Like tennis pros coming back from two sets down, telemarketers have rallied back from yesterday’s Are You Embarrassed post to score big time! Some comments …
“Yes, some board members don’t like the phones (so don’t call them!) but they should like basic math.”
“TM helps our clients raise more money, renew/reinstate more donors, increase retention/enhance stewardship, engage donors in advocacy and the list goes on.”
“Too few organisations realise the main power of the phone, which is in promoting long-term regular giving. Far too often financial success metrics for the phone are set over too short a time period, and so the necessary investment in good-quality, decent length fundraising calls isn’t made … And of course you can’t package your calls up neatly and win nice shiny awards for them as easily as you can for direct mail or email.”
“We’ve been using outbound telemarketing since 2007, however not until 2010 was someone solely responsible for this channel to give the time and energy to enhance it. So 2010 was a VERY successful year for us with reactivating over 25,000 lapsed donors and generated well over $1M in net revenue.”
“Advance Voice Messaging … delivers a lift in response ranging from 25%-400%! AVM is a 30-40 second pre-recorded message that is placed within 3-4 days of our mail appeal landing in homes.”
“I’m work for a telephone fundraising agency – I’m not embarrassed but fiercely proud! But I completely agree that we’re pretty rubbish at championing our channel.”
Read the complete comments here. And ask yourself again … shouldn’t we at least be testing the telephone?
Well done, telemarketers … you deserve a raise!
Can anybody help me with this? How much money was raised in 2010 online versus telemarketing?
Tom
This article was posted in: direct marketing, Don't Miss these Posts, donor retention, fundraising, loyalty, nonprofit management, nonprofits, telemarketing, You Deserve a Raise.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I would LOVE to hear more about Advance Voice Messaging. Sounds fantastic!
Fact is, telemktg works, and works well. Case in point, SCA had not done any serious telemktg in over 15 years. We tested two campaigns this year (lapsed reactivation and sustainer enrollment) and both turned an immediate net return not to mention the LTV that increased sustainer enrollments provide. We also learned a lot about our donors and the external realities that many are facing (reality check if nothing else).
Our senior staff balked at the tactic and so did most staff, until the numbers came out. Proving once again, it doesn’t matter what you or I think about the way it looks, says or sounds if it works for our constituents.
I loved today’s post.
Your question about how much was raised online caught my eye. This assumes everyone still stinks at integrated fundraising. We work with a lot of orgs that recruit supporters online from Care2, cultivate them as online donors, but also ask them over the phone. In one recent case a client got a 7% conversion 10 weeks from acquisition, including 4.55% conversion to monthly donors. Channels work together and we’re seeing online acquisition partnered with telephone conversion crush street engagement in acquiring sustainers.
Can’t we all just work together?
I worked for a non-profit that started a street canvass in 2009 and built a list of over 100k new donors. They weren’t responding to email or direct mail appeals, so we tried telefundraising them in 2010 – and the money flowed in. With that success, we started calling all of our members who had never responded to an appeal before. We converted 25% into donors on a break-even campaign.