Digital Marketing Master Class taught at CLA 2015 by Dave Raley and Josh Dougherty from Masterworks.

1. Digital Marketing Master Class
Dave Raley, Josh Dougherty, Bryan Burchett,
Kevin Atkinson, Rich Cason, Thomas Sluberski
Tuesday, April 14, 2015 | 10am-5pm (12:30-1:30 lunch break)
1

2. Dave Raley, Executive Vice President
Masterworks
draley@masterworks.com
Josh Dougherty, Lead Content Strategist
Masterworks
jdougherty@masterworks.com
Bryan Burchett, Director of Integrated Marketing
Focus on the Family
Bryan.Burchett@fotf.org
Kevin Atkinson, Director of eFunding
The Navigators
kevin.atkinson@navigators.org
Rich Cason, Sr. Director of Digital Fundraising
Feed the Children
rich.cason@feedthechildren.org
Thomas Sluberski, Web Director
Gospel for Asia
tomsluberski@gfa.org
2

3. Outline for Today
• Principles to Succeed
• Importance of Integration
• Channels and Strategies
– Email, Content Strategy, Optimization, Social, Mobile
• Building an Integrated Campaign
• Integrated Campaign Exercise
• Presentation of Campaigns
• Panel Q&A
3

4. PRINCIPLES TO SUCCEED
Driving digital success
4

5. 3 Steps to Success
Define
Success
Reverse
Engineer
Measure
5

6. Law of
Resource
Scarcity
6

7. 4 Areas
of Digital
7
Success
Website
eComm
Online
Promotion
Offline
Integration

8. 3 Ways
to Grow
8
Average Gift
(Value)
Conversion
(Response)

9. Relationship Axis
9
Y
Z
X
Relationship
Engagement
Transaction

10. IMPORTANCE OF INTEGRATION
Why The Effort Matters
10

11. So what is integration anyways?
11

12. 12
“…a strategic marketing process specifically designed
to ensure that all messaging and communication
strategies are unified across all channels and are
centered around the customer. “
Medill School of Journalism

13. 13
We’re trying to craft a cohesive experience no
matter where your constituents interact with you.
It’s proven that this cohesive experience drives
higher results.
Plain English

14. Why is integration important?
14

15. 15

16. 16

17. 17
Source: Kimbia

18. Influenced,
61%
Uninfluenced,
39%
Most Masterworks clients see more than half of their online revenue influenced
by direct mail fundraising impacts received in the previous 30 days.
Masterworks Media Attribution and Response Analysis
Offline Influenced Online Giving

19. INTEGRATION AT FOCUS ON THE FAMILY
Lessons from the front lines
19

20. by Bryan Burchett
Director of Integrated Marketing
Putting Together a Complex
Puzzle in a Large Organization

21. 1. Understand clearly roles and responsibilities
• Who is the “A” (Authority), who is an “I” (Influencer) and who
is a “P” (Participant)
• Meet ahead of time to brainstorm with all stakeholders
2. Define success
• Clearly define success BEFORE starting.
• This doesn’t always have to be revenue, it can also be
increased engagement or brand awareness i.e. Open’s,
Click’s, Constituent Satisfaction etc…
21
7 Things to Make it All Fit Like a Glove

22. 22
3. Documentation is your friend
• Campaign Brief
• Stated timelines
• Historical understandings to guide current campaign
• Campaign Components
• Clearly stated success measures
• User Stories
• I as a Marketer I want…
• I as a End User I would expect…
• Visual Campaign Flow

24. 4. Regular touch points
• Weekly meetings or stand-ups to level set.
• Always set an agenda for the meeting
• Always follow up with an email that has status updates and meeting
recaps/action items for clarity.
5. Testing will guide you
• People will always have different ideas/opinions/experience –
• Testing is the equalizer.
• If you can’t test (quickly and nimbly), this needs to be a priority.
24

25. 6. Results must be measured AND reviewed
• Shared results - lead to future buy off
• Feedback is important for improvement of both donor
retention and internal partnerships.
25

26. 7. Learn from each time you do the puzzle.
• Taking time to meet afterwards to discuss the good,
the bad, and the ugly will pay off.
26

27. CHANNELS AND STRATEGIES
Diving deeper into email, content strategy, optimization
27

28. EMAIL
Channels and strategies
28

29. Email
• List growth
• Segmentation
• Importance of mobile
• Evaluating results
• Tactics to grow your list
• Email at The Navigators
29

30. Email list growth
• Growing your list with qualified, quality emails
is critical to success. Pin a value to each email.
• Email appends generally give lots of emails,
but are low-quality, non responsive.
• Organic list growth is best – can be improved
through incentives, optimization.
30

31. Driving email list growth
• Promote email list sign-up on your website.
• Run a Click to Give campaign (every email sign-up
results in one meal/bible/etc provided).
• Offer a relevant download (resource, 30-day
devo, etc).
• Ask for email addresses offline (direct mail,
events) – offer an incentive.
31

32. Email segmentation
• When in doubt, send to a wide audience
• Be careful about permission/ruining your
reputation with email service providers (ESPs)
• If at all, segment on the most impactful variables
– subscriptions, whether they have given, clicked,
etc.
32

33. Email is mobile first – 53% of all opens
33
Source: https://litmus.com/blog/53-of-emails-opened-on-mobile-outlook-opens-decrease-33

34. A majority of opens are on iPhone, Gmail, and iPad
34
Source: https://litmus.com/blog/53-of-emails-opened-on-mobile-outlook-opens-decrease-33

35. Testing and evaluating email
• Test as often as you can
• Make decisions on the latest metric in the
funnel you can (i.e. conversion)
• Calculate statistical validity
• Subject lines are a great test – 20/20/60
35

36. Email creative that gets results
• Simple email templates are desirable. Email generally shouldn’t look like a
webpage.
• Periodically test creative new approaches to asks.
• Include hyperlinks throughout body copy.
• Consider testing your “From Address”.
• Experiment with call to action (CTA) copy, but keep focused on the action.
• There is no absolute rule about copy length
– Content length should be determined by variables other than length, such as
the content itself, the call to action, the audience, timing and seasonality.
36

37. Effective email subject lines
• Indicate that there is an ask-related call to action.
• Be direct about the topic of the email and the call to action.
• Include urgency, when appropriate.
• “You” focused subject lines work well.
• Subject lines should be as long as it takes to be clear.
• Mix it up, but only break the rules when you have a good
reason.
37

38. EMAIL AT THE NAVIGATORS
Lessons from the front lines
38

39. Resource: Industry reports
39
M+R NTEN Nonprofits
Benchmark Study
www.mrbenchmarks.com
(2015 edition comes out Apr 22)
Blackbaud Charitable Giving Report
www.blackbaud.com/nonprofit-resources/charitablegiving

40. CONTENT STRATEGY
Tackling the last experience design frontier
40

41. It’s Easy To Say You’re Going To
Create A Delightful Content Experience

42. But It’s Actually Really Difficult

44. So many tactics you could pursue

45. Storytelling
Content Curation
Inbound
Social Integration
Content Marketing
Blogging

49. Effective
Content
Requires
A System

50. Content Strategy Is That System

51. Content Strategy is the methodology we use
to equip organizations to tell their story in
an effective, compelling and relevant way in
an increasingly digital, multi-channel world.

52. We do this through a relentless focus on
planning for the creation, delivery and
maintenance of audience-focused, useful,
and usable content.

53. Content strategy helps you accomplish your
goals (revenue, volunteers, etc.) by meeting
your audience’s needs.

54. So how do we do that…
• Identify which content will help organizations accomplish their business goals.
• Understand what your audience really needs to build affinity and trust with your
organization.
• Plan content so it will be effective and accessible in whatever channel it is
displayed.
• Create systems and structure to ensure that content can be created and
maintained.
54

55. The content
strategy quad
55

56. Resource: Content Strategy Books
56
The Introduction: The Digital Crown by Ahava Leibtag
The Quick Read: The Elements of Content Strategy by Erin Kissane
The Implementation Guide: Content Strategy For The Web by Kristina Halvorson

57. OPTIMIZATION
Getting more out of everything
57

58. Optimization
• Usability and marketability
• Optimization tools
• Methodology
• Example: Focus on the Family
• Optimization at Gospel for Asia
58

59. Usability and Marketability
Usability – the process of
helping users to do what
they want to do.
Marketability – the
process of helping users to
do what we want them to
do.
59

60. Optimization in a nutshell
60
C = 4m + 3v + 2(i-f) –
2a

61. 61
C = 4m + 3v + 2(i-f) –
2aC = The probability of conversion
m = Motivation of the user
v = Quality of the value proposition
i = Incentive to act
f = Friction in the process
a = anything that produces anxiety

62. Resource: Meclabs Optimization
62
http://www.meclabs.com/training/online-
course/landing-page-optimization/overview

63. Optimization tools
• Heuristic evaluation – aka “expert review”
• Usability testing
• A/B/n split testing
63

64. Heuristic Evaluation
• Aka “expert review”
• Draws on experience and training
• Quickest method
• Great to quickly/roughly identify issues
64

65. Usability Testing
• Evaluating an experience by testing it with users.
• Typically involves giving users common usage scenarios
and observing them complete tasks.
• 3-5 users is enough to uncover 80% of your core issues.
• Try to get users who have the same level of experience
as your prospective donors/users (e.g. not inside staff,
not kids, etc. Spouses are often good subjects!)
65

66. Resource: Discount Usability Testing
66
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/why-you-only-need-to-test-with-5-users/

67. Resource: Usability Books by Steve Krug
67
Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A
Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
By Steve Krug
http://amzn.com/0321965515
Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself
Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems
By Steve Krug
http://amzn.com/0321657292

68. Resource: Nielsen Norman Group Alertbox
68
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/subscribe/

69. A/B/n Split Testing
• Variable clusters speed breakthroughs
• Don’t try to test every variable separately
• Statistical validity is critical
• Avoid potential testing errors
• Review all key metrics – conversion, avg gift, clickthrough
• Don’t stop when you get a breakthrough
69

70. Resource: Optimizely Optimization Platform
70
https://www.optimizely.com/benefits/

71. EXAMPLE: FOCUS ON THE FAMILY
Optimization in action
71

72. CONTROL

73. CONTROL PANEL B

74. PANEL CCONTROL

75. PANEL DCONTROL

76. WHICH FORM WILL GENERATE THE MOST CONVERSIONS?

77. Panel Conversion Relative Difference
Control: Panel A 4.35% -
Test: Panel B 10.03% 130.52%
Test: Panel C 12.71% 192.08%
Test: Panel D 13.44% 208.73%
Results

78. PANEL D: 208.73% LIFT IN CONVERSION OVER THE CONTROL

79. OPTIMIZATION AT GOSPEL FOR ASIA
Pioneering optimization
79

80. Rapid testing/optimization on the web (and
its potential ministry-wide benefits).
Thomas Sluberski

81. Rapid Testing on the Web
• Easy to set-up A/B testing for landing pages
• The ability to quickly learn by changing one thing
at a time (with *adequate traffic - statistics)
• The ability to quickly apply what we learned to
other areas of the site or other areas (ex. Facebook)
What the web affords us …

82. Rapid testing on the Web
• Lead Gen page
• Landing page testing (A/B)
• Subject line testing in emails
– And Email lead-in testing
• Call to Action testing: example – link text
Some areas of testing to look at:

83. Iterative Testing =
Conversion Increase
This lead-gen page receives high traffic.
Over a three year period, we modified and
tested multiple iterations (approx. 28 times).
Outcomes:
Conversion increase from 15-25% to 25-40%
Occaisionally, depending on audience … 40%+
We learned from each test, and that
learning can be applied elsewhere.
We are now focusing on mobile.
Thomas Sluberski

84. Donation Page: fall 2014
Focus on one thing
We know December is the
highest traffic month for giving,
we decided to take a risk and
transition this page to focus on
one priority donation item.
What you see is pre-December
Thomas Sluberski

85. Donation Page:
Focus on one thing
We collected click and heat
map data leading up to the
transition.
What you see is a click map
of our previous donation page
before we changed it over.
Thomas Sluberski

86. Donation Page:
Focus on one thing
The focus brought a significant
increase in both number of
donations and donations.
The previous page had
three main choices, so it’s
hard to derive a precise % lift.
Averaging everything, it was
approx. 300% lift overall.
The growth has been sustained through Jan – March!
This lends to the credibility of the lift.

87. Email: Subject, Lead-in Testing
• Start with Subject testing
• Example: examine your email list #
• Create 2 test groups (high % per group = better)
• Test two subjects that are relevant to lead-in
Subject is relative to lead-in (open/clicks)

88. Testing Stats – Testing Protocol
• The larger the test pools the better
• Ask, what is your conversion goal? (%)
• Understanding conversion confidence (95%)
• Many great resources on the web (search A/B)
This could be an entire day class but …

89. Testing the Subject: start somewhere

90. Testingthelead-in

91. Testing the lead-in
• Consider testing the lead-in
• Consider each part of the process closely:
– Each little step we make when viewing email or a
landing page, we are working towards trying to
understand a larger/connected message in our heads
Open rates won’t matter if clicks are low:

93. Learning from each improvement
• Don’t be lulled into easy wins and lifts (not the end-goal)
• The long-term goal is for learning through the lifts
(think cumulative effect)
• The key benefits are:
– Learning, and how that learning can be applied elsewhere
– Building a culture of testing by showing the data
A word of caution:

94. Rapid testing on the Web
• Optimizely, allows for A/B landing page tests
• Crazy Egg, allows for heat and scroll maps on
individual pages
Some easy to use tools out there

95. Example: one iteration, form fields for mobile
Optimizely
This lead-gen page receives significant traffic,
Over a three year period, we modified and
tested it 30 iterations for a total conversion
increase from approx 15-20% to 25-35%
We learned from each test, and that
learning can be applied elsewhere.

96. Example: scroll map, monitor feature article
CrazyEgg

97. Learning from each improvement
• Each time you are able to test and learn you
can …
Apply that area of learning to another
page or area and see if it brings a similar lift
The cumulative impact is significant

98. Challenges
• Time, often the long-term benefit is not seen
– Low hanging fruit versus the whole tree
• Control, often one person wants it one way
• Trust, letting go and allowing folks to run with it
What are some of the road blocks to building a
Culture where testing is seen as a value?

99. Ideas to get started
• Start small, example: subject lines
– Let the data results speak for themselves …
– Often times the data will dispell myths
• (example – the above the fold myth)
Side-note:
• Make sure you have enough traffic to verify the results.

100. Have a little fun …
Have some fun with testing…
Take guesses on whether A or B will do better.
Invite people from other departments to suggest ideas
Iterate …
Do as many tests as time will allow.
No one is a marketing expert, you can only refine your testing skills.
Pray …
That decision makers get the concept , see the results/data and recognize
the potential cumulative effect. Goal: To build a culture of testing.

101. Final Word:
TEST

102. LUNCH BREAK
We’ll start again at 1:30pm
102

103. CHANNELS AND STRATEGIES, CONTINUED
Diving deeper into social, mobile
103

104. SOCIAL
Curating the conversation
104

105. Our thinking about social
needs to be more nuanced
105

106. The donor decision journey
106
Interest ActionTrust

107. Social media’s role in the donor
decision journey
107
Monitor Respond Amplify Lead
CONSIDER Brand
monitoring
Crisis
management
Recommendation
s & referrals
Brand awareness
EVALUATE Product launches
DONATE Targeted offers
EXPERIENC
E
Donor support
& service
Foster
communities
Supporter
participation
ADVOCATE Brand advocacy
BOND

108. Stories are central to social
108

109. Earning attention
109

110. Buying attention
110
Email
Lead-Generation
• Pledge
• Action Alerts
• eBooks
• Advocacy
• Special
Promotions
Fundraising
Support
• Product
Promotions
• Targeted Offers
Brand
Awareness
• Social shares
• Social
engagement
Social Subscribers
• Growth in
quality
fans/followers

111. Roadmap for improving social
111
PLANNING PRESENCE
RELATIONSHIP-
BUILDING
SCALING
GOAL
Prioritize objectives and
strategies
Amplify marketing efforts
Increase loyalty and
donations
Empower staff
Strategic roadmap
• Channel strategies and
tactics
• Conversational calendar
• Measurement scorecard
or dashboard
Social listening
• Identify influencers
• Find new sites/forums to
engage
• Provide actionable
insights based on trends
in conversations
Brand advocacy strategies
• Foster communities
• Social media Influencers
Content creation
• Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, etc.
• Quizzes, eBooks, video
and more (MW creative
team)
Social media advertising
• Email lead-generation
• Fundraising support
• Brand awareness
• Social subscribers
Campaign support
• Product launches
• Targeted offers
• Supporter participation
Social media playbooks
• Planning and
measurement
templates
• Best channel
practices
• Employee policies
Technology
recommendations

112. MOBILE
Mobile is today’s reality
112

113. The mobile revolution is
here today.

114. 2002: Mobile subscriptions exceed landlines
Source: Internet Trends @ Stanford, Mary Meeker, http://www.slideshare.net/kleinerperkins/2012-kpcb-internet-trends-yearend-update

115. 2011: More smartphones sold than PCs
Source: Gartner, iSuppli Market Intelligence, http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/3069-Sales-of-
Smartphones-and-Tablets-to-Exceed-PCs-

116. 2012: Smartphones pass 50% mobile market share
Source: Nielsen Mobile Insights, http://www.idownloadblog.com/2013/01/17/smartphones-top-1b-2013/

117. 2014: 173 million Americans own smartphones
Source: Mobile Marketer
www.mobilestorm.com/di
gital-marketing-blog/u-s-
smartphone-ownership-
reaches-71-8-percent-
mobile-market-
penetration/

118. So what’s the next
major milestone?

119. Source: Global StatCounter,
http://gs.statcounter.com/
Mobile Internet Usage will Outpace Desktop Usage
United States

120. Mobile Internet Usage will Outpace Desktop Usage
Source: Global StatCounter,
http://gs.statcounter.com/
India

121. What about nonprofits?

122. Mobile/tablet traffic for a sampling of nonprofits
33.9%
47.9%
32.2%
27.4%
49.5%
49.0%
42.0%
35.0%
52.4%
40.8%
29.3%
40.7%
27.5%
42.3%
46.4%
40.9%
42.2%
30.3%Source: Google Analytics Mobile Mar 13 to April 12, 2015

123. Crafting a mobile strategy
Assess
Your
Situation
Define
Success
Act,
Measure,
Repeat

124. Crafting a mobile strategy
Assess
Your
Situation
Define
Success
Act,
Measure,
Repeat
 What are your current mobile numbers?
• Percentage of web traffic.
• App usage (if any).
 Who is your mobile audience?
• Surveys.
• Web analytics.
 What is their context? Why are they visiting?
• Surveys.
• Usability research.

125. Crafting a mobile strategy
Define
Success
Act,
Measure,
Repeat
 What do you want them to do?
• Desired actions.
• Should drive higher level goals.
 What do they want to do?
• Surveys, web analytics.
• Usability wins. Focus on the user!

126. Crafting a mobile strategy
Act,
Measure,
Repeat
 Develop strategies, execute tactics.
 Measure, do more of what’s working, stop
what isn’t.
• Web analytics.
• Results reporting.

127. Top mobile topics
• Mobile website vs mobile-responsive website
• Mobile donation experience
• Is your email mobile friendly?
• Mobile event integration (text to give/pledge, ops apps)
• Apps, text messaging
• Keys to mobile usability: simplify, enlarge, exploit
127

128. BUILDING AN INTEGRATED CAMPAIGN
Designing on a framework for success
128

129. What makes a successful campaign?
1. Offer
2. Goals
3. Audiences
4. Actions
5. Channels & Strategies
6. Measuring Success
129

130. Step 1: Craft a strong offer
130

131. 131
Questions you must
answer for the DONOR
before you’ve got an
offer …
8

132. 132
Why are you contacting
me today?1

133. 133
Problem (or Opportunity)

134. 134
What are YOU (the
organization)
doing about it?
2

135. 135
Solution

136. 136
What do you want
ME to do?3

137. 137
My Part in
the Solution

138. 138
Is it a good deal?
4

139. 139
Cost and leverage

140. 140
Why should I do it NOW?
5

141. 141
Urgency

142. 142
Does this all make sense?
6

143. 143
Donor Context

144. 144
What do I get out of it?
7

145. 145
Donor Benefits

146. 146
Why should I care?
8

147. 147
Emotion

148. MANAGING MULTIPLE OFFERS AT
FEED THE CHILDREN
Lessons from the front lines
148

149. Step 2: Identify goals
149

150. Law of
Resource
Scarcity
150

151. Goals help
us begin with
the end in
mind.
151

152. Campaign goals should be:
• Measurable (we recommend KPIs for each goal)
• Aligned with overall organizational goals
• Achievable
…And remember, it’s ok to have multiple goals.
152

153. Once you’ve
chosen goals,
prioritize
153

154. 154
Once you’ve
chosen goals,
prioritize

155. Bonus Insight
• Within your overall campaign it’s ok to have
different goals for each individual channel.
155

156. Step 3: Define Audiences
156

157. Why target specific audiences?
• Targeted messaging works better than general
messaging.
• Different audience groups respond to different
triggers.
157

158. Selecting Your Target Audience
158
Prospects
Donors
Major Donors

159. Selecting
Your Target
Audience
159

160. Building audience personas
• Identify the audience’s objectives for engaging with you.
• Identify their objections to becoming more deeply involved
in your organization.
• Define the context they live in (what their day-to-day life
looks like).
160

161. Step 4: Identify Actions
161

162. Identifying Actions
• Define what actions you want your donors to take as a
result of the campaign
• Determine which actions take priority over others
• Consider which actions will be channel specific
• Think through technical implementation
162

163. Step 5: Choose Channels
163

164. 4 Areas
of Digital
164
Success
Website
eComm
Online
Promotion
Offline
Integration

165. Choosing Channels
• Do something in every area of digital
• Different channels for different goals (acquisition vs. cultivation)
• Channel choice should be driven by audience personas
• Consider which touch points best convey the offer and supporting messaging.
• Don’t forget about the money-makers (overlays/splash pages/push downs, email)
165

166. Multi-Channel Storytelling
• You don’t have to tell the full story in all channels
• Reveal different sides of the story in each channel (in such a way
that each element can stand on its own)
• Leave constituents with a complete view if they engage you in all
channels
• Use one consistent message throughout
166

167. Step 5: Measure Success
167

168. Measuring Success
• Just do it!
• Individually source code all pieces
• As much as possible measure your results against similar
efforts the previous year
• Take time to discuss results
168

169. What makes a successful campaign?
1. Offer
2. Goals
3. Audiences
4. Actions
5. Channels
6. Measuring Success
169

170. INTEGRATED CAMPAIGN EXERCISE
Group exercise
170

171. Q&A PANEL DISCUSSION
171

172. THANK YOU!
172

173. Dave Raley, Executive Vice President
Masterworks
draley@masterworks.com
Josh Dougherty, Lead Content Strategist
Masterworks
jdougherty@masterworks.com
Bryan Burchett, Director of Integrated Marketing
Focus on the Family
Bryan.Burchett@fotf.org
Kevin Atkinson, Director of eFunding
The Navigators
kevin.atkinson@navigators.org
Rich Cason, Sr. Director of Digital Fundraising
Feed the Children
rich.cason@feedthechildren.org
Thomas Sluberski, Web Director
Gospel for Asia
tomsluberski@gfa.org
173