Building better non-profit emails case study: How Sound Off optimized workflows with Stripo
The role of email marketing in an organization is not always obvious at first glance. Non-profits have an important mission and their own set of tools to achieve it, and email is often a supporting channel. It may not solve the organization’s core challenge, but it helps streamline processes and allows teams to focus on the non-profit’s overarching goal.
In this case study, we explore how Sound Off, a mobile resource supporting the mental health of veterans and military personnel, uses Stripo to streamline email creation and remove technical barriers in their workflow.
Expert
Meet the company
Sound Off is the first and only mobile resource connecting veterans, service members, intelligence officers, and, recently, first responders, with anonymous, long-term mental health support.
There are many reasons why veterans and military members don’t seek help, but Sound Off has transformed the way support can be accessed by those who need it by addressing concerns surrounding stigma, trust, and bureaucracy. It is a fully anonymous app in which users can choose a pseudonym and don’t have to provide a phone number or email. Veterans can also decide to reach out to either a licensed clinical professional or a peer supporter who has gone through a similar experience.
The challenge: Email creation is time-consuming and constrained by technical limitations
Communication with its users is very important for Sound Off for several reasons:
- as the organization is funded by donations, to maintain relationships with partners and stakeholders, they must share progress, demonstrate impact, and highlight future initiatives that require support;
- the mobile app is anonymous, so many users discover it through word of mouth and recommendations. That’s why Sound Off has to put in a lot of effort to increase the organization’s visibility and expand awareness of its mission. Clear and consistent email communication helps a lot with this;
- emails also help educate users during onboarding, send reminders to maintain engagement, and help users continue to receive support over time.
The enormous importance of effective communication with their users turned Sound Off’s email marketing challenges into a major burden. These challenges fell into several key areas:
- Creating email templates from scratch was time-consuming, particularly when structuring layouts and deciding how to present content in a clear, engaging way.
- There were also technical issues, such as the need to bypass spam filters and ensure consistent rendering across different email clients.
- Another challenge involved building emails that could easily include links and images without attachments.
Newsletters presented the biggest hurdle for the Sound Off team. As they usually contain a lot of different information, it was necessary to organize all the content in a way that was easy for the reader to understand.
The solution: An intuitive email builder that balances flexibility and ease of use
So, the team began looking for a solution: an email builder that would meet all their needs, be flexible, and, a factor that is especially important for non-profits, remain cost-effective.
In a non-profit environment, it’s important to find a balance between cost and functionality. We needed a tool that was affordable, but still had the features required to support our communication needs. We also looked for something easy to use, flexible for designing emails, and that could help us work more efficiently without needing a lot of technical effort.
Nathália Ribas da Rosa,
Stripo stood out because it could offer the team everything they needed while being easy to use and requiring no additional technical knowledge. With the Stripo editor, the Sound Off team could create well-designed, engaging emails without adding complexity to the process.
(Source: Email by Sound Off)
Among other advantages, Stripo offered over 1,650 pre-built email templates, flexible design capabilities within its drag-n-drop HTML editor, as well as multiple export options and integrations with various tools.
The workflow: Efficient email production powered by templates, modules, and co-editing
Sound Off communicates with a wide range of audiences via email:
- the providers who offer mental health support on the platform;
- partner organizations that fund programs, as well as individual donors;
- newsletter subscribers and the broader community.
Emails are most often sent once a month, although the frequency may vary slightly depending on the period. The main mailing list has around 800 subscribers, along with several smaller, segmented lists tailored to specific audiences.
The Sound Off team primarily uses Stripo to create newsletters. These emails typically include a wide mix of content and updates. The team writes about new app features, highlights partnerships, and showcases media coverage. The newsletters also include fundraising appeals, helping the team engage supporters, and driving donations alongside regular updates.
Stripo also offers a large number of ready-made templates specifically for non-profits for those who need new ideas for inspiration, or a starting point that can be easily customized to fit their own needs.
(Source: Email by Sound Off)
Stripo is a core part of the email production workflow. The process unfolds as follows:
- the designer is responsible for creating and building the email templates;
- the templates are then reviewed and approved by a supervisor;
- once finalized, the email is exported and sent via the email platform used by the organization.
Sound Off also sometimes uses Stripo to generate HTML for backend-driven emails in collaboration with the development team.
Note from Stripo
Stripo makes it easy to work on emails together. Designers and copywriters can work on the same email simultaneously, making edits as needed. You can leave comments right in the template you are working on and get feedback in real time. This simplifies communication by eliminating the need to write questions in separate chats or emails and speeds up the workflow because there is no need to wait for a response. Real-time collaboration keeps everyone involved and aligned throughout the process.
A Stripo’s modular approach proved especially valuable for the Sound Off team. This flexibility allows them to create different types of emails, depending on the content they need to share. Drag-n-drop blocks make the process even faster and more intuitive.
Modular design is the most helpful feature for our team. It allows us to easily adjust layouts, reuse structures, and swap content like images, text, and links without rebuilding emails from scratch.
Nathália Ribas da Rosa,
Reusable elements play a key role in Sound Off’s workflow. These elements can be consistently used across campaigns for recurring content, including headers and footers, as well as components such as leadership signatures, privacy policies, terms of use, unsubscribe links, and social media links.
Note from Stripo
Information that is used repeatedly in emails can be saved as separate modules. These typically include elements that do not change often but must always be present, such as a header with the company logo or a footer with social media links. Once saved, these modules can be added to any new email, eliminating the need to rebuild these blocks from scratch each time.
Another useful feature is the ability to synchronize these modules. If the company’s phone number has changed, there is no need to manually update it in all emails. Instead, you can click the “synchronize” button and make the necessary changes, such as a new phone number, and the update is automatically applied to every email where that module is used.
The results: Improved efficiency and simplified workflows
After switching to Stripo, the Sound Off team saw clear improvements in their workflow:
- email creation became faster and more organized, as the team could easily reuse existing structures and assets without starting from scratch;
- overall efficiency increased, which allowed the team to produce campaigns with less effort;
- processes became simpler, enabling the organization to focus more on content than on technical details.
Stripo has supported our efforts by making the email creation process faster and more consistent. This allows us to communicate more efficiently and maintain a high standard across our emails, which contributes to our overall outreach and engagement.
Nathália Ribas da Rosa,
Wrapping up
Sound Off has an important mission: to provide personalized support for veterans who often remain silent about their struggles
Email communication plays a critical role for both the organization and its audience. By adopting Stripo, the team was able to simplify the technical side of email production and streamline their workflow.
As a result, they can devote more time to what matters most: creating meaningful content, running fundraising campaigns, supporting their community with valuable information, and raising awareness about the organization and its mission.
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