You have worked hard to get your e-appeal just right. Your aim is to raise more money than you did last time. So you press the button and send your e-appeal to your supporters. The question is: what will happen next?

The success or failure of your e-appeal will depend to a large extend on the online giving experience you are creating (or not creating as the case may be) for your donors.

So here are three things you need to consider:

Are you making giving easy and convenient for your donors? – After they click on the Give Now button will they have to think too hard? Or would they have to complete several steps before making a gift?What’s more if they land on the e-appeal page from their mobile phone, Facebook or Twitter do you offer them easy options to give and to share on the go?

Useful tip: after creating your e-appeal make sure you create a simple giving page. The last thing you want is lengthy giving forms and busy page layouts.

Test your giving form that links to your Give Now appeal button. Try to capture all the information you need in two screens at the most. And, reduce distractions – create or use a giving form, just that a form. Test the Give Now button and donation form on mobile devices too.

What are you doing to ensure that donors follow through on their decision to give? – One of the common mistakes charity fundraisers or marketers make is that they design e-appeals that tell specific stories and then they direct donors to a generic giving page.

Sometimes the generic giving page has no money handles while the e-appeal does or the generic giving page has no invitation to give or an image or anything else that can reinforce the e-appeal message and encourage the donor to give.

Useful tip: Once you have drafted the e-appeal make sure you create a specific giving page for the appeal that matches not just your charity’s branding, but it also contains the key appeal message, money handles and the main appeal image.

Have you got your thank you email ready yet? – In my opinion, a heartfelt thank you via email can do wonders for donor retention. So what is your donor’s post-donation experience?

Once they have given online what is the first thank you message they get from you? Have you even checked it? – Sometimes fundraisers write great e-appeals but they leave the thank you messages to the finance team who are likely to send out dull and generic thank you messages.

Useful tip: take some time today to refresh your charity’s thank you messages in response to online gifts. Make some new email acknowledgments, link some videos to your emails, post some videos on Facebook and Twitter after an e-appeal to thank your social media donors, etc. And, make sure you use the thank you emails to get the information you need to cultivate these donors into long-term supporters too.

But more on how you can do this on another blog post.