How Much Email is Too Much?

By now, your organization's holiday campaign is coming to an end and the year-end email message is going out or is out to your housefile. But, maybe open rates aren't where you expected them to be this time of year. You can blame the economy (we all can), snort about the fact that people aren't at work this week, or wonder if the ever-changing changing email spam filters have kept you from reaching into your constituent's inbox. Eventually, the question will be raised, "are we sending too much email?"

There is no overall magic number for the number of email messages sent by an organization. Your org can send two or 100 messages and may or may not be inundating your housefile. There may be a severalmagic numbers specifically for your organization. That's right, your housefile is not one giant block of people to blast messages, these individuals came to your organization for a specific reason. Now you have to tailor your messages' content and frequency to address those interests. However, with a few tips and best practices, this is an easier task than you might think. Even if you are already doing some of these tips, make sure your organization is doing all of them.

Review Open/Click Rates: Why are they up or down? What did the subject bring to the open rate? Did you get a lots of clicks/actions? Where in the message did you get the most clicks, top or bottom? Which items in your newsletter performed the best? This may tell you what people like about your newsletters and what you can focus on with more targeted and less frequent emails.  

Newsletter Frequency: Tell your constituents whether your newsletters will be delivered weekly, monthly, bi-monthly (careful with that one, right?) or quarterly. Be sure to be constituent with your messages. If you plan to send a newsletter every third week of the month, be sure your production won't miss a week. 

Rotate Out Donors from Appeals:If you have three appeals in a series, do your donors need to see every appeal? The first one, sure. Afterwards, be careful how many times you reach out to donors. Remove them whenever possible to assure that you don't kill their interest with too many appeals.

Advocates Expect More:Too many emails may not apply to your hard-core advocates. If you are a 501c4, constituents usually expect to see a lot of messages. Your hard-core supporters want to stay in touch with your actions, so message away. Geo-target constituents whenever possible (why does someone in Montana care about a New Mexico policy?). Also, try using newsletters, blogs, social networks, and feeds for one national item instead of an email blast, just to gauge response rates without the use of email. This test can show you how your advocacy networks respond without email.

"Survey Says": Ask your site visitors, constituents, donors, and advocates why they came to you and what they would like to see. This is as simple as a five question survey:

• How did you hear about us: be sure to list most common online and offline marketing methods, such as news story, ad in paper, calendar mailing, etc.
• What information would you like to receive: Specify newsletters, advocacy messages, volunteer messages, RSS feeds for blogs and news releases, etc.  
• Do you prefer HTML/Text messages: This is a common tool for most CRMs and mail tools, just be sure you specify it and ask in the survey. You may be surprised how many people receive text messages.
• Select interests: List five-eight checkboxes programs, services, or offerings for constituents. before you act on any interests, take a look at the most selected interests. Now, see how you can segment your audiences and work these interests into yours newsletter and appeals.
• Text field for comments: Read these results! Even if you only get ten of them, there may be some very informative answers that will shape your email program.

We all know that email open rates are declining. So, it's more important than ever to tend your org's housefile. Want a magic number for emails? OK, try 12-15 and see how your various messages and audiences fit within that number. Keep the clutter to a minimum, stay relevant and viable, and keep your messages essential.

More reading:

Gilbert Center
Building Your Online List

Katya Non-Profit Marketing Blog
5 Ways to Get People to Sign Up for Your Email List

Network For Good
How to Get More from Email

Twitter as a Growth Tool

I seem to be getting asked the same question a lot in the past few weeks by clients, friends, and just people in general who want to pick my brain.  Everyone I run into wants to know why Twitter is useful and if it is worth their time.

The truth is that Twitter is very powerful if done properly.  Just recently over the Thanksgiving holiday I was part of a project called TweetsGiving which was a 2 day campaign by Epic Change to raise $10,000 for a school in Tanzania as well as get people to share and realize how much we as a whole have to be thankful for this year.  The site entire campaign specifically targeted Twitter as it’s primary marketing point.

Within the first 3 hours the site had already hit the 25% mark to the fund raising goal, and after 47 hours the goal was completely met.  Although there was some word of mouth and the site did get a very good number of mentions on blogs and news sites, had it not been for the use of Twitter I do not think this would have been as successful.

Twitter allows people to follow and keep up with others they are interested in, build large contact networks and reach out to those people when you need them.  With TweetsGiving they began with several well know and heavily followed members on Twitter who were very interested no only in the concept of what the site was trying to do but also the impact they could have.  After these people posted about it, more followed.  Not only did the donations come running in but as people shared what they were thankful for it simply expanded the network of people who were seeing the messages from TweetGiving and driving more people to check it out.

In just those two days the site had over 9,000 absolute unique visitors, and over 16,000 page views with visits coming from around the world.

This is not the only example of how you can use Twitter.

Twitter is a great source for building a brand and loyal follower group. By allowing you to post messages as often as you like, forcing you to keep those messages short, and providing a way for people to share your message with a large number of other people who may be interested you can develop quite a following.

Since the message has a character limit you do have to make sure you can get your point across in efw words. This is great at helping to narrow down and get directly to the point, with no beating around the bush or long drawn out emails.

Twitter can also help to show activity, in many cases with nonprofits and small businesses people want to know you are actually doing something. It is human nature to be skeptical but if someone sees you Tweeting several times a day with what people are doing in your organization or updates on product development then it provides a means of being more transparent easing the tensions people have.

Twitter is also a great way to get volunteers involved. By giving them a way to also promote your cause or product you are simply expanding your customer base. It is really a word of mouth campaign done over a digital age technology. Volunteers can post links to you, updates on what they read from you, and share even more about what they are doing.

A great example is for a nonprofit organization that has several satellite groups working in multiple places the volunteers on location can Tweet from a computer or even in some cases their cell phones giving people real world real time updates to the impact the organization is having.

An example on the business side would be a product development company with multiple products in testing, or even products that have been released. If you have your engineers constantly updating people on fixes, availability and testing they can see just how dedicated you are as a brand to making a solid well produced product.

The best part of Twitter is the cost.  It is a free service this means the only cost of using Twitter is the 1 min it takes to have a person post to it.  For those looking at a solid ROI you can get it here if you make a dedicated effort and use the right strategy for your situation.  If you need help determining the right strategy for you I would suggest speaking to someone well versed in your particular market.  If you need help finding someone who can help you in your field send me a message and I will help you get in the right direction for your needs.

Big Expectations from the Convio Summit 2008

This year's Convio Summit 2008 kicked off this evening at the Renaissance Hotel in Austin, TX with an opening gathering for clients and partner organizations. As the drinks were poured, the buzz for this year's client sessions is centered on a few topics: 

Common Ground: Convio launched their Salesforce-platform-based CRM system two months ago. Now, nonprofits will get to see more of the product and ask tough questions about why the product would work for their organizations. We expect to see plenty of private and group demos to take place over the next two days.

Social Networks: Social media sites continue to be the elusive goldmine that every organization wants to tap into and reap fortunes. Expanding an audience through social media has been the hot topic at a lot of conferences this year and a few panels here are devoted to Facebook applications and social media. Expect a lot of small talk to focus on how to attract and convert social media denizens to eCRM-managed donors and constituents.

Convio Open: How you get these folks from social media sites to an eCRM platform will depend partly on the Convio Open APIs and extensions. Last year, Convio Open was buzzworthy because it was brand new and an interesting concept for the company. This year, it's becoming more about how the APIs and extensions can really be used by all organizations and what are the practical applications for the enhancing the tool. Of course, most organizations still don't have the staff or expertise to create their own Facebook applications and the like. But, knowing is half the battle and just getting acquainted with the initial ideas behind Convio Open can help these organizations make smart decisions about how they can use the platform to do more for their overall online programs.  

The Economy: The elephant in the room; every conversation seems to touch upon our struggling economy. Are donations down? Are people giving like last year or in 2006? Will online continue to push at 30% overall growth rate or will it slow considerably? How can organizations meet capacity, raise money, and communicate with limited resources? How are we doing YTD from last year? Will we meet our online fundraising goals? It's doubtful anyone will have the answer, but they might have good advice on how they're tackling the issue.

We'll review some of the sessions and provide highlights from keynote speaker Tony Elischer's breakfast plenary. Couldn't make the conference and have a question? Drop us an email or leave a comment, we'll be happy to answer your questions or get the scoop on a session for you.

4 Tools to Track the Effectiveness of an Online Campaign

Having done this for some time, I find it odd how little people seem to actually track a website's effectiveness for online campaigns.  The general measurements tend to be the click-through rates, the overall traffic to the site, the number of donations received, and the average gift sizes. These are all important, but I feel like many people leave out checking into exactly why they got the results they did.  For this reason, I have put together a list of four online tools that I find very useful in determining what visitors to the site were doing and why.

The first tool--and perhaps one of the most well known--is Google Analytics.  Web analytics software is one of those essential pieces for tracking any site, they tell you how many people visited, why, from where, for how long, and can even give you an idea of what content is getting the most attention.  Google provides a free analytics tool which is one of the most sophisticated and easy to use tools I have come across to date.  

To set up Google Analytics on your site, simply login to Google, fill out the registration form for setting up a site (which is primarily getting the domain name and a few pieces of information about the site), and then use the few lines of Google's code that you can insert into your site.  Every 24 hours,the online tool will update and allow you to view all of your site statistics and even download and print them in an easy to follow PDF.  

The next tool and one of my favorites is CrazyEgg, which displays "heat maps" of exactly where people on your page are clicking on a given page. This may sound a bit like analytics, but there is a small and subtle difference.  Analytics is checking what links people followed, where CrazyEgg will show you what they clicked on.

This has several benefits. First, it will show you at a quick glance which areas in your site are getting some of the most attention. This is important since Analytics only tracks the link, but if you have several links that go to the same page you can now see which ones are getting more attention.  By knowing what people are view more and what is of interest to them, you can adjust other aspects of the campaign site to be just as compelling allowing you to better direct your visitors to where you want them to go.

Another benefit is that it will show you pieces of content that people are clicking on that may not be links at all.  This will give you a quick view at a possible usability issue.  It may not be something that needed to be a link in your mind but if people are confusing it for one, or thinking it should be one then you can change those pieces to better suite the needs of the visitors.

CrazyEgg is not free like Google Analytics, but it is not expensive either. Starting at $9.99 a month for the basic level, it will allow you to monitor 10 pages. My recommendation is to put this on the most important pages in the site including the home page, campaign landing page and the donation page.

Another tool I find very useful is ClickTale.  ClickTale is a "in-page web analytics" tool.  The main difference between ClickTale and other analytics tools is that this one will allow you to see the breakdown of the page not just the links followed around the site.

Say for example we know people stay on a single page linger than any  other on the site.  Why? What is it that is keeping them there that is not on the other pages?  With ClickTale we can find that out. 

 

ClickTale generates a video which shows you what the visitors are actually doing inside the webpage.  It records every visitor interaction including scroll, click, mouse movement, and keystroke.  This allows you to do inexpensive usability testing by seeing exactly what the visitors to your site are doing.  It will also generate heat map pages that will show you what visitors are doing as a group, including how far down people scroll, what is getting more interaction,  and so much more information.

The final tool is Google Website Optimizer.  This is a wonderful tool for A/B testing of a campaign allowing you to create multiple versions of pages or even just portions of a page to see which is most effective.  

Google Web Optimizer works by allowing you to create projects which will measure the different pieces of content and determine which are the most effective in getting conversion.  To create a project you simply choose a page and a goal and generate several versions of that content.  Google takes care of the rest by segmenting the users for you, then it will analyze which page version and even which aspects on a page are the most effective.  The tests can be as basic as comparing 2 pieces of content or complex testing with multiple variations.

This is useful in seeing which imagery, stories, and layout can be most effective and allow you to make changes as needed to actively improve the campaign as it runs.

It is true that any of these tools on their own can be great resources to an online campaign.  The real benefit is that when tied together they will give you the complete overview of exactly how effective your campaign is.  This will allow you to make changes to the campaign as it runs.  You can also use these tools to plan for the next campaign since you can see precisely what worked well and what did not.  Already knowing exactly what your visitors want is a very valuable resource kind of like reading their minds. 

What's Next?

The Obama-Biden campaign recently released an iPhone app that is revolutionary. The app isn't just an abridged version of the site, but a tool embedded into your iPhone designed to exploit it's capabilities. Consider for example, the "Call Friends" tool, which organizes all your contacts (using their area code) by state battlegrounds. From within the tool, you can call a contact and talk Obama, talk McCain, or even talk Tina Fey. After making a call from the tool, the contact's note "Have not called" is changed to "Called". (There is also options to label the contact "Not interested", "Already Voted", "Call back", and others.)

From the app, you can sign up to receive emails and text messages about recent updates, read local and national Obama news, watch videos and view photos, view a countdown to Election Day, read Obama's view on the all issues but most importantly- donate. Political favorites aside, the app is magnificently clever.

Think about your non-profit. A tool that is in front of your constituent every time they look at their phone, allows them to easily access recent updates, and offers them an opportunity to conveniently donate is unreal- yet, here it is. The potential popularity of this app to catalyze a stronger passion for your advocacy group or nonprofit looking to build a more motivated following I believe is only months away from your nearest app store.

Mobility is Moving In

Since practically everyone has a cell phone these days, it’s no real surprise that they’re becoming useful campaign tools. With mobile texting becoming as popular as email, phone texting list would be just as valuable as an email list.  Two ways to use mobile phones to increase your campaign are to take donations via text message and to increase your outreach list to include text messaging alongside your email and print campaigns.

One of the most important drivers to a campaign is to keep the people involved and up to date.  They want to know what is happening and be a part of the process as much as possible, this is part of what compels them to get involved in the first place.  The idea of sending a text message about a campaign is actually the same concept as using email, you want to give the person a way to stay connected.

By using print media, online forms, and email, you can inform people how to sign up and allow them to opt-in to receive the text messages.  Once the person has signed up for the list they can send and receive text messages about campaign updates in the same fashion as email, to include RSS feeds sent directly to text if so desired.

This brings me to the next part, using the same method as well as the list it generates to increase donations for your campaign.  By working with someone like the Mobile Giving Foundation, you can accept donations over the mobile phone. The donations are actually charged by the mobile phone provider so at the time of texting the person dose not need to have a credit card or check book handy to make the donation.  They are limited to taking $5 donations for each mobile donation, up to five times a month, so each person can give $25 a month via their mobile phone. 

This is a great way to reach the younger generation of donors who are becoming ever more tech savvy.  This really came to light when Garth told me that his neighbor told him she never uses her email account, only texting. She referred to him as being old, since he was more of an “email person.”  A conversation with a few friends who work for mobile phone providers has opened my eyes to the amount of people buying unlimited texting plans for their phones.

A great resource for more information on using mobile phones to increase your campaigns potential, check out Mobile Active.

Five Ways to Recover from the August Doldrums

Summer finally draws to a close this week and if you've looked at your online figures for August, you'll probably notice a downward turn (unless your organization is in Denver this week). August is typically the low-water mark for most organizations in terms of visits, page views, donations, and actions. Your organization will need to come out swinging in September to make up for the lethargy.

Here are five things to consider for September:

Update Your Homepage - Where was that staff member who supposedly posted updates for your team? Oh yeah, he/she was on vacation and nothing has changed on the homepage since July(!). Even if you did make frequent updates this month, take the first week after Labor Day to beef up homepage content and graphics.  Start looking at features and services that will bring back repeat visits and attract new visitors.

Revisit that Calendar - Take a look at your production calendar again to see where you've been this year and where your organization is headed. What appeals, newsletters, events, and updates do you have planned for the rest of the year? What big items are coming up for November and December for year-end tactics? Get re-acquainted with your production schedule and get moving.

Get Social Again - Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Gather, Ning, Change.org — wherever you are in the social network world — say hi to everyone again. Post an announcement or news from your organization, kick-off a campaign, do a friend-raising activity, or just get out there and let people know your organization is back for the year.

Research, Redesign - Take the time to start looking at competitor's sites and communications, as well as what's coming up on the horizon. Take note, take screen grabs, visit NTEN and TechSoup, and start looking around at your own site. Why? Chances are these sites will be different by early next year, and yours might be, too. You might decide that 2009 will call for a fresh look, maybe even a redesign. Take the time now to start investigating the possibilities.

Think Engagement Strategies - While you're doing the research, start discussing next year's budget in terms of features and services. Is 2009 the year you build the Google Earth project? Use more videos and podcasts on the site? Build an interactive feature on your site for donation or events? Maybe a Facebook app? How is your organization communicating in an innovative and engaging manner and bringing people into your world? Don't just be clever or techy, be strategic. How can you communicate to get your best audience. And, start thinking now. The four months you have left will go very, very fast and before you know it, you'll be planning that early membership appeal or January newsletter.

Enjoy your last week of malaise, if you are so lucky.

Direct Mail makes efforts to go green

Direct mail is going green... at least they are making some efforts in that direction. This NY Times article highlights the efforts of a new "Green Marketing Coalition" to reduce the carbon footprints of their companies while marketing, including:

• list hygiene -- managing a more responsive but likely smaller list
• using recycled materials
• using responsible vendors

You can review the full list of recommended guidelines at www.greenmarketingcoalition.com.

I know these are initial guidelines are moving in the right direction. "Proofing and editing materials using Adobe PDF files rather than hard copies cut back on wasted paper, printing ink and electricity" was a smart choice, but I have to wonder why leveraging email and other online communications in place of printed marketing materials wasn't even a few dots on my screen... I know, in many respects, it is what still works, but there are so many alternatives to print that can be offered online (email, Twitter, social networks, etc...) that I was at least hoping to see a nod in that direction.

ps. No trees were harmed in the making of this post.

Appealing to Mom

For the past two weeks, my inbox has been flooded with appeals built on Mother's Day. I confess, for my clients and for my own personal life, Mother's Day came way too early this year and left me a bit unprepared. This is why I should look at my Google Calendar every day!

So, I sat down on Sunday night and began wading through the plethora of appeals and newsletters with a Mother's Day theme. I finished up last night. I had a lot of clicking around to do.

Here are some highly unofficial statistics and notes from my inbox:

• 29 straight appeals, 21 of them with links to honor or memorial giving

• 6 of them featured gift memberships

• 18 of the appeals offered an eCard option

• 13 newsletters with mentions about Mother's Day

• Two appeals with links to video

• Moms are "choosy", "picky", "stubborn", and "hard to please"

• Donors need to "honor", "celebrate" and "surprise" Mom

• Most donors have no idea what to get their mothers for Mother’s Day

• Mom loves organic flowers, chocolates, and shirts

• But, don’t just get Mom those things--she likes eCards, too.

• Mom understands the importance of feeding the homeless and feeding children, giving water to children, helping the blind, helping the deaf, and helping fight diseases ranging from cancer, heart disease, HIV/AIDS, etc.

• She also understands the importance of emergency relief efforts in places like Myanmar, Darfur, and Haiti, education reform, preventing animal cruelty, adopting an animal, sponsoring a child, testing for disabilities, fighting climate change, conservation of trees and nature, supporting our troops, helping people with physical disabilities, meeting people just like herself, and the current crop of political candidates running for president

• Mom is waiting for your eCard today (hopefully, she’s not just sitting by her computer literally waiting).

These messages all show the diversity of Mother’s Day as an occasion for nonprofits to build their brands and give a nice spike to their online fundraising for May. I like the idea of virtual gifts over real gifts. Gift memberships and eCards can say a lot to honor Mom. They also show moms how well she raised her children. Plus, they are easier and simpler to deliver as last-minute gift ideas.

If your organization doesn’t feel like your message or mission is directly related to Mother’s Day, you might think again. Mom apparently has a lot of interests and knows a lot of things. But, we always knew that, right?

So, with five days to go before Mother’s Day, I’ll see how many last-minute appeals arrive in my inbox. However, as a dad, I wonder how many of these same organizations will feature appeals for Dad?

NTC 08: A Few Updates

A few thoughts and announcements as NTC 08 wraps up here in New Orleans today:

* DoGooderTV has posted the winners in the 2008 Video Contest. Congratulations to the Humane Society of the United States for their Best Overall Video win.

* Best Overheard Quote and Overall Sentiment: "Don't judge ROI by donor dollars, judge it by the results of the lives you change and how you make your donors feel about this change." Well put.

* Best Treats: Coffee and beignets from Cafe du Monde and Jelly Bellies from GoLightly. Both were addictive.

* Check out the blog posts on Technorati for more feedback from NTC 08.

* Finally, one of the best sessions came from See3's Mike Hoffman on video for nonprofits. A great session and I'm glad they posted it: