Mailbox to Multichannel: Turn an Offline Campaign into a Multichannel Success

Mailbox to Multichannel:
Turning a Successful Offline Campaign into an
Extraordinary Multichannel
Success StoryPresented by:Max Bunch, SVP Client Services, Stratmark
Danna Gonzalez, Account Supervisor, Stratmark/is7Debbie Snyder, VP, Sales and Marketing, StratmarkLisa Wolf, SVP , Communications and Donor Relations, CURE International
2010 WASHINGTON NONPROFIT CONFERENCE
January 28-29, 2010

Donors don’t live in a single channel of communication.Neither should your fundraising.

A Lesson from the Catalog Industry
10 years ago a move to put catalogs online began
Some catalogers went to online catalogs and stopped printing and mailing catalogs – and their income plunged 60%
Without the printed catalog arriving in the mail, purchasers simply did not go on the web to order
Research reveals that more than 1/3 of consumers prefer to respond to print promotions online

A Lesson from the Check Printing Industry
Check volume in the U.S. declined 38% from 1995-2006, and continues to drop
A growing number of donors do not write checks anymore—especially younger donors
Some consumers actually put all of their bills - on their credit card because it is convenient and it earns miles or reward points

A Lesson from Direct Response Television
Infomercials on TV now expect more than 50% of buyers to order online
Inbound telemarketing companies are facing a sharp drop in demand for their services, because consumers are moving to the online channel to respond to TV offers

What can nonprofit organizations learn from the commercial world’s experiences?

#1 – Offering check-only payment for donations reduces giving.
Older donors write checks less frequently
The world is moving away from using checks to pay bills and make donations
Donors want payment options. In addition to the direct mail reply device, be sure to include online giving options in your appeal
Younger donors write no checks, or at the most, one or two checks a month for their rent and car payments

#2 - Online giving for most direct mail donors starts with the direct mail appeal.
The best approach to online giving for direct mail donors starts with a unified
multichannel direct response offer included in the familiar direct mail appeal
When direct mail and online messages, themes and offers are not aligned it may reduce income and confuse the donor
REMEMBER: Donors have one relationship with your organization, not seperate offline and an online relationships
Review your communications schedule to ensure that your direct mail and online appeals are in sync and both offer an online donation option
It is crucial that your online and direct mail messages are always consistent

Donors with a high propensity to give online can be located using outside data.
Households can be matched with known “digital neighborhoods,” online banking, credit card use, online catalog buying behavior and many other indicators
Models have now been perfected with other nonprofit organizations that allow donor households to be ranked in the likelihood that they will give online
Households who rank high on these scores are the best candidates to target for online giving

#3 - When direct mail donors begin giving online their giving increases from 35% to 50% per year.
Online donations are typically higher average gifts than direct mail donations and thus an increase in donor value
In many cases when the organization does not offer online giving the donor has been suppressed because they have already given online to other organizations and prefer the instant communication that comes with giving online
Donors who give to both direct mail and online campaigns have the highest value—in one organization the annual value of the “both” donors was $1600 a year
Many direct mail donors move to online monthly auto debit donors. As a result, their donor value increases

#4 - Online donors are the most likely donors to sign up for monthly auto debit giving.
Monthly auto debit giving is the most promising avenue of increasing regular stewardship
It is already becoming the backbone of donor support from younger donors in some organizations
Promoting monthly auto debit donations is the next logical step to increasing consistent donations

Offering multichannel giving options can:
Increase your organization’s donor income for every donor that begins to give online
Produce an increase from 35% to 50% when donors begin to actively give online
Bring back lapsed donors and increase donor retention
Result in larger average donations, because online donors typically give larger gifts, give more often and easily make the transition into monthly auto debit donors

DIRECT MAIL
TELEMARKETING
INTERATCTIVE
MOVING FROM
SINGLE CHANNEL TO
MULTI-CHANNEL
DONOR
COMMUNICATION
TELEMARKETING
INTERATCTIVE
DRTV
EVENT

Step 1: Identify Potential Online Donors

Step 2: Give Donors Payment Options
Payment options other than writing a check should be included on every reply device soliciting a gift. This will require:
A visible unique landing page address (i.e. www.MyOrg.org/need) and a toll free phone number with the call to action “to help as soon as possible” or “to send your gift immediately”
A reply device which should always include an online donation option: “for your convenience and security please click… www.MyOrg.org/need… to submit your donation.” This not only gives the donor an additional donation option, it also allows you to capture additional email addresses

Use Your Direct Mail Reply Device to Point People Online

OR – Use a Direct Mail Buckslip Insert

OR –Use a Full-Page Direct Mail Reply Device to Point People Online

Step 3: Create landing pages and donation forms tied to your direct mail.
Every direct mail solicitation will require some online creative:
A custom landing page is required for every mailing tied to the creative and the offer
Use the logo, photo, headline or some visible tie to the mailing—but this does not have to be the identical creative as the printed piece
Restate the offer and what the gift will do with specific amounts tailored to that donor’s giving record (i.e., $5 will feed 10 people)
Add additional gift arrays for the online offer as online donors tend to give higher initial gifts than offline donors

A Good Landing Page Supports Your Direct Mail Offer

Step 3: Create landing pages and donation forms tied to your direct mail.
A payment processing landing page specific to that mailing campaign must be constructed to allow a donor to quickly enter and process a credit card gift

A Good Donation Page Matches Your Direct Mail Offer & Makes Giving Easy

Step 4: Send every donor with an active email address a correlated email message timed to follow your direct mail piece sent to them.
The email must contain all essential information about the appeal – optimized for online communication – and with donation button(s)
Test various formats to get the right options to the donor
Consider focus groups or online questionnaires to learn your direct mail donors’ preferences for online payment

Sample Email Message in Support of Direct Mail

Step 5: Carefully append email addresses to your file.
Increase income from existing direct mail donors by moving them online. A careful append strategy will match 15% to 25% of your direct mail households with an email address
Only use the most careful and ethical append sources of email addresses that have “opted in” for offers from other organizations
Unify! You only get one first try for each donor so you do not want to misfire with a piecemeal strat competitive communication from different channels.
egyor allow
It is always best to use a multichannel strategy (mail, email and phone) to determine donor preferences as soon and as respectfully as possible. Remember these are already your organization’s most valuable donors
5. Messaging is key! Since these are current donors, recognize their previous efforts and cultivate accordingly.
6. In your donor communication program continue to test the synchronization of direct mail, email and online payment options

5 Lessons Learned
Offering a single channel (i.e. check-only payment) for donations reduces giving
Online giving for most direct mail donors starts with the direct mail offer that they received
Donors with a high propensity to give online can be located using outside data
When direct mail donors give online their annual value typically increases
35% to 50%
Donors who give online have proven to be the most likely to sign-up for monthly auto debit giving – which has proven to significantly increase their value as a donor

Summary
A carefully tested approach adding multichannel options to a direct mail program is now necessary to increase income and to accommodate donors who prefer to give online
Moving donors online is worth the effort – online donors have a much higher lifetime value
BUT . . . not every donor will move to online payment
It is important to target the right donors to avoid reducing response rates and income in the direct mail channel
This is the beginning of the never-ending process to develop donor relationships that are flexible and that respond to donor preferences as your donors and the world change
It is always best to use a multichannel strategy to determine donor preference as soon as possible
Continue to test the synchronization of direct mail, email and online payment options

Case Study
CURE International Progressive Integration Campaign
Challenges:
Little to no Brand Recognition
Limited Online Presence
Major donors made up majority of donor file
Objectives:
Increase Overall Brand Awareness
Improve Name Acquisition Efforts – Grow eMail database by 20%
Increase Number of Middle Donors – $10 to $399 gift range
Improve Segmentation by Acquiring Donors through Preferred Giving Channel

Background
CURE Direct Mail (before integrated campaigns) – Around 1.16% response rate
Newly Redesigned Website Launched October 2007
Average new eMail sign ups ~ 50 per month
eMail appeal response/fundraising was below average industry standards

The Approach
Evaluate all offline and online campaigns to determine strongest offer
Determined that the Clubfoot offer resonated the best without too much explanation, and has performed the best with offline and current online audience
Develop a progressive multi-channel campaign centered around clubfoot to achieve desired goals

Sign A Cast Campaign

Widget

Home Page Intercept
Home Page Banner

Announcement
eMail

Progressive Multichannel Integration Plan
Online:
CURE website, emails to current constituents
Social Media: Launch Virally across Social Networks – MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube
Offline
Events – Live Radio, Concerts (Includes Video Production)
Direct Mail
Newsletter Communications
Mobile Giving – Text to Give/Opt-In

Cultivation of Sign a Cast Acquired Friends

Cultivation of Sign a Cast Online Intro Series
GenericeNewsletter
Follow Up eMail

Results:18 months of Sign a Cast campaign
eMail Database: 500% growth in total file
Fundraising: Over $250K revenue
Total Response:
Increased Response Rate by 175% and 75% in subsequent Direct Mailings
Increased Revenue by 500% for Clubfoot offer

Additional Benefits:
Allowed for the following segmentation opportunities and improved donor
communication:
Preferred Communication Channel (Mobile, DM, Online)
Acquisition Source (KSKY Event, State Fair, Salem List)
Level of Support ( Donor, Non-donor, Volunteer)

41
Case Studies Multi-Channel Fundraising
For the American Bible Society,
multichannel marketing
created a significant multiplier for their:
Bibles in China Campaign.
2010 Washington Nonprofit Conference

Direct Marketing Association
42
If 5% of your donors responded
to a certain campaign
That means
95% did not
Did they like the appeal?
Did they not see the appeal?

43
Situation:
5% response from 400,000 donors …
but response
number of donors
and net income was in decline

44
Cultivation
Control Package:

45
Upper Donor Follow-Up
Handwritten note card was added and
it provided a 38% lift in response
General Donor Follow-Up
A Monarch downsized version of the initial appeal with a photo of a child featured in story

46
Donors were directed
to a specific
China landing page
from an eAppeal and
a Direct Mail
Cultivation Appeal

47
Both eAppeal and
Direct Mail Appeal
were followed
for the first time
by Telemarketing

48
Calls followed direct
mail by two weeks
Call campaign was
completed in
two weeks

49
Results:
63% increase in overall campaign net income
82% increase in number of donors responding

50
Pre-campaign voice broadcast call
Recorded message – encouraging
donors to pray for upcoming initiative
Increased response by 19%
Increase in net revenue by 29%

51
Multichannel donor development gave the American Bible Society the chance to:
Match a donor to a desired communication channel
Increase visibility of an urgent message
Break through the clutter of many messages
Highlight the cause in emotional ways that would be impossible for just one channel
Motivate a percentage of donors with the chance to make a second gift

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Mailbox to Multichannel: Turn an Offline Campaign into a Multichannel Success

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