Project Big Fish is a creative agency.

The biggest problems organizations face when trying to achieve some level of success with their e-newsletter plans is a lack of consistency.

I'll be the first to admit, I face the same challenge. Our goal at the beginning of year is to be consistent with our e-newsletter. But the very first time there is a conflict with a client deadline or other client factors, this is the very first item that gets moved to the bottom of the TO DO list. And yes, this happens quite often.

However, this should NOT be the case. e-Newsletters work. They work for small business, they work for associations, they work for political or advocacy campaigns and they ESPECIALLY work for non-profits. We see a notable jump in our web traffic every time we send out our "Around the fish Bowl" e-newsletter. And, there are strategies, if you know your audience, to see even better results.

Best results are a formula of consistency, timing and quality content. Content is and will always be King. Your audience has to be somewhat interested in what you are writing about or your email will be greeted with the delete button faster than I can even type the word delete. But consistency and timing also are major factors of success. Your audience has to get use to expect your email and be hit with your email and at a time when they can give it a glance. We're not expecting every email to be read from top to bottom, every link to be clicked and for the reader to forward to each and every friend. We just want to keep our name in from of our audience and provide some helpful or entertaining content.

I find this to be especially true when it comes to non-profits. The very best way to keep your donors, supporters and those who you are still trying to convert to your cause is a consistent e-newsletter. Folks want to hear about your cause and even more importantly they want to read about what you are up to how and how your organization is helping. Success stories and progress reports are invaluable to a non-profit. Those kinds of stories will turn into donations. People want to see that their donations are making a difference. And, please do not overlook the fact that photos and especially video can plan an instrumental role in telling those stories. A photo can tell a 1,000 words and a video infinitely more.

So, here's to my personal goal of NOT pushing the Project BIG fish email to the bottom of my TO DO list each and every week and to more of you understanding the value of a good e-Newsletter strategy.

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Learn more about good design, development and strategy for your online communications - contact Tom at http://www.projectbigfish.com/thomas-frank and if you are a non-profit - we want to hear from you - please visit http://www.projectbigfish.com/non-profits.