SAMPLES: OPERATION SMILE
Five Things About Operation Smile Email
I had two tasks upon arrival. One was handled pretty much immediately. The other never ended.
1. EMAIL CODE
The task handled immediately was converting emails into mobile friendly code. It produced an immediate and dramatic improvement in results.
Boxed Samples
This page blends five overview points with specific writing design samples.
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Code for email is a niche thing, a mix of the cutting edge and stuff that's state of the art 1998. Just like in the early days of the web, when there were big differences between Netscape and Internet Explorer, there are dozens of email clients and a blizzard of quirky little differences.
So I spent my time remembering seemingly random and silly things — margins won't work on a paragraph in Outlook, you can't use a negative margin in Gmail. Over time you build up a code library, a series of templates. You test constantly, searching for what will work on the most devices in as many places as possible.
Success is the best possible compromise between what looks best on a desktop and what will work on a phone. Schedule one week a year to test to see if there's new stuff to add, and keep on cranking.
Tell a Story
Some wanted her to leave. Others wanted her dead. Tiaviniaina never wavered.
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2. WHAT TO SAY, HOW TO SAY IT
One of the rules of thinking outside the box is that very few people are comfortable doing it.
Here's another common trait you find in modern business: You can do anything you want — as long as it's been done before.
Writing with life, using a conversational tone and rhythm, generally improves results. It's rarely an easy thing to implement, but I generally take the long view. Changes that were highly controversial in 2018 were SOP by 2020.
My secret weapon is knowing how to write for the ear, not the page. When people read, they hear a little voice inside their head. Broadcast experience can really pay off in email.
Tug a Heart String
The donor wasn't providing a surgery. They were providing a moment.
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3. TARGET THE MESSAGING
Not every email is the same. They can be categorized by purpose, such as acquiring prospects, converting prospects to donors, keeping donors engaged, or re-engaging those who have dropped off.
They can be categorized by recency, ala a welcome series or drip campaign. They can be sorted by frequency — as in a short-term series, like a fundraising blitz, or in a time-triggered series of thank-you emails or reminders.
I can't divulge a lot of details, but I can say Operation Smile ran a really sophisticated email operation and I always had great freedom when it came to testing. That was a good thing. I test everything all the time.
There are lots of techniques in emails, but tricks are no replacement for telling good stories. Every fundraising email follows the same formula — here's the problem, here's the solution and here's your chance to be the hero. Don't overthink it.
Animated gifs
In addition to writing and design samples, here's a technique that worked well.
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4. TARGET THE AUDIENCE SEGMENT
Some big industry players in AI/data crunching/customer modeling field have entered the email marketing space. You know the drill: Use data insights to boost your ROI.
Customers are always the best source of information. Their behavior reveals much, and it's why I've spent countless hours as a data nerd counting opens and clicks and various kind of rates.
But there's also a kind of a cheap perfume smell around a lot of customer data modeling. It's quite promising in that you can potentially reach the most likely customer at the most likely time for conversion. But consider the example of a bombardier flying towards his target. The best technology, the greatest bombsight, is all for naught if the bomb that's dropped is a dud.
You can't lose sight of the message.
Above and Beyond
Some people are "and/or." Others are "and/more".
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5. STAY OUT OF DELIVERABILITY TROUBLE
This topic fits on a series of Post-It Notes posted in your cube. Spam complaints are really dangerous. Sending too little is less risky than sending too much. Practice good list hygiene. Prune dead addresses and measure non-openers over various intervals to find the proper time to cull. Invest in a deliverability monitor who can track both inbox placement and obscure issues like DMARC authentication.
If you do land in a junk filter, start sending emails only to people who have opened an email within the last 39 days. When it comes to how to expand and regrow the list from there, you'll have to hire me.
The standard time it takes to get out of spam folders is six months to a year. Last time I had to do it, it took me 18 weeks.
The Second Greatest Gift
What's fairly mundane in our world turns into a miracle, thanks to caring volunteers.
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In Closing: The Bottom Line
Tremendous pressure goes with the territory when you're in a results-driven business. I believe if you can't exhibit grace under pressure , consider looking for another line of work.
It's a rare and precious job that offers the kind of reward you got from working at Operation Smile. It wasn't about the millions of dollars raised. It was about the thousands of people helped. You did something good every day.
A Lifetime of Care
The ROI in follow-up stories.
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BONUS: Chops as a photo editor. Here's a 40th Anniversary Gallery I put together as an email lure. On that page, I gave the credit to someone else. Truthfully, since I'm doing a portfolio piece here, that project was 70-80% mine.