Great email copy criteria

Herschell Gordon Lewis nails it, as he so often does, in the Nov. 15 issue of NonProfit Times. He lists ten criteria for online fundraising, pointing out that if political candidates are raising tons of money online, why can't the rest of us? His answer: out copy stinks.

1. Establish rapport
2. Explain rationale for contacting
3. Offer heroism
4. Provide logic
5. Create urgency
6. don't accept pledges
7. offer recognition
8. create guilt
9. provide satisfaction
10. maintain verisimilitude

If you can get these points right in your next email, you'll raise more money.

Mike Huckabee emails caught in my spam filter

Republican candidate Mike Huckabee is trying to use email to communicate with me. His campaign has sent three emails to me in the last four days. The problem is, they're getting caught in my spam filter.

The reason? He's sending them from an address at "explorehuckabee.com" but the return address is "bounces@bounce.mikehuckabee.com." My spam filter says this violates its "Reverse DNS not found" rule.

It's too bad. They're well-written and full of calls to action. They even refer to previous emails and offer a continuous conversation.

Lesson: test your emails with all major ISP's and spam filters to make sure your message is getting through.

We'd love to hear your observations on the Presidential campaigns online.

Purging email data?

According to their website, "Blue Sky Factory is a leading provider of products and services designed for online marketing communications." As an online marketer, I subscribe to their newsletter to keep up with the industry. Apparently I was not active enough so I've been unsubscribed. Here is the email they sent me:


Hello from Blue Sky Factory!
We noticed that you've never clicked on a copy of our Factory Direct monthly e-newsletter.

Was it something we said?

In order to respect your privacy, we have now removed you from our Factory Direct mailing list. If you would like to continue to receive your copy of Factory Direct, chock full of industry news, email marketing tips and so much more, please click here to re-subscribe.

Otherwise, we are certainly sad to see you go! If you have any comments or suggestions you'd like to share with us, please email us.

Sincerely,
Team Blue Sky Factory

Last time I checked it just doesn't cost that much to store an email address. But, email marketing is their business... So now I wonder what the goal of this act is? To clean up data? To reengage those really interested?

Is this a good practice? What do you think?

Better Business Bureau Tangled in E-Mail Scam

By Annys Shin

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 14, 2007; Page D03

"The Better Business Bureau network was the target of a "spoofing" scam yesterday in which thousands of businesses in the United States and Canada received e-mails encouraging them to download what is thought to be a computer virus.

The e-mails, using the name of the 95-year-old network of nonprofit groups that looks into consumer complaints, told businesses that they were the subject of a complaint and included a link to view related documents. Clicking on the link, however, accessed the address book of an infected computer and distributed the counterfeit e-mail to more recipients, said Steve Cox, spokesman for the Council of Better Business Bureaus."

Read the whole article :

This may be the first serious spoofing campaign aimed at a nonprofit. (If you've heard of another, let us know).