Rapid Fire Ideas for Digital Fundraising

1. Rapid Fire Ideas for Digital Fundraising 28 tips in 30 minutes! (Try to keep up!) Tweet this! #FRDNY

2. Presenters: Liz Murphy, President, RedEngine Digital @RedEngine Lane Brooks, COO, Food and Water Watch @FoodandWater Ann Crowley, Membership & Online Strategy Director, Human Rights Campaign @HRC Harry Lynch, CEO, SankyNet @HarryLynch @SankyNet

3. 1 Mobilize or Be Left Behind! This month, more email will be read on a mobile device than a desktop. Email opens increased 83% year over year (mostly Apple). (Return Path) Not just opening, but also donating! • Check your site analytics. • Focus first on mobile friendly site, forms, emails. • For a mobile site: 1) Use your CMS templates to create a mobile-only site (http://www.domain.mobi/) or 2) Adapt your current website to mobile standards.

4. Like Television, a Good Fundraising Series Ends in a Payoff 2 • 1st email – education and a call to action. • 2nd email – some education and more urgent call to action. • 3rd email – request for funding to address the need. • Repeat as needed.

5. 3 Just Do It • Set Up Infrastructure. • Technical, Programmatic, Day-to-Day. • Try Everything At Least Once. • There’s no harm in “Lessons Learned”. • Follow Your Competition. • Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

6. 4 Add Google+ to your Fundraising Toolbox Recent changes to Google’s algorithm make having an active Google+ page essential to maintaining high search rankings.

7. 5 Quick Win Landing Page Tests • Test iterations and placements of your control headlines, subheads, images, CTAs (words and color of buttons, etc.). • Test reducing page elements to a single focus so user path is better defined (but don’t forget to provide enough copy to overcome obstacles to action). • Test “you/benefits” copy vs. “what it is” copy. • Ask your webmaster to create a non-standard CMS template for your landing page tests – limited nav and promotion asks.

8. 6 “Renew” your Prospects • Action takers think of themselves as members. • Treat them like members. • Don’t ask them to join. • Ask them to renew their membership.

9. Social Media Puts the “Fun” Back in Fundraising 7

10. 8 Don’t Forget About Bing Search Engine Marketing on Bing using AdCenter can offer: • High Quality Impressions. • Solid CTR and Response Rates. • Lower Cost-per-Click.

11. 9A Facebook Ads: Secrets to Success • Create an Inventory of Facebook Ads – and Refresh 2x a Week! • Within 72 hours, the avgclickthrough rate for a FB ad campaign will dive along with your ad visibility and reach. (WebTrends)And you’ll pay more per click! • Create at least 8-12 ads (text and graphics) or posts for a Facebook advertising campaign at the onset. • Test 2-3 sets of ad creative each week.

12. 9B Facebook Ads: Test Everything • Images and copy make a difference and need to be rotated and refreshed. Also test Sponsored Stories Ads against traditional ads like those at right. • Page Post Ads: Take advantage of popular and engaging FB posts.

13. 10 A Picture is Worth $$ • A picture on the donate button itself can increase contributions.

14. 11 Don’t Accept Status Quo • Test, Retest, Track & Analyze • A theory is a theory, until you test it. • Reevaluate long-standing programs. • Track your metrics.

15. 12 Use Facebook, to just, like, say thanks! Post a public thank you online promote donor recognition and encourage other giving at the same time. • Client Case Study: • “Thank You” message saw 40% more shares than average. Overall page engagement increase 34% afterwards.

16. 13 Make Your Campaign Relevant • Create campaign “hooks”. • Help donors relate it to their lives . • Relate to current event/news. • Leverage current news as much as possible (think sports, world events, special occasions, etc.).

17. Juggling Takes Two Hands (that work together) 14 • Close coordination between Online and DM pays off. • Timing • Theme • Copy

18. 15 Integration is Vital • Channel Crossover. • Mail donors have email addresses. • Social media users are reachable via phone. • Launch a full-scale campaign. • Think beyond email. • Social media, text message, website, lightbox, blog post, press release, mail & telemarketing.

19. 16 Target Facebook Ads to your own “Likes” Client Case Study: • Use targeted Facebook ads to promote match. • Saw $12.08 for every $1 spent. • Increased overall donor engagement.

20. 17 Website (re)Design No-Nos Rely completely on market research and personas to re-design your site (or not). 2. One link on a page to important content is enough. 3. Make headlines and links on your site graphics. 4. Your mother can’t tell you the purpose of your site in 4 seconds. 5. Use a lot of javascript and flash. 6. Don’t worry about changing URLs for the new site.

21. 18 Who’s Asking? • Establish a relationship between the donor and the asker. • Then vary it.

22. 19 Mobile is on the Rise • Mobile Internet Access Grew 28% in the last year. • Optimize all emails & webpages for mobile access. • Find new ways to integrate mobile usage: • Join text notification network. • Use mobile in action campaigns.

23. 20 QR Codes – Are They Obsolete Already? Still able to provide gateways between different campaign materials.

24. 21 SEO Tips • For new campaign content, ask your SEO expert for formatting & guidelines for URLs, title and tags. • Do keyword research (Google keyword tool, Google News, Twitter hashtags, competitive research). • Unique title tag for every page and form (12 words or 75-85 characters) • Meta Description Tag – What your audience sees/reads when a search result appears – Marketing copy with CTA! (12-24 words). • More readable, non-graphic copy on a page better – min. 150 words/page.

25. A Thousand Times NO!Well, OK. 22 • At the end-of-year, it seems that you can’t ask too often. • Increase the pace from weekly, to bi-weekly, to daily, to…

26. 23 Ask Supporters What They Want • Survey Your Membership • Find out info to guide program choices. • Discover demographics to target messages.

27. 24 Think Outside the Lightbox Think Outside the Lightbox Experiment and see what works. Customize lightboxes to achieve gift upgrades.

28. BONUS Tell Them What You Told Them • Try emailing a word-for-word copy of the Direct Mail letter your donors recently got without any rewriting to give it “email speak.” • Introduce it with the sentence, “I recently sent you this letter in the mail, but haven’t heard back yet. Please take the time to respond today.”

29. BONUS Email Basics • Can’t give or respond if they can’t read it. • Don’t assume I’ll download images for every email.

30. BONUS Slow Down Your Email Unsubscribe Rate Offer choices like reduced frequency in place of a full opt-out. Fight to keep email constituents.