2. About Me
• 7 years @ .org
• Fundraising, Constituent
Mgmt Solutions, Online /
Social media
• New England + NY
• Milton, MA
• Soccer
• bodonnell@advsol.com
www.advsol.com
24. Mobile Tips
• Define a width of the message
– Mobile only – 100%
– Combination – 600-650 pixels
• Stick to 1 column
• Increase spacing between links
• Image control - <480 pixels
• Subject line - <30 characters
www.advsol.com
33. Let us help you!
• ASI Website: www.advsol.com
• Follow ASI on Twitter: @advsol
• Presenter: Jeanette Brown
brown@informz.com
@emktg_guru
• Informz: www.informz.com
1.888.371.1842
@informz
www.advsol.com
35. About me
• Communications Director @
Boston-based Corporate
Accountability International
• Reach me @nickguroff on
Twitter
www.advsol.com
36. About Corporate Accountability
• 35 year history
• Founded w/the Nestlé
Boycott
• Runs public
educations and action
campaigns to protect
people from
corporate abuse
www.advsol.com
37. Role of the online program
• Public education
• Membership growth
• Build power/support
www.advsol.com
38. How we have built it
• Face-to-face organizing
• Tell-a-friends
• List shares
• Optimization
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40. Thinking in series
Example: Grand Canyon Goes Bottled-Water
Free
Action: Call on Share: Thank: The
Park to go Ask: To
The Park for support
bottled water- action taking action
free compelling
other Parks
to take
action
www.advsol.com
41. Testing Part I: Subject Line
Test A (Loser):
Untested, unlabeled and coming to a store near
you
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42. Testing Part I: Subject Line
Test B (Winner):
Tell Walmart: Reject Monsanto's GMO sweet corn
www.advsol.com
43. Testing Part 2: Content
Intro text v. straight resend (Tie)
www.advsol.com
44. Our findings
The more quickly you engage new additions
to your list, the more active they are likely to
be.
www.advsol.com
45. Welcome series v. introductory
action
Introductory email
eNews
Action
www.advsol.com
49. Some mission-advancing
conclusions
• Know and build upon particularities of your list
• Segment and test with subsets of your list
• Ensure unity & visibility of message across platforms
• Engage your best names early and often
www.advsol.com
As for me, I have worked in the marketing departments at a couple of associations prior to joining the Informz team, and understand what many of you face when it comes to communicating to your members. From membership to conference marketing, I have done it all.As the marketing strategy manager at Informz, I work directly with our clients to achieve certain goals they have for their campaigns, such as membership welcome campaigns, content devlopment and anything in between.
Create a plan. And this plan is to look at all areas
Such as, look at your asset inventory, this includes covering what type of technology you have, staff and what projects you want to tackle first.Goals, always think of baby steps, you will walk out of here with great ideas, see examples from others, start with a plan, pick one campaign, one event, to start making changes.And with email, comes with different ways to communicate. Email is your driver, use it to deliver information in videos, what is going on your social media sites.This all requires a plan
And you want to use a calendar. This is hard to read, but it gives you an idea of what I am referring to. Use a calendar and share with other departments. We are here to discuss fundraising right, but many of us work at associations, non-profits that have meetings, membership and marketing departments. It is essential that this calendar is shared. Because all too often we hear members are getting over communicated. Ok, so we have set the stage for planning. Time to communicate
First speak to who they are. because
One size does not fit all when it comes to communication
What data do you pull on, member status and if they are a past donor? That is great data to use, but what aboutGenderPlace they liveBirthdayFinancial statusWhat do they read onFamily sizeEducationProfession and lastlyGenerationData leads the way in what your strategy should be. It is essential in taking this data and using it to convert nondonors to donors. And the key is not to just blast a message out to everyone at the same time
The key to creating a relevant message is to find the people to send it to. Smaller lists do result in higher engagement due to the increased targeting. So start targeting by using your data you already have. Take this for example
Pull directly from your database to ensure you have top notch data, and have it update your email lists in real time.This also feeds back into your database so you can pull more accurate lists, which then become those smaller niche lists.
Next is your subject line. Readers take 2-3 seconds to decide if they should open up your email, and how do they decide this, through your subject line.
Before we get into any testing results, lets review some tips on creating subject line.First, the length. If you haven’t noticed yet, in Informz we help you out with this. The length is so important because if it gets cut off, it can mean very different things. Next,
Also, just as you shouldn’t blast an email to everyone, don’t blast the same subject line to everyone. Make sure it is relevant. The email can be the same but designate different motivations to open the email for different groups.And lastly, get rid of those boring subject lines and try out some topic based ones. And if you look down right now, I am sure you will see a mobile device less than 10 ft from you.
With more than 60 percent of decision makers reading email on a mobile device, time to realize that your subscribers are too. I mentioned the length earlier, on a mobile device even shorter. We will be doing an exercise in a bit to work on creative ways to reduce subject lines.And pre-headers. This can help with the length issue in that you insert additional content in this area to complement, not duplicate the subject line. At this time, I would like to turn it over to Andrea to walk you through our first tests of subject lines.
So, past donors, what do we usually do, we message them with, as a past donor, as a past donor, you helped us last year, please donate again, right.Why not just communicate to them during the campaign, without making the ask?
This email went out at the start of their summer toy drive, and just shared with their past donors that they donated last yearClick And informed them once again, how their donation was used last year. We do this usually at the close of the campaign, but we need to cultivate these relationships, build them, create that trust all year long. Do this even during the campaign and you may just surprise yourself.Here, they had someone open it 16 times and donate in the end, without even the ask. Just a simple thank you. So look, this simple message, with out an ask, received a donation.
Next, this group utilized behavioral data based on the actions the user took in an email. So after the that first email,
They sent this email to follow up to those that opened the email but did not convert. Here they made the ask. Reaching out to a group who showed you that they were engaged, it is time to leverage that excitement and follow up with themAnd they found an open rate of 37%. That is much higher than the average 20% open rate we mostly see on other emails. This group, the group that shows that they are engaged in your emails, they need to be nurtured and encouraged to donate again.Once you send it out, data is important to justify your efforts.
Of course, standards stats, open, click throughs are good, but what about connecting your efforts with the financial outcome?Using a report similar to this, shows a correlation of donations directly after the send date of your email. Of course additional factors can effect this but hopefully your strategy doesn’t overlap efforts but spreads them out.Remember I talked about integrated systems, this is an example of that, this is a report that is unique to our iMIS integration, which it pulls directly from their database, activity tables. So no more manually creating tables, trying to figure out which email, message, etc, created the best results.
Number one tip,is to define the width. If you plan to create a mobile only version, then define the width at 100%. This means the email will adjust based on the size screen it is on, to 100% of the width of the screen. If you don’t plan to split the groups out, then create a fixed width, which will work for everyone. In doing a fixed width, you will then want to decide if you want to have just one column. Everyone in marketing just loves their sidebars, which is a great place to highlight deadlines and key information, on a mobile phone, this sidebar could be rendered in such a way that it is above your main body content or even below, leaving it useless.Images are fine to use, but keep them to less than 480 pixels. Why? Most phones can render this size just fine without taking up the whole screen.And lastly subject line. Keep them short. We discussed subject lines earlier, so make sure a pre-header is included in mobile designs as well. And before you are ready to send CLICK
So we talked about email, how about social media.How can social media be used to advance your efforts.We all use it right, but does it really work?
Shared emails delivered an average increase in reach of 24.3%. If shared emails, such as forwarding it, just think about a platform where you could increase your reach 4-7x more due to everyone’s size of a network.
Take a look at this.First, the ask to give occurred during nurses week. When they choose to give, there is an option to download a facetime banner image to use for that month. These images are friendly, useful and an easy way to share the message to a larger audience.
And lastly, video
Video can improve your click thru rates by almost 50%In this example, they included it as a PS. Using a PS is a great way to get readers to see something important
Next, always use a play button on your screenshot. We all love to push play
Quick tipsAlways include in your subject line, keep them short, post everywhere, just like your social media sign ups and manage your keywords.
In the end, take these ideas I shared with you today, implement them one step at a time. Don’t go back and try to overhaul everything. One change can bring big results. Remember, target donors based on data and actions. You have the data in your AMS and if you are integrated with an email platform, you have the action-based data as well from the emails, all in one place.Make sure you get personal. The videos, if you need to, create multiple versions and send them. And lastly, integrate your technologies and your marketing outlets. Make things easy on yourself with tools that are out there today to help you overcome the lack of staff and time.
