Five Tips for Online Fundraisers from a Direct Mail Dinosaur
I'll admit it. I am a direct mail dinosaur now disguising myself as a hip online marketer. Everyone was going to find out one of these days, so I figured it was best to blow my own cover.
That said, the longer I work in the online world the more I realize how much of old-school, direct mail techniques are applicable to online marketing.
While there are several elements of communication that are different between the two channels, I offer the following five tips to online fundraisers from a direct mail dinosaur:
Segment your file: Not all online subscribers are created equal, nor should they be treated equally.
Some love to be asked for money and will give almost every time you have a compelling reason, some actually want to give monthly, and some only want to be asked every now and then... and, yes, some will never give. Test different categories of folks (recent donors, non-donors, renewed donors) and test different treatments. And make sure you are looking at all data – online, in the mail, on the phones, etc. – to create these cateogies.
Incorporate variable ask strings: I know it’s difficult with some systems, but it is vital that we start asking people appropriate dollar amounts online as well as in the mail – and that we are consistent.
Don’t ask someone for $30 online who has given $100 in the mail simply because that is the only version of the landing page you have. When we do this, we risk downgrading our donors. Likewise, don’t ask someone to become a new member simply because they have never made a gift online. It is absolutely necessary to acknowledge a donor’s mail donation online and vice versa.
Code, code, and code some more: Think about the type of data that may affect the success of future fundraising efforts and make sure to code your contacts and gifts in such a way that this data is easily accessible.
You may find that leads from a certain original source are more likely to upgrade, and therefore should be put immediately into an upgrade track while others are more interested in online activism and then a year-end ask. Or perhaps people who renew to your first efforts in the mail are more likely to make an appeal gift online. The key is to plan ahead and make your coding systems as consistent and descriptive as possible.
Analyze your returns at the end of a series: With everyone struggling to both recruit new donors and retain the ones we already have, it is critical to evaluate the success of not only single fundraising efforts, but also the combination of efforts that form a series.
Consider testing a conversion series for your online leads that tests the first two or three or even six contacts a lead receives --- and look at the combined results. Which brought on more new donors? Which had the lowest investment per donor? Which had the lowest unsubscribe rate? And follow these new donors through a year of resoliciations.
Evaluate success based on long-term ROI and net, not just gross revenue: Sometimes it is actually worth it in the long- run to invest more per initial donor if it means they will stay on the file, give through multiple channels and continue to give in years to come.
Don’t call an initial campaign a failure if it only converts 0.3% of your online leads (Yes, direct mailers, that number is okay in online acquisition!) and don’t automatically call an online appeal a run away success if it raises 20% more revenue than your previous appeal. Consider how many emails were sent? What costs went into the appeal (And yes, direct mailers, there are costs associated with online appeals!)? It is vital to look at the long term donor value of your recruits and how that relates to the initial investment. Investing $24 in a donor who will be worth over $120 in a 24-month period looks great --- whereas a “loss” of $24 per person on a single campaign looks horrendous.
We are at a critical stage right now for nonprofits – donors are expecting more from us and at the same time competition in the market place continues to grow at a blistering pace. If we want to succeed, we must do more than merely think about what makes each of our groups remarkable… we must employ direct marketing techniques, both in the "new" and “old” media, to promote our uniqueness and raise the funds necessary to make our missions a reality.
And we must learn from each other – so, who among the online cool-kids will step up and tell the direct mail dinosaurs what we can learn from you?
-Karen Taggart, aka the DMDivaGirl, is Director of Nonprofit Serices at Care2. She can be reached at karen[at]earth.care2.com.
Karen Taggart
in Online Fundraising, Email Marketing, Direct Marketing, Integrated Marketing
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Reader Comments (3)
If I could offer two more tips from a fellow dinosaur:
1). Don't bury the ask 2). Test, test, test.
I do, however, think that some old fashioned direct marketing techniques might be effective in the social marketing space. I always think a lot about Seth Godin's flipped- funnel idea. He says, "Turn strangers into friends.
Turn friends into donors. And then… do the most important job: Turn your donors into fundraisers." I think that a lot of our efforts in new media fundraising up until this point have really focused on the last step here; the friend-to-friend aspect of Web 2.0. Which, makes sense, because that is really what makes social media unique and where, I think, it has the largest potential.
But the problem is without those first "friends who become donors" the "donors who will become fundraisers" will never exists. And, reality is, all the word of mouth viral fundraising is not likely to produce a large enough group of "friends" to make a dent in your budget. This is where I think some old school direct marketing techniques could come in handy. Are there ways to integrate direct mail and facebook? Perhaps drive existing donors to join a facebook group where they can then recruit their friends and receive urgent updates with the occasional compelling ask? I would love to see someone integrate their data and identify who they have within the social networking communities who are already donors (via mail, phone, online) and target these folks to really become those member-fundraisers.
In direct mail it pretty much boils down to two key elements: 1.) What creative/message will be most appealing to my audience AND 2.) Who are the people that make up that audience who will be most responsive? I know, for example, if I want to re-engage donors who have not given since the '04 election, perhaps I should try and reinstate them with an election message. I would measure the success of the combination of my creative and targeting based on various metrics like response rate, average gift, net per thousand, etc.
The question that keeps coming back to me is this: How can we take advantage of these old-school direct marketing techniques to jump-start communities within social media?
I am currently fascinated by the idea of eFluentials; identifying who among our members and supports are most connected and have the potential to move others to act. I think this may be the next up-and-coming thing -- combining the idea of direct market targeting (who among the "list" is most predisposed to act/donate) with the uniqueness of social media. I have yet to really see anyone use this type of strategy outside of the PR world, but would love to hear if you know of any examples. The challenge, as with any type of list modeling, is finding out those key indicators for the outcomes you seek.
I used to consult my clients to keep much of their fundraising in the low risk world, but always have a toe in higher risk, new innovations in fundraising. I think social media is a perfect example. It's still early innings, and there are probably some innovations coming that might change things. Until then, one great tool folks might want to consider is the "Social Networking ROI Calculator" that my teammate Justin Perkins built. It allows you to enter your own organization's assumptions about costs and benefits -- and for the most part shows that the majority of nonprofits are better served investing their resources in tried-and-true methods of fundraising rather than social networks.. at least for the time being.