The Power of Email

Anna Robinson Olivia Whitty

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How to acquire and retain donors using email

So who are we and what do we know about emails?

3 million New users each month

85 million + Users worldwide

140 million emails to our users every month

2.5 million users in Australia

The world’s platform for change

What are we going to cover in this session?

Why use email?

Scale Cost Effectiveness

3 top reasons for using email

Results

1. 2. 3.

• 4 billion email accounts globally (Facebook: 1.3

billion, Twitter: 650 million)

• 185 billion emails sent / received daily

• Highly engaged audience: 71% Australians check email

first thing in morning and 47% last thing at night

(ExactTarget Digital Downunder Report)

• No telemarketing / face-to-face agency costs

• Upfront investment in CRM and staff should be able to

support 1,000 email leads as easily as 1,000,000 email

leads

• Globally, online giving grew up 8.9% in 2014 compared to

2.1% overall growth (Blackbaud Charitable Giving Report 2014)

• Increasing number of regular givers recruited online

• 25% increase in 2013, now 16% of online fundraising

revenues Source: NTEN 2014 Benchmarks Study

Indigenous Community Volunteer’s Multi-channel Approach

CASE STUDY

Using email to acquire new donors and improve performance of existing channels (digital plus).

Indigenous Community Volunteers

CASE STUDY

• Indigenous Community Volunteers (ICV) works with Australian Indigenous populations to improve quality of life and well-being

• Strong direct mail program but wanted to find new sources of growth of individual givers

Lesson 1: Create a ‘surround sound’ experience for your supporters

CASE STUDY

Lesson 2: Acquire a list that is passionate about your cause

CASE STUDY

RESULTS

‣100% permission-based

‣Recruiting 500 new qualified email leads per week on Change.org, working with the Prospect Shop and Change.org

Lesson 3: Use email to rapidly welcome and thank new supporters

CASE STUDY

RESULTS

‣ ICV offered new supporters a chance to receive a free gift

‣52% of email recipients opened

‣39% of those clicked through

Welcoming new supporters Subscribers get welcome note = 33% more longterm engagement #FIAconf15 @ChangeAus

Source:

Lesson 4: Optimise your landing page to get the information you need (and only that)

CASE STUDY

TACTICS

‣ ICV provided submission fields for mailing address and phone number

‣40% of the people who came to the landing page completed the request for mailing address and phone number to receive gift

Lesson 5: Combine online and offline to maximise resultsCASE STUDY

TACTICS

‣Gifts and an appeal letter were in mailboxes by a week later

Lesson 6: Combine online and phone to maximise resultsCASE STUDY

TACTICS

‣After receiving each phone number, ICV’s telemarketing team immediately made a personal call

‣Accelerated ask - monthly gift

‣ Telemarketing outcomes:

‣Unprecedented connection rate on phone calls

‣13% conversion to monthly givers

‣Average monthly donation of $18

ICV Telemarketer

Combining email with phone@ChangeAus clients who used email with phone = avg 10% higher conversion to regular giving #FIAConf15

Lesson 7: Use personalised and specific donation asks with clear goals (and repeat)

CASE STUDY

RESULTS:

‣ ICV sent a personalised ask for a one-time gift

‣4% of those sent to the first email donate

‣Average gift of $25

‣13% converting to regular givers with follow up calls

‣Following up with multiple emails over time - 0.4% donation rate on follow up emails

Value of personalised emailPersonalised emails drive 18x more revenue #FIAConf15 @ChangeAus

Source: Jupiter Research

Defenders of Wildlife’s scalable & cost-effective email fundraising solution

CASE STUDY

Using email to acquire and retain new donors (digital lead).

Defenders of Wildlife

CASE STUDY

• A US non-profit dedicated to protection of all native animals and plants in their natural communities

• Needed to rapidly and significantly scale up fundraising efforts to fulfill their mission

Lesson 1: Recruit new supporters at scale using a range of issues

CASE STUDY

Lesson 2: Segment your list creatively and plan your email engagement tactics accordingly

CASE STUDY

Segmentation OptionsDemographics Actions Taken

‣Age

‣Gender

‣Location

‣ Interests

‣Political Affiliation

‣New/Existing

‣Channel of recruitment

‣# Actions Taken

‣Active/Inactive

‣Types of Action

TYPES OF ACTION:

‣Online Activist

‣Offline Activist

‣One off Donor

‣Regular Giver

Lesson 3: Test different tactics for getting donations CASE STUDY

TACTICS

‣Match funding

‣Creating urgency with deadline

‣Fundraising target

Lesson 3: Test different tactics for getting donations CASE STUDY

TACTICS

‣Merchandise purchase requests

‣Think of this like a personalised direct mail premium— but only applicable to those donating

Lesson 4: Leverage the ‘immediacy’ advantage of email to respond rapidly

CASE STUDY

TACTICS

‣Urgent donation asks that rapidly respond to activities around the issue

‣Great tactic for organisations that are running and funding campaign escalation

Lesson 5: Use email to celebrate successes and keep supporters engaged

CASE STUDY

TACTICS

‣Defenders of Wildlife remember to thank their supporters regularly and celebrate their collective impact too

Why you should share successSupporters believe they’re helping = less donor fatigue #FIAConf15 @ChangeAus

Lesson 6: Integrate advocacy and fundraising activity to multiple impact

CASE STUDY

TACTICS

‣Defenders of Wildlife use advocacy asks to keep their leads warm and engaged in their issue, even if they can’t donate right now

‣Bonus — it helps them drive advocacy returns and campaign wins as well

Defenders of Wildlife Results

CASE STUDY

• 158% 2 Year ROI • 17,600 new donors • 78,400 active advocates • Multiple campaign wins as well

Writing a great fundraising email

Best tip for successYou have 7 seconds to generate interest — the average time a person read each email #FIAConf15 @ChangeAus

Personal Touch— Salutation & Introduction

Creating urgency to act and donate

Setting a clear and achievable target

Demonstrating the impact donations will have

Social Proofing / Joining a community

Positive Messaging that highlights the need

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Multiple donation asks and links to donation page

Specific amount for donation asks

7.

8.

Top email writing tips EMAIL

‣ Think about the tone that you want to use

‣ Use plain English

‣ Make your email easily scannable

‣ Only ask for one thing

‣ Send emails when you have something worth sending

Optimise for Mobile EMAIL

ICV Telemarketer ‣ 50% of opens will be on mobile

‣ Not optimising for mobile - 50% less click throughs

What, when & how to test

HIPPO vs. TestingTESTING

EMAILS TO INBOXES

‣ Sender

EMAILS OPENED

‣Subject lines

‣Time and day of send

CLICK THROUGHS

‣Content framing

‣Ask Placement and amount

DONATION FORM STARTS

‣ Landing page and optimization

DONORS

‣Donation form optimization

Get in touch with Anna Robinson Director of Business Development arobinson@change.org

Olivia Whitty Client Manager

olivia@change.org

Systems Processes

What you need to be successful

People

1. 2. 3.

• CRM/database and email system capable of running

an effective campaign

• Website donation landing pages that are functional and

optimised

• List segmentation fields and processes that meet the needs of the campaign

• Clear accountabilities in place for who is doing what

• People available to actually do the work (i.e. manage

database and sends)

• People have the knowledge and skills to execute the

campaign

Planning Supporter Acquisition

What you need to be successful

Evaluation

4. 5. 6.

• SMART goals and benchmarks

• Communication / campaigns calendar

• Welcome series in place

• Flexibility to send out responsive emails

• Plans in place for acquiring new email supporters

• Reporting framework in place

• Processes for generating reports established