In the recent Chronicle of Philanthropy (Dated November 15) a study has shown that Americans who give to charity online are giving roughly the same amount as the traditional check-writers that offline agencies have relied upon for years.

In my many years of experience the online acquired donor has always donated more, and donated more frequently, so this study has definitely raised my eyebrows a bit – and definitely will have me testing and looking at my data much more closely. Of 1,500 respondents (a rather small sample size since many major and medium sized organizations have list sizes many times that size) 65% said they have made an online donation in the past year – with a median gift size of $50. This study has shown that many organizations still rely heavily on the lower than average first gift, and must plan a different upgrading strategy in order to maintain donor loyalty and get a higher second gift.

The study in the Chronicle does confirm the ‘online donors give more’ theory in a study last year (by Target Analysis Group in Boston) that online donors gave a larger median gift, and gave more over time.

It’s interesting to note that this study indicates that many of these gifts are in response to annual fund activity, or direct mail campaign – and that they tend to give through multiple channels (offline and online.) Also worthy of note (and something that I can testify to first-hand, is that 23% of the most recent charitable gifts went to religious organizations – so many non profits reading this and the Chronicle article should be signing up for ministry newsletters to see how it’s done…)

And with year end giving here – hope you have your emails planned – 24% of the donations were made between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day (one organization I have done work with in the past makes the most non-disaster related donations on New Years Eve!!)

What does all this mean? And what else does this article tell us that seasoned e-marketers and fundraisers already know? 64% of the respondents said the speed and convenience of the internet was the reason donations were made online/electronically. Another 20% said the donation was in direct connection with something the organization did – like sending an email appeal, or creating a special campaign site or appeal promotion on the organization’s homepage.

And the final thing to make you think about….gosh this was an affirming article/survey… 28% of donors who made only offline gifts said they did not donate online because they could NOT FIND a giving site – or that they DID NOT KNOW they could donate online.

I hope you are taking a really good look at your homepage right now to make sure that you have a very strong conversion element – if you are asking for a donation, or selling a product (Christmas presents!!)

Tomorrow, I will be posting about how you should think through your email appeal for the year end. It’s doesn’t just start and end with pressing the ’send’ button just once. For every email you send, there are FIVE opportunities to increase your response rates.

At the time this is published I’ll be on vacation in England. However this trip is not just for me to travel to the wilds of Hadfield, Driffield, Manchester, Hull, and Upper Poppleton, the main reason is that I’ll be speaking at SMX-London this Friday. In fact, over the next month there are going to be a number of opportunities to hear one or more of the RedBoots team speaking at conferences on digital marketing tactics, tips and techniques. Simply go to our events page to find our schedule, and if you’re going to be in attendance, feel free to drop a comment here, or just walk up to one of us and introduce yourself.

For those of you that are unable to attend, we’ll be putting any and all presentations that we do at these conferences in the resources area for your downloading pleasure. But what about those sessions that non-RedBoots people are talking at? Where can you get that information? Well, I had so much fun at SES-San Jose doing liveblogging that I’m going to have another crack at it at these conferences, where it makes sense (plus it gives me a chance to really try out my brand new laptop which came complete with that most necessary of liveblogging tools – the spare battery).

Back in June, I stated in a post about defining mutually agreeable language, “It’s important for an agency and a client to understand each other’s language when discussing search engine optimization efforts.”

Though we all make slips in language, generally speaking, is there really such a thing as “naturally search engine friendly?”

A site with poor copy could be on a server free of problems, on a content management system that doesn’t generate session ID’s and parameters, but it still wouldn’t be naturally search engine friendly because the copy was poor.

A content management system that creates clean URLs is not “naturally search engine friendly” if it can’t pick and choose the right keywords to display in the URL (and why would you want a CMS that automates your titles? Yuck!)

A blog, frequently updated with great content and copywriting, sitting on the best blog engine could still be designed with the worst template for spidering by the search engines.

Is being “naturally search engine friendly,” something to aspire to? Shouldn’t our aspiration be to build our web presence for users?

So how do Google and your local gas station have anything to do with the future of local search?  Well read on and you’ll understand what is about to happen and what is likely to be coming soon.  In the “olden times” if you got lost you could stop at the local gas station and ask for directions to the destination you were trying to get to.  Now there is GPS, but soon you’ll have another option.  According to an article in the LA times, beginning in December you’ll be able to fill up your gas tank while you get directions to a hotel, restaurant, or other business right from the gas pump.  You’ll be able to print out the directions and off you’ll go with a full tank of gas and turn by turn directions to your destination.  Even better, you’ll probably be given the option to print out a coupon to a participating business that matches the type of business you’re looking for.

Everyone is a winner with a system like this.  Gas stations can use it to build loyalty and add an additional revenue source by splitting the revenue generated from each coupon printed with Google, local businesses can attract more business by offering coupons at the gas stations, and Google will begin to build yet another revenue source.  There aren’t any details yet as to whether Google plans to actually employ this model, but it does make sense for all parties involved.

This is just the beginning to how I believe Google will transform the mapping and local advertising world.  In the coming years you’ll most likely be able to have Google maps in your car and on your mobile device.  Google will be able to alert you regarding sales that you may be interested in at local businesses that you’re driving or walking by based on your personal habits.  Or if you don’t want offers being pushed out to you, you could simply enter into your mobile device what you’re looking for and you’d be presented with the local matches along with discount coupons for the participating businesses.  Instead of a cost-per-click (CPC) model it would be a pay-per-coupon redeemed model.  It wouldn’t be a “coupon” as we know it today, but a discount that would automatically be applied as you scan your mobile device that contains your credit card information at the checkout.  Now that would be an attractive option for local businesses and consumers…and oh yeah Google as well.

In the not too distant future you may even be able to search for a specific product on your mobile device and results will appear on a Google map that lists the locations, price, and quantity in stock for the product based on the product RFIDs from each store in the local area that have been linked to Google and are then sent to you in real time.  Now how great would that be for all of you Christmas shoppers out searching for this years hottest present?  That, however, leads into a whole new realm of possibilities that will have to be left for another time.  But until then look for Google maps at a gas station near you in early December.

Somerfield is a chain of medium sized supermarkets in the UK. Back in June I mentioned them when I talked about self inflicted reputation management issues. I thought it was time to revisit them, and see how things are going…

The first mention of the Easter debacle is now way down at 40, which is good for them. However, there are now a few other troubling issues that they need to look at and address. In 19th position, there’s a listing about Boots (the Chemists) and Somerfield being environmentally unsound and trashing forests. In 12th, a listing from the Food Standards Authority, about the recall of their own brand Jaffa Cakes due to mislabeling (they forgot to include the milk, not a problem unless you’re lactose intolerant). The big concern that I have is with the result in 7th position. It’s a YouTube video. The video is of workers in a Somerfield Warehouse walking around in the rafters acting silly, exploding eggs in the company microwave, etc. Not really a problem you may think. Well, the last person that commented on the video didn’t comment about the video, instead they wrote about their experiences working there…

somerfield is an awful company to work for, I was there for 6 years, knocked my pan in every day for them and got treated like sh*t for my trouble. It’s also the worst run business I’ve ever worked for. I’m sure Homer Simpson was making the decisions there. “lets spend 1 million quid coverting a store and shut it 6 months later and leave ALL the shelves and equipment in there to rust instead of moving it to another store or selling it.

This is now the default text that displays under that video.

A quick fix for Somerfield is to go in there and add a new comment, replacing that text with something neutral. What this demonstrates though is that even though Somerfield had issues with their online reputation earlier this year, they’re still not even doing something as basic as monitoring the SERPs for their brand, which will allow them to work on correcting any issues that they find.

Make sure you’re not making that same mistake, and watch this space for a lot more on Reputation Management in the upcoming months, which will include a White Paper that we’ll be releasing in the new year.

I just received an email from a very large and reputable non-profit organization with a subject line that took me all of one millisecond to open.

Subject: Important Notice: Security Breach

Normally I would mentally file this away to the ‘phishing’ email scams, but since the email came from CARE I opened it immediately hoping that my donation information from the past has not been ‘breached.’

Apparently, the only information that was taken from their database on or about October 23 – November 1 was your email address and password for maintaining your account information on CARE’s system.

It was not reported how many email addresses were taken, but with an organization the size of CARE – it could be a pretty big number.

What does this mean? Well, my thoughts are that these people are going to be getting a lot of spam pretty soon. And they will need to rebuild trust with CARE as an organization that takes PRIVACY of your data seriously – until they are hacked. Remember though, it it not their fault – but that of Convio who should be doing more to protect the data of it’s customers. A larger percentage of the bigger non-profits use Convio, so the problem could be wider than anticipated. And we could see a temporary increase in spam, and a decrease in overall responses over the next few weeks. (During this important year-end giving season)

BE PROACTIVE WITH YOUR CONSTITUENTS.

Now is a good time for ANY organization, regardless of email platform to make sure the data is safe, and send out an email communication that informs users to pay careful attention to any suspicious emails that are sent during this peak online/email giving time of year. It may be wise to include alternate methods of donating if you feel that your data has or could have been compromised. Create a special toll free number that is included ONLY in your email communications.

And remember to inform your constituents that you would NEVER ask for any personal or financial information.

You may need to skip your first November email appeal in order to take a step back and do some member/donor cultivation and let them know that their donations are safe.

We know this type of activity occurs occasionally, so it’s a good practice to inform more frequently to avoid potential fraudulent activities.

When organizational awareness (and brand awareness) has more long-term value than immediate donations and sales.

In this new vast new web, the number of young adults getting online has increased but their activities are not matching those of us older, more seasoned internet surfers and users. For those of us that spend all day connected to our blackberries and email – tomorrow’s users and donors are spending only 10 minutes a day on email compared to over 70 minutes ‘texting’. Granted, they are in high school and are texting on the sly or while the teacher’s back is turned.

OMG.

What are email marketers to do? The problem isn’t Facebook or MySpace, the problem is how to address every organizations number one goal at the moment: How do I get a younger audience into my communication and fundraising programs?

Every organization is facing a problem with their donor files ‘aging out’ – and, while planned- or legacy-giving was created to get donations ‘from the beyond’ – we are all faced with the possibility of skipping a generation of more affluent donors. The typical internet user today is more likely to give more money online to organizations they support, and respond to email appeals and other email communications.

While ‘kids’ today are spending only about 10 minutes on email – is sending them an email appeal worth your efforts? Yes. And No. You need to communicate with them on their terms where they are most comfortable.

Go where they are. Facebook, Myspace, etc. The number of new social networking sites grows daily – it’s hard to keep up with who you need to Digg. I remember when my biggest concern was who was Hot or Not. I guess that was a social networking site. A kinda mean one though.

Many organizations are using groups on these social networking sites to introduce themselves to a new and broader (read: YOUNGER) audience. An important part of any communication plan is to create groups on these sites and continue to push information on a timely basis and create information that appeals to the target. Your main goal should be how to have these future donors visit your site to learn about your organization – not just the number of members. Sure, it’s great if your Facebook group has 500,000 members – but you really can’t email them directly.

Remember, you may not see any immediate responses or donations, but you can offer the Facebook crowd a means to learn about your organization in the manner that they can grasp. And let them become bonded to your organization before they become donors. A mini-site or campaign site should be created to introduce your organization or cause to this younger audience. Offer text messaging. Video. Something that will resonate with the immediate gratification of doing good. Don’t expect them to give their allowance.

The plus side of all of this – and there are many – is that we do not know what Social Network sites will evolve to. Will third part advertising drive people to new sites? We do not know. Will all your efforts on Facebook go up in smoke when the hot new property opens it’s doors? We do not know. We as cutting edge marketers stay on top of this and can provide the strategy – that’s a certain.

Another thing for certain. These younger kids will become working adults with high paying jobs that will be connected to their blackberries and email.

So, start the relationship now – it’ll payoff later. That donor will be your organization’ BFF for a long time.

In August, Google announced that they were going to pay people to collect data for their local search solution. This program, aimed at college students and stay at home mothers, agreed to pay $2 for pictures and data on local businesses, and a further $8 when the data collected was verified by the business owner. InsiderPages.com has hit on an interesting idea to improve their data. Rather than paying people to enter reviews into their system, they do mini online fundraisers. Any organization attempting to raise money can do so through this program, but only for a 3 week window.

What are the qualifications for this program? You have to be an organization that’s attempting to raise money. So anything from schools to little league teams to national charities count. The program FAQ’s don’t state whether an organization can run through this program more than once, and if so what the timeline restrictions would be, but they claim that in the 3 week period organizations typically raise from $1,000 to $10,000, not bad for a program that pays $1.50 for the first review of a business, and $0.50 for subsequent reviews. So, for organizations looking to generate some funds, this seems like a no-brainer, as long as you can mobilize people behind the program for those 3 weeks.

It’s a great way for them to improve their data, to get their brand out to people, and to help organizations that need the help, so kudos to InsiderPages.

Generally, an organization should engage its constituents where they hang out online, especially because potential donors should be hanging right in the same places.

If you don’t already have donor profiles, which demographically explain who gives the most money, who gives money most frequently, and who donates only once, start gathering this information! This data will help to identify strengths and weaknesses in your fundraising. A good analytical mind and some spreadsheet prowess can take the raw numbers and produce attractive graphs which boil things down to their basics.

With demographic data, a social media expert can begin to determine where that general demography spends their time online. However, public data may be lacking on whether a specific news site or social networking site skews younger or older, male or female, or more or less affluent. By integrating your email marketing and analytics analyses, your organization and your social media expert can yield further data to determine targets of social media.

In #5 of 5 easy social media wins, I suggested “Ask Your Membership.” A donor who is interested in engaging with your organization may share with you what sites they visit on a daily basis, where they spend their time online and offline, how many children they have, what their income level is, and a slew of personal information. Anonymous surveying can yield tremendous results if you just take the time to ask. Where surveying seems intrusive based on previous email appeals, or the email response rates seem unlikely to produce a representative sample, you can test multiple email appeals to have your email members engage in a linking campaign, or “embrace social media…wherever they choose to engage: in their social networks, at a Wiki, on their blogs, in their book clubs, and in their email signatures.”

Your analytics can also yield great results to help with your social media plan. The sites that refer the most traffic to your site speaks volumes, as does determining which sites that send the visitors who spend the most time moving around your site, and which pages are your most popular exit pages. As your analytics data pool expands, the ability to understand your visitors without explicitly asking them becomes clearer.

For more information on email marketing as it relates to data, I recommend Steps to Create a Successful Email Appeal Series, and THINK. A multi-part Email Strategy Series. And for more on how to analyze entry and exit pages and visitors in your analytics, I recommend Tracking Success on Content Sites and Analyzing Your Exit Pages. My post on Social Media Marketing Campaign Process may assist you in a less analytical approach to your social media marketing plans.

Creating a successful marketing campaign is not done on a whim, but instead requires extensive research and planning.  To be successful you have to put in the time and effort into the creation of the campaign and not just reacting to what you learn once the campaign is live.  While it is vital to react to what the data from the campaign tells you, you’ll be able to save time and money if you put in the necessary work into the pre launch efforts.  The following steps should be taken during the campaign planning process in order to be able to properly track and meet the goals of the campaign.

Define Business Objectives

Before you can begin to create a marketing campaign you first need to understand the business and its objectives.  Understand the market that the company competes in and how the company stacks up to its competition.  It’s also important to have a full understanding of who the customers are and how marketing initiatives can help reach a broader spectrum of the target audience.

Specific business objectives then need to be agreed upon by the company stake-holders.    These need to be specific goals and not just to “increase sales” or “generate more leads.”

Define Conversion Events

Next you need to go through each of the business objectives and determine what event will constitute a conversion.  These should be micro conversion goals that when combined give a detailed picture of how the campaign is performing in relation to the defined business objectives.

Let’s say that your business objective is to increase sales of a new product by 20%.  A few micro conversion events could be:

• A visitor lands on the campaign page
• A visitor views the detailed product description page
• A visitor purchases the product

Define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

These are the metrics that allow you to determine how the campaign is performing in relation to your micro conversion events and your overall business objectives.  There should be a performance metric for each of the conversion events that have been established.  Based on the conversion events above, a couple KPIs that could be established include:

• Response rate and cost per visitor to the campaign page
• Campaign page to detailed product description page rate
• Conversion rate and cost per conversion

Collect Data and Assess

Now that you know everything that needs to be tracked to determine the success or failure of the campaign, the next step is to make sure you have the proper tracking capabilities in place.  This is a crucial step since without appropriate tracking you’ll be in the dark and have no hard numbers to analyze how the campaign is performing.  Once you’ve begun to collect data you’ll be able to start to asses how each of the KPIs are performing in relation to the goals and objectives of the campaign.

Make Changes and Repeat

Now that you have the performance data you can begin to make improvements that will increase the performance of the micro conversion events which will in turn improve the overall business objectives.  These changes could include changes to your ads, the website copy, or the checkout process.

You then go back and collect data on how the changes have affected the performance metrics.   The cycle of improvement should then continue as you try and maximize the capabilities that the campaign can have on meeting or exceeding the original business objectives that were established.