Welcome email journey
In-House | Planning and copy lead

The situation

Second gift rates from new cash donors were lower than we wanted. A welcome email journey was in place but was short and wasn’t geared toward encouraging further gifts. 

I was briefed to design and create content for a new ‘choose your emails’ approach. Supporters could opt to hear about Care and Support, Research or a mix of both. The journey would be extended to 12 emails and focus on longer-term nurture.

What I did

I considered what new donors would know about Alzheimer’s Society at the point of donating. And what else they’d need to feel and believe to move them to give again.

I planned a messaging framework that would progressively build connection, trust and knowledge as the supporter moved through the journey.

For each email, I defined the objective, theme, primary call to action and what it was designed to make the supporter feel and believe about the charity.

Donation asks were included every four emails. The journey included actions like social share asks and surveys to create dialogue between us and the supporter. This is a well-evidenced way to boost supporter engagement.

Once the framework was in place, I worked with internal stakeholders to source stories, interviewed case studies and then wrote the 24 emails.

The journey surpassed sector email benchmarks:

• 45%+ open rates

• 8% click-to-open rates

And resulted in a 2% increase in second gift rate six months after it went live. The model was replicated across other income streams in the charity.