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Did they open your email?

You know this feeling, don’t you?

You’ve got to write an important donor email. You put off the task a bit before forcing yourself to sit down and do it. Then there’s writing it, which usually means lots of hard thinking, erasing, rewriting. Finally, with a deep breath, you hit send - and wait.

And wait.

24 hours go by with no response. So do the next 24.

Out of self-defense, you start to make up stories about why they aren’t answering. They’re busy. Their spouse probably isn’t onboard. They didn’t like your wording, and they’re offended. You didn’t say things clearly or compellingly enough.

The problem with these stories is that 99.9% of the time, they don’t reflect reality. And in order to make smart, logical decisions about following up effectively, you need to get out of that place of angst and speculation, and act from a place of reality.

Luckily, there’s a simple bit of technology that can help you along: email-tracking software.

With a simple email-tracking app like ‘Streak from Chrome’, you can easily see if your email was opened. You can also see the number of times it was opened, and even the type of devices it was opened on.

Of course, this information doesn’t tell you everything about your donor’s reactions and thoughts to your email. But it definitely helps you make smart follow-up choices. Most importantly, if your donor never opened your email, you know you can just change the subject line and resend it.

Save your storytelling for when you’re waxing passionate about your mission and add an email-tracker to help you communicate smarter.

Have a great week,

Avraham

© Avraham Lewis & Co.