Everything You Need to Know About Measuring Online Results But Were Afraid to Ask

Everything You Need to Know About Measuring Online Results
But Were Afraid to Ask
April 12, 2010
Steve MacLaughlin
Director – Internet Solutions
Blackbaud
www.blackbaud.com/connections

Internet Management for NonprofitsTed Hart, Steve MacLaughlin, James M. Greenfield, Phillip H. Geier, Jr.
Beth Kanter
Michael Sola and Tim Kobosko
Dottie Schindlinger and Leanne Bergey
Russell Artzt, John Murcott, and Mark Fasciano
Roger M. Craver and Ryann Miller
Steve MacLaughlin
Adrienne D. Capps
Walter P. Pidgeon Jr.
Danielle Brigida and Jonathon D. Colman
Marcelo IniarraIraegui and Alfredo Botti
Philip King
Lawrence C. Henze
Andrew Mosawi and Anita Yuen
Allan Pressel
Michael Johnston and Matthew Barr
Catherine Pagliaro
Ben Rigby
Frédéric Fournier

The Market is Noisy
AGENDA
What is a metric?
Why should I care?
Why should I care?
Website Metrics
Email Metrics
Online Fundraising Metrics
Social Media Metrics
Benchmarking and Beyond

What is a Metric?
A standard unit of measure.
A measurable element of a process or function.
A measuring system that quantifies a trend, dynamic, or characteristic

Why Do Metrics Matter?
Help you understand what’s working and what’s not.
Gives you insights into your constituents.
If you can’t measure it, then you can’t manage it.

What Online Metrics Tell You

Website Metrics

Unique Identified Visitors
Unique Visitors
Visits
VALUE OF DATA
Page Views
Hits
VOLUME OF DATA

Hits
A request for a file from the web server.
A single web page typically consists of multiple files.
A hit is registered for the page, every image, and any other files present on that page.

Page Views
A request to load a single web page.
A metric for the entire site or specific content.
A useful metric over a period of time or for a specific event.

Visits
A site visit during a set period of time.
A visit contains one or more page views.
A visit helps understand what people do when they visit your site.

Unique Visitors
A visit by a unique individual.
A unique visitor is typically based on an IP address or cookie.
A unique visitor metric helps compare new visitors to repeat visitors.

Unique Identified Visitors
A visit by a unique identified individual.
A unique identified visitor is tracked based on information stored in a central database.
A unique identified visitor metric is the ultimate metric for tracking website visitor behavior.

Other Website Metrics
Referrers
Bounce Rate
Conversion Rate
Click Density
Page View Duration

Email Metrics

The Metrics that Matter
Deliverability
Open Rate
Click-Through Rate
Unsubscribe Rate
Conversion Rate
Source: ReturnPath

Deliverability
Deliverability measures the % emails successfully delivered or not
This is an inexact number as not all ISPs report delivered email
Your Sender’s Reputation Impacts Deliverability
Blackbaud:
Sender Score= 70
Accepted Rate= 99.03%
Risk= Low
Source: ReturnPath

Open Rate
Open Rate measures the % of opened emails that were delivered
Open Rate can only be tracked on HTML-based emails, not Text emails
Many systems block images used to track whether an email has been opened
Preview Panes can also provide false-positive open rates
The average open rate for known recipients is 19%. Your results may vary
BUT…
Just getting the message opened doesn’t mean you’re safe
A recent Email Sender and Provider Coalition (ESPC) study showed that…
80% of respondents decide whether to click on the "Report Spam" or "Junk" button without opening the actual message
Source: MarketingSherpa

Click-Through Rate
CTR measures the % of links clicked by unique individuals in an email
Be sure to look at both unique and per-individual CTRs in your metrics
CTRs are highly dependant on the quality of the email segmentation, content, and design
Unsubscribe Rate
Unsubscribe Rate measures % of opt-outs from the email
Remember…to be CAN-SPAM compliant you must allow for opt-outs
Allow people to remove themselves from certain email lists as well as all communication

Conversion Rate
Conversion Rate measures % of clickthroughs that resulted in an action
Actions could be making a donation, registering for an event, taking a survey, renewing a membership, or some other trackable action
Conversion Rate is the ultimate measure of the success of an email campaign
Deliverability Rate
Open Rate
Click-ThroughRate
ConversionRate
Unsubscribe Rate

How Long Does it Take to Measure Results?
50% of people will open an email in the first 9 hours
75% of people will open an email in the first 28 hours
The remaining 25% may take several days
The average email campaign has its peak open rate in 14 days
What is the Best Day of the Week to Send Email?
There is no magic formula…so test, test, and oh yes, TEST!
But…the most popular days are Tuesday through Thursday
Saturday is the lowest volume email day of the week
Source: MarketingSherpa

Even More Email Metrics
# Email Addresses
Valid Addresses
Average Open Rate
Average Conversion Rate
Revenue Per Email Appeal
Gifts Per Email Appeal

Online FundraisingMetrics

2008 Total Fundraising (US)
$292.23 Billion Offline
$15.42 Billion Online
Source: Giving USA / Blackbaud

US Fundraising Trends
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 $246B $245B $243B $245B $283B $295B $314B $307B
Source: Giving USA

US Online Fundraising Trends
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 $550M $1.1B $1.9B $2.62B $4.5B $6.87B $10.7B $15.42B
Source: ePhilanthropy Foundation, Blackbaud

39 Month Online Giving Trend
Haiti
Source: Blackbaud

2009 Online Giving Trends
30% of online revenue processed in December
46% of online revenue was processed Oct - Dec
Online transaction volume grew 74% YOY in the first three months of the year
Source: Blackbaud

Turning Data into Information
Total Constituents
Total Donors
Online
Offline
Online and Offline
Total Gifts
Online
Offline
Total Revenue
Online
Offline

Online Fundraising Metrics Sample

Social MediaMetrics

Social Media Metrics
Friends / Followers / Diggs / Tweets / ReTweets
Click-Throughs
Conversions

Social Media Funnel
Social Media
Email
Website
RSS

BenchmarkingMetrics

2009 Year Over Year Online Giving Trends
65% of nonprofits grew revenue YOY
Median online revenue YOY growth = 21%
Organizations raising > $1M grew 35% YOY
Source: Blackbaud

2009 Year Over Year Online Giving Trends
Source: Blackbaud

2009 Online Average Gift Trends
Source: Blackbaud

Online Major Giving
Trends

2009 Online Major Giving Trends
77% of nonprofits: at least one gift of $1,000
36% of $1,000+ online gifts were $1,001 - $4,999
Median $1,000+ online gift = $3,500
Median $1,000+ online gift = $2,500 in 2008
Source: Blackbaud

2009 Online Major Giving Trends
2009 Long Tail of Significant Online Gifts
Source: Blackbaud

2009 Distribution of Online Gifts of at Least $1,000n = 1,798
Source: Blackbaud

Haiti EarthquakeOnline Giving

Haiti Online Giving Trends
Source: Blackbaud

Goal Setting forOnline Fundraising

Online Percentage of Total Fundraising
< 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6% 7% 8% 9% > 10%
Under Performance< 1% to 3%
Average Performance3% to 7%
Exceptional Performance7% to > 10%

Underperformers
UNDER PERFORMERS

Average Performers

Exceptional Performers

Source: The Chronicle of Philanthropy

What to Remember
Metrics help you understand what’s working and what’s not.
Metrics give you insights into your constituents.
If you can’t measure it, then you can’t manage it.
Start measuring!

Thank You
Steve MacLaughlinDirector – Internet Solutions
steve.maclaughlin@blackbaud.comwww.blackbaud.com/connections

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Everything You Need to Know About Measuring Online Results But Were Afraid to Ask

by Steve MacLaughlin on Apr 12, 2010

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