Johanna Majercsik "Jojó" came to the Budapest Pride team in 2015 with years of experience in advertising agencies. Her communication tasks include newsletter sending, copywriting (social media and press releases), designing creatives, but also website editing. She also does frontline communications work as one of the organization's press spokespersons and the editor-anchor of their podcast broadcasts. You can read more about her organisational experience with MailerLite's services below.
The organisation switched to MailerLite a few months ago, having previously used the popular MailChimp. You can read about MU Theatre's experience here. But there came a time when the organisation's database swelled above a certain number, at which point typically all applications offer a choice of subscription packages, so the free option is no longer available. The Rainbow Mission Foundation looked at its own database, its newsletter sending habits and plans, and then looked around the market and found MailerLite subscription to be the cheapest solution for them.
They have chosen a subscription that allows them to send newsletters to 5,000 subscribers per year, unlimited in number, for an annual subscription of 302 euros for 1 year - including a discount of about 30% for NGOs. As they currently receive up to 2 newsletters a month from 3,000 subscribers with MailerLite, they have chosen their package with foresight, as there is still room to grow their database before moving to a new price category.
They use the platform to inform their subscribers only, sending out newsletters to their supporters about their key activities, upcoming events (e.g. parade date announcement, project member recruitment, new podcast episode, fundraisers, etc.) and using their newsletters specifically to contact their regular donors. However, they already reach the press with press releases using the Mailmeteor service, so in the case of Pride, as the number of press contacts increases, they are not swelling the recipient list of their chosen newsletter sending app. Because they see the press release more as an email, without the need for an edited letter with images and the otherwise very flashy template blocks, they can manage this recipient list completely separately.
The newsletter is an integral part of the Foundation's communication, all projects count on it, and it is seen as an important communication tool in all their campaigns. They also have a newsletter subscription form on their website, so that people interested in receiving the newsletter from the website can automatically receive a welcome letter when appropriate, and are also included in the newsletter database. At the same time, the Rainbow Mission has just built and launched a custom-developed new website based on Wordpress, so they hope that everything will be compatible with the new site.
Working with the newsletters - sending to many recipients, editing, scaling images, manual database cleaning and liaising with the service provider - does not require IT expertise, but fortunately within Pride the work is shared between a small team, so that the many small and repetitive tasks are not all on one person. The interface itself is as user-friendly as MailChimp, says Jojó, and it's easy to get to grips with.
To read the rest of the article series with first-hand experiences, check them out here!
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