Online Prospecting - II

July 31, 2008

Yesterday we mentioned that not much information was floating around on online prospecting by nonprofits, as opposed to online fundraising from existing house files.

We noted the exception of the Obama campaign.

Here’s an interview indicating how they go about it.

Blue State Digital is the agency involved. While a BSD-unique software tool is used to pair-up donors for mutual reinforcement, the real message is that fundamental rules of direct marketing apply … track where your donor came from and how they respond to your messaging … then use that data for further targeting (of new prospects) and to maximize response from existing ones.

It’s really pretty basic.

Tom

Posted by tbelford | Filed Under Don't Miss these Posts, database marketing, email marketing, fundraising, online advocacy, online fundraising | 1 Comment 

Online Prospecting

July 30, 2008

Just read that GM, America’s fourth largest advertiser, has moved nearly 25% of its measured advertising spend to digital media over the last three years. That includes online ads ($197 million on these alone last year), home-page takeovers, search, sites for dealers and customer-relationship management.

The reason? Targeting.

In a typical month, roughly 11 million people are shopping for a car. About two-in-three auto shoppers use the internet to research during the purchasing process. GM thinks it knows exactly where to "intercept" them online while these consumers are in the mood … in "purchase mode."

Now, individuals aren’t typically "shopping" for causes and charities as they cruise the internet. In our recent DonorTrends survey, only 11% of donors say they "shop around" as their interests change. So, while they might stumble across a nonprofit ad, they are not especially likely to be in charity "purchase mode." And only 25% admit to donating "on impulse."

Now one could make the same observation about the prospect who finds a "surprise" direct mail letter in their mailbox. They probably weren’t thinking, "I hope I get a fundraising solicitation today from someone … anyone."

But arguably someone browsing the internet is a bit more purposeful … there is some itch they are looking to scratch. They’ve taken the initiative. They’re not just passively flipping through the random letters the postman has happened to drop off.

So, nonprofit marketers should be able to form and test intelligent hypotheses about where their typical donor might spent disproportionate time online … and, importantly, which sites and searches (which itches) are most pertinent in some way to the message and appeal of the nonprofit. This is the only way to "intercept" prospects who have not already narrowed down their "consideration set" of potential recipients.

On the other hand, our data indicates that when an individual is a prospect (i.e. something has already put them in charity "purchase mode" and they are actively looking), chances are better than even that he/she will research online — 44% of donors say they do so "occasionally" and 14% do so "frequently."

Of course, the essential starting point is recognizing that six-of-ten prospects who are in the mood and are considering your group are going to check you out via your website. That’s like a prospect calling you up and asking to be sent your latest direct mail piece! So there’s little excuse for your site not converting their interest.

We still hear very little reported on the online prospecting success of nonprofits … compared to tons of data and case studies on e-fundraising directed at house files and occasional stories of groups successfully converting online-acquired leads (e.g., online petition signers) into donors.

And, more recently, relatively small-scale examples of existing donors using social networking tools to do personal fundraising and enlist new donors for their favorite cause.

But, overall, online prospecting is still in its infancy (unless you’re Barack Obama). If you’ve had success truly ‘intercepting" fresh prospects online, help us tell our readers about it!

Tom

 

Posted by tbelford | Filed Under Don't Miss these Posts, direct marketing, fundraising, online fundraising | Leave a Comment 

Testing Email Subject Lines

July 29, 2008

Here are email subject line testing tips from five experts.

You might think they’re kinda no-brainers.

But if they help prod you to examine far more systematically your approach to subject lines in your email campaigns, then high-fives all around!

This is like testing your carrier in direct mail. Rather important!

Tom

Posted by tbelford | Filed Under Don't Miss these Posts, copywriting, email marketing, online fundraising | Leave a Comment 

Successful Viral Videos

July 28, 2008

It’s not easy to trigger a successful viral marketing campaign.

But here, from blogger B.L Ochman, is a good overview of do’s and dont’s. With lots of resource links as well as examples of successful — and failed — online video campaigns.

In a nutshell, what do you need for a successful viral campaign? Says Ochman:

o Knockout creative that’s funny, shocking, intriguing or surprising
o An idea customers can relate to and care about
o A clearcut message so people are able to pass it on with one sentence
o An easy way to pass it on - a link, embedding code, "share this" button, email to a friend, etc.
o A concept that builds relationships with customers by getting them to interact
o Measurable outcomes - as in: what is this campaign hoping to accomplish and how will we measure it?
o A seeding plan to get the campaign started.

Most fun for me was looking at her illustrative videos, from the Cadbury gorilla to Burger King’s legendary Subservient Chicken (442 million views in 12 months).

Tom

Posted by tbelford | Filed Under Pushing the Creative Envelope, communications, email marketing, online fundraising, online publishing, online video | Leave a Comment 

Mailing To Generation Y

July 25, 2008

Recently we reported our recent DonorTrends survey finding that "Newbies" — donors born after Boomers (1946-1964), had jumped forward in giving, in fact passing Boomers in average annual giving.

Our survey data indicates that 55% of Newbies have contributed online to charities, falling to 29% who have given online to advocacy groups and 16% to political groups. Interestingly, despite these levels of online giving, 49% of Newbies say they prefer to donate in response to mail appeals, versus only 12% who prefer online appeals.

So … how to mail to the younger generations?

Here’s a piece from Britt Brouse of Inside Direct Mail that offers advice on how to connect with Gen Yers and Xers in the mail. How timely!

According to a USPS study, 18-24 year-olds receive 6.1 mail pieces per week, 25-34 year-olds receive 10.9 pieces, and 35-44 year olds receive 12.4 pieces. One hypothesis is that Gen Yers (ages 14-31) might be more attentive to mail simply because they receive less of it.

Author Brouse says for mail to be effective with younger prospects, it should be personalized, "cool" in design, value-driven (meaning these consumers are price sensitive), perceived as environmentally sensitive (in terms of recycled paper, inks, minimal packaging, etc).

Do you have any mailing experience targeting younger donors that you’d like to share?

Tom

Posted by tbelford | Filed Under Don't Miss these Posts, copywriting, direct mail, fundraising | Leave a Comment 

Selfish Giving For The Little Guys

July 24, 2008

Here is an excellent post from fundraiser Joe Waters, who blogs at Selfish Giving.

Joe offers smart advice on how small- and mid-size nonprofits should pitch cause marketing relationships to small- and mid-sized businesses.

Two of his observations:

"As a mid-size nonprofit working with similar sized businesses on cause marketing programs I always get questions on how cause marketing will impact the bottom-line. I find that larger businesses are less concerned with cause marketing being a sales driver and can afford to lump it under the do-nothing moniker of "branding." But not so with small business owners. Every dollar spent has to drive sales and grow the business."

Indeed, that’s why Joe prefers to call cause marketing "selfish giving." He adds:

"Unlike the media salesman that wants you to write a check for another flight of ads, the cause marketer wants access to something that you (the business) value but costs you nothing to deliver: your customers."

Here are the questions Joe answers …

  • Will my participation in a cause marketing program boost sales?
  • How does the costs of cause marketing compare to other types of media (e.g. radio, TV, print, billboard, etc.) I invest in?
  • How is cause marketing different from the other ways I invest my time and money to promote my business?
  • If I run a point-of-sale program, how do I handle customer questions on how much my business is donating?
  • Don’t customers find these programs a hassle and would rather not be bothered?
  • If I do this for you every charity in the City will be hitting me up to do something similar or to give them money. Won’t I have a gigantic bulls eye on my business?
  • When I die and go to hell, can I use my cause marketing efforts as "Get out of hell" free card?

Good questions … practical advice. Joe, you deserve a raise!

Tom

 

Posted by tbelford | Filed Under You Deserve a Raise, cause marketing, fundraising | 1 Comment 

Direct Mail … Gotta Luv It!

July 23, 2008

As reported in the Chron’s online column, Prospecting, the University of Indiana’s Center on Philanthropy says that the 140 fundraisers they surveyed are getting bummed out … confidence in their expected results for the year is falling.

Except for this bright spot …

"With the exception of direct mail, fund raisers say that all types of appeals were doing less well in the past six months than they had expected when the year started."

Of course, this could just mean that fundraisers low-balled their direct mail projections so much that any returns look terrific! But I doubt that’s the explanation.

As Roger has commented, advocacy groups in particular have bucked falling donor acquisition and retention trends. A simple case of passion prevailing in that sector?

But the fundraisers in the Indiana survey presumably cover a wide spectrum of the nonprofit community.

Is your direct mail performing better, worse or the same as you expected back in January? If better, take credit … you deserve a raise! If worse, do you blame it on the economy?

Tom

 

Posted by tbelford | Filed Under You Deserve a Raise, direct mail, fundraising | 1 Comment 

What I Would Do First

July 22, 2008

I’m sure you’ve seen all the gloomy articles and blog posts floating around noting the threat to nonprofit fundraising posed by a sinking economy.

A threat compounded by data indicating further fall-off in new donor acquisition and retention rates throughout much of the charitable community, as fellow Agitator Roger has commented on. Roger concluded his assessment with this recommendation:

"Now’s the time to take another look at next year’s budget and make sure you’re spending more, not less, to achieve on donor satisfaction and loyalty to hold on to your base."

Now, "hold on to your base" can mean a lot of things, from programmatic strategies to emphasize the work and activities you know (because you’ve done the donor research) brought your core donors in; to fine-tuning member/donor communications to report and celebrate results, results, results … and how your donors made those possible; to ensuring that in-bound member/donor inquiries are effectively handled; to tactical adjustments to donor renewal campaigns (the copy, the contact scheme, etc.).

All of these are important and can make a big difference. And because renewals are the most profitable fundraising activity you undertake, from your biggest donor to the rank-and-file, any retention improvements you achieve will yield significant net revenue.

Maybe you don’t control every aspect of the programmatic and marketing mix that can combine to strengthen donor retention. Perhaps as a fundraiser you "merely" control the nuts & bolts of the renewal process. Even so, now’s the time to show folks just how critical smart execution can be to the bottomline.

Start by taking a really careful look at your renewal program … everything from copy to the number, nature and timing of renewal contacts. Larger organizations tend to test each element of their renewal efforts very carefully, as they should … judiciously fine-tuning complex programs on an ongoing basis. Smaller organizations might be quite disorganized and even desultory in their approach, not even having what I’d call a renewal program … instead virtually "cut & pasting" stale year-end or annual appeals.

But the dropping renewal rates in the community — and the reality that donors will husband their charitable resources during stressful economic times — suggest that there should be no higher priority than fresh examination of renewal programs. Nothing should be taken for granted.

When "the boss" asks what should be done to protect revenue over the coming year, were I you, I’d say: "Bust our chops to improve renewal rates!" Then I’d add: "And get the rest of the organization focused on that goal too."

Sound simple, or obvious? Try it!

Tom

Posted by tbelford | Filed Under Don't Miss these Posts, direct mail, donor retention, fundraising | Leave a Comment 

Measuring Your Marketing

July 21, 2008

As reported in the Chronicle’s online column Prospecting, the American Marketing Association and marketing agency Lipman Hearne recently surveyed 1012 nonprofits on their marketing practices.

Their report, available here if you register, is an interesting read … and lots of response data to benchmark your noprofit against.

What struck me was te relatively low scores nonprofits give to their own effort to measure marketing success.

Here are the mean scores for some basic marketing activities/metrics:
(where 4 = Very Effective represents the highest score, and the percentage indicates the percent who don’t measure that activity/metric)

  • Revenue - 3.0, 4% (who could NOT measure their revenue?!)
  • Increase in number of members - 2.8, 8%
  • Unique visitors to website - 2.7, 19% (another Wow!)
  • Repeat visitors to website - 2.6, 23%
  • Member loyalty/satisfaction - 2.6, 12%
  • Earned media - 2.5, 26%
  • PR effectiveness - 2.4, 23%
  • Specific marketing campaign effectiveness - 2.4, 20% (if not measuring, then why bother?)
  • Brand awareness - 2.3, 26%
  • Print advertising - 2.2, 28%
  • Search engine optimization - 2.2, 28%

All in all, not exactly a rousing set of ratings!

Tom

 

Posted by tbelford | Filed Under Don't Miss these Posts, Measuring Up, marketing metrics, nonprofit management | Leave a Comment 

Need A New Tagline?

July 18, 2008

I’m sure most of you aren’t sitting around planning to change your tagline. Believe me, it’s one of the most challenging and contentious processes any nonprofit can undertake … usually bringing out the worst in committee decision-making!

But if you must plow down this path, definitely read the Getting Attention Tagline Report prepared by Nancy Schwartz. If you’re not contemplating it now, save this report for that fearsome occasion.

You’ll get excellent analysis of scores of existing nonprofit taglines … which ones work and which ones don’t … and why. And clear direction as to how to approach the task and what pitfalls to avoid if you’re planning a change.

Well done, Nancy. You deserve a raise!

Tom

Posted by tbelford | Filed Under You Deserve a Raise, branding, communications, creativity | 1 Comment 

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