--- title: "Tuesday Buzz: Steps for Creating Email Drip Campaigns" id: "40510" type: "post" slug: "tuesday-buzz-steps-for-creating-email-drip-campaigns" published_at: "2017-11-14T23:05:20+00:00" modified_at: "2026-03-16T20:46:48+00:00" url: "https://associationsnow.com/2017/11/14/tuesday-buzz-steps-for-creating-email-drip-campaigns/" markdown_url: "https://associationsnow.com/2017/11/14/tuesday-buzz-steps-for-creating-email-drip-campaigns.md" excerpt: "Drive more potential donors to action by using an email drip campaign. Also: how a Snapchat scavenger hunt and other social contests helped Purdue reach new fundraising heights." taxonomy_category: - "Fundraising" taxonomy_post_tag: - "AI" - "AssociationsNow" - "Business" - "Fundraising" - "Marketing" taxonomy_content_format: - "Article" taxonomy_role: - "Director" - "VP" taxonomy_persona: - "Association Professionals" --- [Home](https://associationsnow.com/) » [Articles](https://associationsnow.com/format/article/) » Tuesday Buzz: Steps for Creating Email Drip Campaigns Here’s something to think about in the midst of the fundraising season: Could you be getting more donations with better strategic deployment of your emails? Digital marketing expert John Haydon recently [wrote a post extolling the virtues (opens in a new tab)](https://www.johnhaydon.com/email-drip-campaigns-nonprofit/) of email drip campaigns—a series of emails sent over a specific timeframe. He says they’re a powerful way to reach people who have interacted with your nonprofit in the past. Haydon provides a few easy steps to set up your own campaign. Start with establishing the goals of the series. “Having clear objectives helps you determine the strategy, content, and call to action for each email,” he said. You should also decide on the number of messages you’ll send throughout the campaign. More emails may increase the chance of a recipient opening one, but you don’t want to aggravate people with too many of them. Haydon recommends timing and sending messages based on “when someone opts in to various stages of the campaign.” One of the key benefits of the drip method is that you can measure and optimize along the way. “The data you gather from day one will help you avoid unintended disasters by adjusting the messaging, action calls, and frequency during the campaign,” he wrote. ### Purdue’s Big Day > How one university used social media to raise $28M in a single day: [https://t.co/EuhDpJ9sMd (opens in a new tab)](https://t.co/EuhDpJ9sMd) > [pic.twitter.com/QiMFNdkUzh (opens in a new tab)](https://t.co/QiMFNdkUzh) > > — Hootsuite 🦉 (@hootsuite) [November 14, 2017 (opens in a new tab)](https://twitter.com/hootsuite/status/930499422655524865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) **Speaking of fundraising …** Purdue University had tremendous success this year with its Purdue Day of Giving drive. In one day, the university raked in more than $28.2 million, a nearly $10 million increase from last year. How did they do it? The [Hootsuite team spoke (opens in a new tab)](https://blog.hootsuite.com/hootcast-purdue-university/) with the director of philanthropic communications at Purdue’s development office and the director of digital fundraising at the Purdue Research Foundation to learn more about the tactics they deployed. Read [the full blog post (opens in a new tab)](https://blog.hootsuite.com/hootcast-purdue-university/) to learn how user-generated content challenges on Instagram and Snapchat played a role. ### Other Links of Note **Don’t let your nonprofit get lost in the crowd.** The Bloomerang blog shares ways to [make your brand stand out (opens in a new tab)](https://bloomerang.co/blog/5-ways-to-make-your-non-profit-brand-stand-out/) . **What do *Star Trek: Discovery* and the nonprofit world have in common?** A new piece in *Nonprofit Quarterly* explores what [organizations can learn from the sci-fi show (opens in a new tab)](https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2017/11/08/star-trek-future-nonprofit-sector/) . **Many leaders like to go their own way,** but that can be bad for an organization. *Forbes* shares tips for working within the [boundaries of the leadership pipeline (opens in a new tab)](https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2017/11/14/maintaining-boundaries-how-to-lead-within-the-leadership-pipeline/2/#3040f11c47a1) . (cesaria1/iStock/Getty Images Plus) [Raegan Johnson](https://associationsnow.com/author/raegan-johnson/) Raegan Johnson is a contributor to Associations Now. 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