Recipe for an Impactful ESOL

Soup season — that time of year (well, on the East Coast) when you warm your kitchen with a big pot of bubbling nourishment. Meticulously adding ingredients to create the perfect blend of aromas and taste to satisfy those who enjoy a bowl. 

Now consider the donors you send fundraising e-solicitations (ESOLs for short) to. You want your ESOLs to engage and compel the readers enough so they stay with the message and donate. You put in countless hours and scores of energies, creating content that stands out, but it is easy to miss the mark. With the right approach, perhaps with the guidance of a thoughtful recipe, you can turn your ESOLs into something that builds a smile or invokes happiness, while still motivating the reader to act. 

Here are three ways you can craft your ESOL as lovingly as you would a pot of soup. 

1. Make Every Ingredient Matter 

All of the words in your subject line, preheader and body copy must serve a function. As best you can, avoid meaningless jargon and decorated language. Each word contributes a small amount toward the larger ask, so every piece makes a difference. 

Same goes for your soup ingredients. You wouldn’t use any vegetables, herbs or spices that would hinder the final appeal of your stew, would you? Any words or ingredients that do not contribute to the overall deliciousness of your end results do not deserve a place in this recipe. 

2. Make it Digestible 

Imagine sitting down at your favorite café and ordering creamy tomato bisque. Instead of a hot bowl of thick red Roma soup, you receive a chunky mess, complete with full basil leaves, which ruins the desire to eat it in the first place.  

Do not let chunks and unfinished recipes hinder the performance of your ESOL either. Make your entire ask — from start to finish — digestible. Use bold face, bullet points, hyperlinked text (and more) for ease of scanning content and digesting information.  

These days, our attention spans are drastically decreasing. In the last three months, about 15% of people spent less than eight seconds reading our partner-stations’ ESOLs. It is no secret that many people tend to skim content. All this said, your donation ask should still be accessible and obvious by using buttons and hyperlinks. 

3. Invoke an Emotion 

For many of us, that first slurp of soup is the best. Your tastebuds run wild with flavor, and the warmth carries on filling you up with thermal goodness. The taste alone can conjure up feelings of comfort and well-being. Our human brains are primed to draw connections between physical and social warmth. Studies suggest* that eating hot soup or even just holding a warm cup of it may increase positive feelings toward others. A bowl of soup brings good feelings; why shouldn’t an ESOL?  

Building emotion is an effective tool in encouraging donations. A joyful or provocative ESOL will draw inspiration and increase the likelihood of giving. While urgent words and imagery can help, invoking an emotion helps your overall mission by inspiring potential and current donors to contribute. 

Bringing it All Together 

Just like we need the right ingredients to make a delicious and satisfying soup, we also need the perfect blend of elements to create an ESOL that is both effective and influential. When crafting your next ESOL, be sure to use quality ingredients, keep it digestible for your audience and invoke an emotion that will stick with the reader. And if you are ever in doubt or need some help, reach out to our team of hardworking and data-driven copywriters — we will be more than happy to lend a hand (or spoon). 

*Experiencing physical warmth promotes interpersonal warmth, Williams & Bargh (2009)