Into the Weeds:

Email Marketing

You asked for it.

Timing

Desired send date and time. Is there a particular day of week or time of day you would like your message to be sent? Let us know, and we will make every effort to meet your request. Otherwise, we will assume that it should be sent out as soon as it is ready.
Lead time. It typically takes 1-2 hours to set up, test, and send a single mass-email. During peak season (read: the first two weeks of March), the Alumni Fund office has queues up to 20 deep, and so it may take even longer. Alternatively, go the DIY route by using YAMM or YesWare.
Timing and sequence. Stagger all non-donor emails with concerted, personal efforts to reach specific LYBUNTs or SYBUNTs.

Who Is It From?

Author. Who is the author of the email (that is, who is actually composing the text)? Consider using a fresh voice periodically, such as an associate agent or class officer, to help vary the tone of the text your classmates receive.
Signers. Whose name(s) will appear as the signers at the bottom of the body of the message? Just the author? The head agent(s)? Multiple agents? The class president? Anyone whose name appears as a signer will have the option to review a test of the email before it is sent out to the class.
Sender Name. Whose name(s) will appear in the "from" field when the email is sent? Do you want to include that person's full name and class year, or just their name? Is it their formal name, or a nickname (James vs Jim, or Elizabeth vs Beth)? Ideally, you want the name to be recognizable to your class, and it is often helpful to have solicitations come from different leaders over the course of the fund year. Otherwise, the class learns to associate one person, and only one person, with being asked to contribute to the Alumni Fund. Savvy email users may even filter messages from that person into a folder "to do later." Anyone whose name appears in the "from" field will have the option to review a test of the email before it is sent out to the class.
Sent-from and reply-to. If the sender name is a single person, it may make the most sense to use that individual's personal email address as the sent-from and reply-to address. And if you are using YAMM or YesWare, that is your only option. Williams has also created YYYY-agents@williams.edu aliases (where YYYY is the four-digit class year) that may be used on your behalf.

Many email clients, such as Gmail and Yahoo, are smart enough to recognize when an email originates from a third party server, such as that used by the Alumni Fund office to do mass email solicitations. While our email marketing provider (Emma) has been whitelisted by most major email clients, we have seen an uptick in solicitations being caught in spam filters or funneled into a promotions tab or a non-priority inbox. In particular, solicitations sent from @yahoo and @aol email addresses are often flagged as spam; solicitations sent from @gmail addresses to other @gmail addresses are as well.

Subject Line

Text. Consider whether or not you want to always include the words "Williams," "Alumni Fund," and/or "gift" in the subject line. Other things to consider including might be your class year, Williams traditions (like Mountain Day or Winter Carnival), a Williams song (like The Mountains), another Williams connection you may have with the group you are emailing (for example, referencing an upcoming Sankofa show, a cappella concert, or athletics competition), or simply "why I give." If you want to be a little less formal, consider something like "hey" or "heck yeah, I <3 ephs."

In recent years, our most-opened subject lines included "Calling all loyal Ephs", "Why Do You Care About Williams?", "Hi Class of YYYY", and "Do you have 5 minutes today?" Least-opened subject lines included "Alumni Fund Final Countdown!", "Make Your Holiday Gift to Williams", and "Class of YYYY Make your gift to Williams."

Formatting. When you're writing to your own friends, do you use any capitalization in the subject line? Do You Use Proper Capitalization as Though the Subject Line Were a Book Title? DO YOU USE ALL CAPS TO YELL? Sometimes you may want to use an exclamation point to attract attention! But probably not every time!! Or else the excitement may become overkill!!! Please let us know your preferences for capitalization and punctuation in the subject line of any e-solicitation.

Body of Message

Tone of text. Historically, the Alumni Fund has been run like a half-marathon: it's long enough to feel long, but short enough that just about anybody can do it with enough intrinsic motivation to stick through the training and do the work. Now, some classes run their campaigns like a series of windsprints, with anchor incentives or goals around which a flurry of activity takes place. Whichever approach you choose to take, try to keep the tone of your messages positive and reinforcing, and add humor and humility where you can. People are busy. Giving is likely on their list of things to do, but it's not as urgent (to them) as getting the car dug out after a winter storm, or figuring out exactly how many layers one needs to wear in order to survive a sub-zero commute. Totally fine to refer to deadlines (especially around trophy time!), but otherwise: keep calm, carry on, remember to be yourself, include the giving link, and ask nicely.
Length of text. Emails can be, and often should be, significantly shorter than a hard-copy letter. Consider keeping text to what is visible on a single screen, without scrolling down, and consider how long something will appear when read on a mobile device.
Giving link. Be sure to include the giving link (give2.williams.edu) in your email, and make it easy for people to find. In other words, have it stand out from a block of text. For example:

give2.williams.edu

You can also have other text serve as the link (such as "make your gift now") if you wish.

At this point, Williams has 124 different giving pages, including one for each major, concentration, and major academic program; one for leadership giving; one for each designation within the Alumni Fund; one for each class to have graduated since 2002; and one for each Varsity athletic team. If one of those pages may speak more directly to your classmates' interests and you'd like to direct them to give via one of those pages, please let us know and we'll be happy to assist.

P.S. Because many readers only skim their email, consider including a P.S. that includes the giving link as a way of putting it back in front of their eyes.

Other Items to Consider

An email isn't a hard-copy letter, but we can still include the following items, which are standard for snail-mail solicitations:

Giving history. In an email solicitation, a table summarizing recent (last five years) giving history is usually included at the bottom. This can be done with or without information on any matching gifts that have been received.
Ask amount. Whether merged into the body of your message or included as a suggested gift amount in the giving history table, it can be helpful for classmates to know how much you're hoping they'll give. Every gift counts, even $1, and over half of donors to last year's fund gave $100 or less, but many donors appreciate an "anchor" ask amount around which they can plan their gift.
Inserts (as links). Any of the inserts available for inclusion in hard-copy letters can be included in email solicitations as links to web content.
Other links. You may also wish to consider including photos in the body of your message, links to existing online content such as an article in the Williams Magazine, a YouTube video, or other pieces created by or unique to your class. Bear in mind that the inclusion of other links means that the giving link becomes less noticeable, and the inclusion of additional content engages the reader while de-emphasizing the actual ask. (Most marketers suggest a single, clear "call to action.") If you choose to send specific engagement touches, the Alumni Fund team is happy to help; we just recommend that you follow up with a very specific, on-point ask as well, preferably within 7-10 days.

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