Elevating Engagement: Email Marketing for Nonprofit Camps
Email is more than a tool for sending out forms and announcements. It’s a powerful marketing channel for engaging your camp community. It’s a conduit to connecting with your audience, helping you retain campers year-to-year, strengthen relationships, and build excitement year-round.
Here are three ways to take your emails to the next level.
#1: Personalize
Camp is a special experience, but generic emails make families feel anonymous. They don’t match the warm feelings and good memories of camp. A little personalization goes a long way to keep the connection strong.
Personalization doesn’t have to be complicated. Addressing the recipient by name and including the names of campers in your text using merge tags is simple in most email programs and changes how it feels to receive. Simply choosing a person to be the email's sender, rather than “info@camp.com” can make the message feel more personal.
Consider the difference between these two emails:
Email A:
Subject: Early Registration Ends March 31!
Dear Parent,
I hope you’re having a great winter! I wanted to remind you that the deadline for early registration is approaching on March 31. We’re hoping to see you again this summer!
Sincerely,
Your Friends at Camp
Email B:
Subject: Katie, don’t miss early registration!
Dear Katie,
I hope you’re having a great winter! I wanted to remind you that the deadline for early registration is approaching on March 31. We’d love to see Luca and Charlotte again this summer!
Sincerely,
Carrie, Camp Director
Both emails convey the same information, but Email B helps build the relationship by feeling more personal.
#2: Segment
Segmenting your communications allows you to target your audiences more specifically, making your emails more relevant and engaging.
For example, new campers and their families will have different questions and needs than people already familiar with your programs. If you send mass messages, you risk boring your established audience with a lot of basic information and overwhelming the new ones with details. Sending different communication streams to each of these groups results in a better experience for everyone.
New families are in the process of building trust. By speaking directly to them, you can help them feel secure entrusting their children to you, give them a clear outlet for questions, and grow their excitement about camp. Consider creating an email series of frequently asked questions just for them.
Nurture the loyalty of your established families by staying in touch throughout the year. Reach out to this group with surveys, stories, and news about upcoming programs and projects. Are you remodelling a building, launching a new fleet of canoes, or bringing on a new staff member? Don’t wait for summer to let them know! Share the excitement throughout the year to keep camp fresh in their minds.
#3: Tell a story
Stories are how humans connect with ideas and each other. Sharing stories makes your emails more interesting and memorable. Whether you’re fundraising, recruiting new campers, or building engagement with your existing audience, tell a story to make a connection.
Consider highlighting stories like:
A favorite moment from the previous summer.
A staff member’s memories of being a kid at camp.
Campers’ own stories.
Think about ways to incorporate storytelling into emails. Instead of a “tips for dealing with homesickness” list, invite a camper who conquered their homesickness to share their story with other kids. Raising money for a new project? Tell the story of why you’re doing it, and how it will impact camp.
Look at the differences here.
Email A:
Subject: Support the kitchen remodel!
Dear Emily,
I’d like to invite you to contribute to the Camp Kitchen Remodel Fund. This remodel will include updating our equipment, increasing our storage, and finally replacing our ancient mixer. We feed 400 kids every summer, and we’re excited to make our kitchen more efficient.
Your support will help us:
Purchase and install a new stove, refrigerator, and counters.
Replace the aging flooring.
Replace broken and outdated kitchen equipment.
Please give what you can. Donate today!
Sincerely,
Carrie, Camp Director
Email B:
Subject: Guess what’s cooking? A new kitchen at Camp!
Dear Emily,
Monster cookies. Pancake parties. Mighty meatballs.
You know these camper favorites, but did you know they’re all made possible by one thing?
Big Betty, our 40-quart stand mixer and the unsung hero of the Camp Kitchen.
Big Betty has been a vital part of Camp since before any of our staff came on board (yes, even Edna!). But she’s breaking down more often, and, with sadness, we have concluded it’s time to replace her.
It’s not just Big Betty. Feeding 400 kids a summer for 50 years has caused significant wear and tear on the kitchen.
Before Anna and James get to camp this summer, we’re planning to:
Purchase and install a new, more efficient stove and refrigerator.
Replace the aging flooring and counters (bye, 1970’s timewarp!).
Replace Big Betty, along with other broken equipment.
The new kitchen means an easier time for our cooks (the hardest-working people at Camp!), greater energy efficiency, and new possibilities for our menus.
We need your help to make it happen! Can you contribute $100 today?
Thank you so much for your continued support of Camp. We couldn’t do it without you!
Best,
Carrie, Camp Director
PS: Are you craving Monster Cookies? Want to host a bake sale in Big Betty’s honor? Check out the scaled-down recipe here. No 40-quart mixer required.
Email A delivers required information: There is a fundraiser. It’s for the kitchen. Email B tells a story, and the specific details reinforce the reader’s connection to the camp experience. The story of Big Betty is more memorable and engaging than the story of “we’re remodeling.”
Hit “send” with confidence
Email is part of a marketing strategy, not the whole thing. To get the most out of your marketing, take an omnichannel approach that includes social media, direct mail, phone calls, and events. If that seems overwhelming, email is a great place to start. The personalization, segmentation, storytelling approach you take with email can carry over into other marketing channels as you expand.
Have fun with your email. It’s an opportunity to extend the relationships of camp into the rest of the year, continue to build rapport with campers and their families, and grow your camp community.
Author: Aidan Augustin
Co-founder & President, Feathr
Aidan Augustin is the co-founder and president of Feathr, an industry-leading tech company building marketing tools specifically tailored to the needs of associations and event organizers. Feathr has helped over 800 associations and 5,000 conferences, trade shows, and virtual events grow attendance, member engagement, and digital sponsorship revenue. Based out of their Gainesville, FL headquarters, Aidan leads the sales and marketing functions of Feathr and spearheads industry engagement. He is an actively involved member of both ASAE and IAEE and a regular speaker on digital marketing and event/association technology.
Aidan Augustin is the co-founder and president of Feathr, an industry-leading software company making digital marketing more accessible to nonprofits and event organizers. Feathr has helped over 800 nonprofits and thousands of events know, grow, and engage their audiences. When he's not steering the ship at Feathr, he's playing strategy games, singing karaoke, or reading books about people who changed the world.
