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.

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.

“Sign-up for weekly email alerts and newsletters” – it’s a pretty common statement found on many non-profit and corporate e-commerce Web sites. Some organizations or companies even go the step further and ask for the user the frequency that they would like to receive email communications. Granted, nobody will say ‘email me daily;’ but bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly options are the norm and you should be asking your constituents how often they want to be communicated with.

So, when I – as a user/member/donor – ask to be communicated with on a weekly basis, I should get an email once a week. I’m probably one of the few that keep a spreadsheet of the emails I receive, the frequency, and the calls-to-action to track email communication activity of the orgnizations I support and ‘keep an eye on.’ But if a person is loyal and ‘bonded’ to the organization, then the organization should keep their promise and communicate weekly.

Most email systems are able to segment users on this very basic level, and all organizations should create a calendar that addresses the frequency issue.

When you are thinking about what and when to communicate, let the user request guide what you say and when you say it:

• Weekly emails – these should be very high level and very short – just a quick update on any major activities, or announcements on upcoming campaigns or other related (future) calls-to-action. Because these are created more frequently the design can be a little lighter and less visually focused. This email should not scroll.
• Bi-Weekly emails - should include the same information as the weekly emails, but include images or more design elements and stronger calls-to-action. This email can scroll a bit, but nothing that would appear overwhelming.
• Monthly emails - can include more detailed information about the previous month’s activities, and should include reporting on member and donor responses to previous communications. By doing this, you may be able to convert a less frequent subscriber to a more frequent subscriber – and more loyal constituent. This is also a great time to announce the following month’s campaign or appeal.
• Quarterly emails - on a quarterly basis you should be communicating high level review of all activities, compared to your overall organizational goals for the year. Announce any major campaigns or other high level goals that may not be addressed on a monthly or weekly basis.
• Yearly emails - everyone should receive a yearly email that is longer and goes deeper into the results from the year. Also, plan the coming year and state the goals and what will be needed from members and donors. If you carefully state your goals, and then continue to communicate status, your overall responses should increase.

It may be slightly more time consuming to communicate or create an editorial calendar based on the frequency that the user requests – but the long term lift in responses will be drastic. Remember, each email doesn’t need to be a long-vetted document – but a quicker more personal communication that engages the recipient.

Many organizations send email appeals. JUST one email in the appeal cycle. Rarely is any thought given to follow up communications, or completing the appeal communication cycle. This blog entry will lay the foundation for thinking through a complete appeal email cycle.

First Email Send

This email will create the need that the organization has, or the supports a campaign that is taking place offline. Generally the ask is pretty straightforward and the subject lines have been tested to get the most of the open rate. The email should be segmented by donor group or interest area, but many organizations still neglect to do this simple step (many times, the email system has limitations and segmentation is difficult – or legacy data won’t allow it.)

The goals are very straightforward – communicate the need, and raise dollars or actions.

The Second Email Send

The second email send consists of multiple components. A follow-up email to those recipients that opened and did not respond, or the recipients that did not open. This is technically TWO emails.

The goals for the email to the recipients that opened and did not respond should be to clarify the statement of need from the first email, providing a little more information. Perhaps the recipient did not donate or take action because the goals were not clear enough, or there wasn’t enough supporting information required to convert.

The goals for the recipients that did not open should be a little different, and at this point the subject lines should be tested again or the copy in the initial paragraph or in the preview pane of the email reader should be re-worked to generate an open or a response.

The Third Email Send

This email is crucial in continuing the relationship building with donors or supporters. The full list should be emailed (probably about one month after the initial send) This email DOES NOT include any hard ask. Instead, this email reiterates the goals of the campaign, and reports on any monies raised or actions taken. The main goal of this email is to let constituents know that they are appreciated and that you are communicating on their efforts and results. This email may close with the introduction of the next campaign (for the following month) – by including a P.S. or other news about upcoming campaigns, the later responses will be greater because the member/donor will associate actions taken with a report on the results, and the seed will be planted for the next appeal.

The Thank You.

Many organizations forget to thank their donors on a regular basis. Many believe that the auto-generated thank you email is sufficient in acknowledging a gift. Most – if not all – email systems do not report on the actions or open rates of autoresponder emails, so it is almost impossible to know if a donor even opens this ‘thank you’. I consider these receipts. Hardly ever do I scrutinize a receipt from a store.

The last email should be sent to those that have donated or taken action as a result of an email appeal or ask. It’s a simple email. Thank You for your gift, here’s how it helped, here’s how we used it, it wouldn’t be possible without you. You will be surprised to find that if you segment donors (much like in offline techniques) you will see increased responses to future email efforts. You will also see a second gift at the time of the thank you email.

It’s very important to follow just some of the basic advice given in this blog entry – don’t just stop after you send the first email. THINK of all the follow up communications and opportunities to cultivate your list.

Last week, I focused the first part of the email series on thinking about who your emails come from, and how you should approach the classic “signer’ issue in emails.

 This week, we are going to focus on the missed opportunities by not properly following up on email communications.

I’ve worked with many clients that spend countless hours creating and writing the email appeals or newsletters but stop thinking about it once the ’send’ button has been pressed. Many systems have automated responses that will trigger when the email recipient takes some sort of action – but most of these systems don’t even track those responses or even the open rates.

It is crucial that you have a follow-up strategy for every email that you send.

After your initial send you should track the email stats (open rates, click throughs, response or conversions, and unsubscribes) to determine how long your email has life – usually about three days if sent early in the week, or four days if sent later in the week. At this point you should be sending a follow up communication to those that didn’t open the email on the first send. You will definitely see some additional lift in responses to the campaign – and you really haven’t annoyed the recipient because they didn’t open the email in the first place. When you DO send this follow up, make sure that you address the reason for resending the email, don’t just resend the original.

Also think about testing a subject line at this point as well – you will have a better audience to test an open rate with a group of people that didn’t open the first time.

Several weeks after the initial email communication (and subsequent emails) PLEASE send a thank you follow up. Do NOT consider your autoresponse emails as a thank you – even if you thank them in that email. The autoresponse email is really just an action receipt. (do YOU open autorespsonder emails after an action?) You will be suprised that many recipients may take a second action at this time, and if not, they will remember the thank you at a later date. Make sure this thank you email summarizes your campaign or the actions taken and how the recipient really contributed.

With this email follow up plan, it’s also good to keep a keen eye on your unsubscribe rates to see if you are causing recipients to drop off your list – chances are the numbers may rise a bit, but you are also cleaning up your list of non-responders at the same time.

So, in short summary – think before you send, and then think again.

THINK.

A Multi-part Email Strategy series to help you get the most out of your email program. Each Tuesday, I will focus on one aspect of email communications. Please submit a comment if there is an area you would like for me to focus on or a problem you are encountering with your own email program.

Over the past few weeks I have been blogging about different aspects of email communications, and how they can positively impact your organization. Recently I have discussed topics ranging from email frequency, sender name, personalization, and testing practices. Each of these topics were spun-off a blog entry discussing ‘industry best practices’ and ‘industry averages.’ (of which I discussed determining your own ‘industry averages’)

It is important to keep track of your email program very closely. It tends to be the forgotten-step-child in an organization’s Communications or Development group, or the even more – it’s the forgotten-step- child-that-lives-under-the-stairs when it falls to the IT group for support and cultivation.

THINK.

Thinking is something we all do. Like it or not. But in the case of your email program, little thought is given to the power of the medium – even in this Web 2.0 world we are currently experiencing and is impacting the way we communicate and get communicated TO. It’s not just ‘drop some content into the email program and hit the send button and forget about it until next time.’ You must THINK about each email that goes out, and how it impacts your organization and the relationship it is building with your members.

This series will cover and help you THINK about how your program can have a positive effect in member or customer acquisition, retention or donor bonding and cultivation, fundraising and product sales, and just making the member feel like a valued part of the .

To some organizations that already do it right, this series will be a no-brainer and will help you refine your process, to those organizations that are just starting to feel the impact of a large list size that is not responding to plan – this series will help you get back on track, and to those organizations that are just getting ready to press the ’send’ button for the first time – THINK

THINK first, press later.

The first official part of this series (outside of those mentioned above and in this blog already) is Email Capture Preparation. Getting the name and making sure you understand how keep it.

Here’s a checklist to get you started and for other things to THINK about as we proceed in this series:

1. What are the goals of your email program? And who ‘owns’ the email program (on that note, the ORGANIZATION ‘owns’ the program and list, not a person or group.)

2. Make a list and review the treatment of every place your organizations asks for email

• Is it on every page (and by this I don’t mean buried or hidden in the header, but as a strong call to action in a prominent location on every page)
• Is it on your Direct Mail or other Marketing Collateral? Or anything else that a prospective new-member may come across?
• If your organization or company utilizes telemarketing, are your call center reps trained to ask for email?
• Is it a required to provide email address to access any high value content or other site features?

3. Sign-up for your own email using a secondary email address so that you can see what your visitors/members experience, and take notes on each step.

• Does the process make sense? Is it easy to complete? Do you think you are asking for too much information up front that could be captured in the cultivation process? (do you REALLY need to know their home address just to send them an email?)
• THINK about how much information may actually stop someone from engaging into this email communication with you.

4. Review your sign-up form or process and see if you are asking the correct questions – and make sure the look and feel isn’t too different from the rest of your site:

• First Name
• What name do they go by? (phrase it something like “how may we greet you?”)
• Last Name
• Email address (double entry to ensure a good address)
• Interest areas
• Frequency of communication
• Instructions on how to go back later to change or remove information. Believe it or not, the easier you make it for members to unsubscribe over time you will see fewer unsubsribes.
• What kind of autoresponse is sent? Make sure that someone sits down and THINKS about this copy – it will be the first communication you have with the new constituent – give them a call to action to get them immediately engaged. (please note though, that many email systems DO NOT track the open rates of auto responders. frustrating, but true. also a huge pet peeve of mine)

5. Look at your email system reporting features

• Is it robust enough to give you information on email performance down to the individual link level?
• Does it give you the information you will need to perform advanced testing in the future?
• Is it flexible enough to handle conditional content and segmentation?

BONUS QUESTION

1. What does your email communications and testing calendar look like?

Now that you have sat down and really thought through some basic questions, share them with your team and leadership to get additional input. Next week in Part Two of this series, we will focus on getting that first email (or first refined email) sent and talk about goals of your email program.

See you next Tuesday.

And, whatever you do, THINK before you send.

Silverpop has recently conducted a study to see what is really stopping your members or constiuents from opening their emails from you. Is it that catchy subject line that your marketing associate spent days thinking up? NOPE. Is is all the pretty pictures in the email? NOPE. Is it the time of day the email is sent?

NOPE.

The silverpop study, something my friend over at Silas Partners – Jacob Smith – wrote about today and brought to my attention. (well, he actually gave me an offhanded challenge to see who could blog about it first.) (He won) (I let him.)

The study showed that in their case, it wasn’t the subject line length, or offer, or the avoidance of certain no-no words that caused openers to pause before continuing.

It was the sender. The almighty “FROM” that shows up in you inbox in Outlook or whatever email program you use.

Just like in Direct Mail, it is very important to test a ’signer’ of a direct mail piece to see who will get a higher response rate. The same goes for email marketing efforts. You must test who your email comes from. We all know it doesn’t really come from the head of the organization when we get it in our inbox, but we can assume that if it has the CEO or President’s email – he (or she) must have seen this message – therefore you increase the credibility of the piece and increase your open rates.

Stop what you are doing right now and look to see who YOUR organization’s emails come from. I can wait. . . . . . . . .

Now that you are back, does that ‘FROM’ name make any sense to the offer or the program? Are you sending emails from info@blank.org

I have a client that is currently working through this issue, as their emails come from ‘marketing3@…” So our first step in testing a new email program is to test the sender name. Remember their are several places that a name will appear. I can appear as the ‘Name’ and or an ‘email address’ depending on the email client. Maybe your emails are coming from just your organization.

You should sit down and map out all of your email communications to determine who the message should be coming from. It’s ok to have mulitple senders, just as long as you are consistent and their messages are always similar.

So, the next time you have an email going out to your list.

Stop and Think.

The other day I was giving Simon Heseltine, our Search Director/Guru a ride to Union Station in DC. Simon had parked his car at my house which is near Union Station, and coincidentally only three blocks from the home of Barack Obama. While we were driving, we saw the tell-tale signs of the politically important: large black SUVs and guys in suits talking to their wrists. And, Barack Obama. That’s life in DC.

20 minutes or so later I got an email from Simon saying “We just passed Barack Obama on the street and already he’s emailing me!” I kind of chuckled at this and didn’t think much else of it. Until I read an article from ClickZ titled “Top Presidential Campaigns Took Few E-Mail Breaks in August”

Over the years I have worked on many political campaign sites and for various politically affiliated organizations. RedBoots is currently working with a candidate endorsement site, so I’ve always been interested in the changes over the past few elections on how candidates reach voters and embrace technology. And, how frequently they reach voters. And, how it’s nearly impossible to avoid them. The young, the old, online and offline.

So, this article at ClickZ said that both Hillary Clinton and John Edwards each sent 15 emails in August. FIFTEEN! That’s one email every other day. Obama sent 11. Fred Thompson sent 8 emails and he had only barely announced his candidacy (but he has shown some early adoption to social media sites – exploratory activity perhaps)

I think these campaigns all need to stop and rethink their online email communication strategies, as they will all begin to see serious list burn/churn, and a nosedive in email responses. However, many of these emails are not entirely action driven but offer other information, lots and lots of calls-to-action. Another interesting thing to point out is that each of these emails come from a different sender at the campaign – a tactic to avoid email spam filters and send frequency perhaps?

Many of these emails from all candidates are sent on the same days, so it is possible that undecided voters may have signed up for emails from multiple candidates – and have inboxes overflowing with politi-speak.

I’m also glad that the ClickZ article lists the subject lines of these emails (or many of them…) I’ve always kept a spreadsheet and folder of organizational emails and subject lines to see how language changes over time (Which you should be doing as well). Some of my favorites in the list – in this order:

• “Help Stop a Naked Power Grab” – Uh…what does THAT mean? I wouldn’t have opened this because of the spammy sounding language.
• “You Need to See This” – No I don’t. I got an email like this a long time ago and it was a virus.
• “She’s Going to Give You a Hug“- How? Why? And WHO is going to hug me?
• “Team Rudy Weekly Wrap” – Say five times fast!
• “A Special Message from Johnny’s Mother” – Why is John McCain’s Mom emailing me?

There are many things to learn from the ClickZ article, mostly – think before you have 15 emails planned in one month (most of which asked for money in some way or another I’m sure…) And really and truly vet those subject lines. Your subject line SHOULD set the expectation of the contents of the email. It’s ok to pique interest, but don’t set yourself up for failure by having an overly mysterious or cutesy subject line.

I kinda miss political candidates kissing babies. Not stalking me on email or scaring me with strange subject lines.

One of the first rules of communication or establishing communications with your constituents is to recognize them when they come to your Web site, or are entered into your email stream. It’s just a good practice, and you can say you are doing great customer relationship management.

Or ARE you?

Simon, our Director of Search, or Search Guru pointed out an email he received from IFAW today on behalf of Jessica Alba. The email greeting read:

“Dear HESELTINE”

I cringed. If it were me, I would immediately unsubscribe from the list because is shows me that the organization isn’t careful about it’s data and is making a lame attempt at getting ‘personal’ with me. Nobody, seriously, nobody, calls me HERRITY.

It’s a good practice to regularly cleanse your constituent data to avoid these embarrassing mistakes. Most users/constituents would be happy to periodically update their personal information on a supported organization’s site. Why not send an email to your list that asks them to update their information so they can be better served? (But leave the salutation field blank – or have it read “Dear Loyal Supporter” or something less servant like but will at the same time let the recipient know that they are important and loyal supporters.)

This is also a great opportunity to start segmenting your file so that you can customize communications down the road and increase your overall response rates because you are asking for support on an area that ‘I’ have told you I am interested in.

that’s my rant for the day.