don't speak to that often, or Facebook 'friends' who you'd have difficulty classifying as a proper friend. You never know, if your personal message is good enough and they've forgiven you for that time you broke their xbox/kissed their sister/appeared as an extra on Eastenders, then they might sponsor you.

It's their choice, and that's the whole point. If it's a great cause, and it's visible to enough people who have at least a passing recollection of who you are, it can all help towards raising those vitals funds. There's plenty of time too, you can keep updating things on networks and help build a story around what you're doing. It not only provides a nice history of what you did, but it's something to follow for everyone that knows you.

Have you got any tips on how you've managed asking everyone for sponsorship? Share it in the comments or email me.