Social media has proven its success with brands. In fact, to no one’s surprise, it’s industry standard these days. The thing that brands, nonprofits especially, need to focus on is how to accurately use these tools. No longer is one-way communication an effective strategy with your online marketing efforts. Social media has become the juggernaut of platforms by enforcing, even requiring, two-way communication. It’s where people hang out with their friends and build relationships. Brands have to now create these relationships and integrate themselves as someone’s “friend.” This is taking customer service to a new level.

Building a relationship with your followers/fans through engaging posts that spark conversations is the best way to get your audience to want to get involved with your organization in more meaningful ways. Ask them things like:

• How do they like to volunteer?
• What are their favorite causes?
• What issues do they see in their community?
• What do they want your organization to do better in?

Fans need reasons to engage with your brand, whether it’s getting their voice heard on important topics, or receiving prizes and incentives. Give followers reasons to reach out, and they will.

Many organizations still ask, “How will this raise money for my cause?” Well, while donations can be asked for through social media, the point and focus of these channels is being social and creating/maintaining relationships. Asks shouldn’t be the direct focus, or even a regular occurrence of a brand’s posts. Highlighting current campaigns and providing information about them should be the focus instead. Informative posts, mixed with engaging messages, will organically grow donations, volunteer bases, and even help secure a long-term relationship for repeat engagement.

Fortunately, Facebook is currently making relationship building a lot easier. With the introduction of Timeline for Pages, brands can now upload their history, highlight meaningful posts and have a larger canvas for their apps and tabs. There are also new ad methods (that oddly reminds me of a Twitter option) that will allow brands’ status updates to appear not only in their followers’ news feeds, but those of non-followers as well.

You can start to prepare for these changes now by:

• Revisiting your social marketing plan to determine which things you need to add and highlight
• Deciding on an effective cover image. Hint – dimensions are 850px wide and 315px tall
• Determining which new apps and tabs you need to better use the larger space you have for them
• Analyzing your current paid ads and developing a plan for best using the new ad features that are rolling out

With all the options to cultivate an audience, creating a relationship that can lead to higher engagement is becoming increasingly easier, and a requirement.

What do you do to engage your fans through social media?

The Election is coming!  The Election is coming!

It’s not even a month past the holidays, and we are already thinking about this coming fall. To be honest, we started thinking about holiday 2012 fundraising months ago.

But this year will be special. It’s an election year for the office of the president. That means a TV full of harsh ads, a phone ringing off the hook with campaign calls, and a mailbox full of materials. But what will it mean for your fundraising plans?

A week ago, Grizzard leadership had a conference call to discuss this topic. Team leads that collectively raise hundreds of millions of dollars annually for groups like The Salvation Army, American Red Cross, Food Banks, Animal Care, Rescue Missions, Healthcare, and Universities gathered to talk about the impact of the upcoming election on 2012 fundraising.

Here are the five key takeaways:

Noise

No doubt there will be more noise because of the election. This will be especially true as the election gets closer. Adjust the dates of your fundraising plans up or back so as to not be drowned out in that deluge peak of advertising.

Prospects, not Donors

Increased noise will have a larger impact on your message being received by prospects. Donors have a stronger commitment to you and are more likely to make their holiday gift regardless. But pay special attention to your prospect plans around the election.

Integration Time.  C’mon, Let’s Integrate.

Marketers have been saying it for years now: Integrate. Don’t plan an acquisition mailing. Or a Google Adwords campaign. Or a radiothon. Or a call campaign. Plan them together for maximum impact. Start with an idea. Think about the person who will hear your message in all these channels. And then plan the right channels.

Digital

How much of your annual giving comes in online? In the most recent study I saw stated, on average, charities raise 8% of their annual budget online. I’ve seen that average closer to 15% depending on the sector. So the next question becomes, how much of your prospect budget is allocated to digital? In an election year, it’s especially important to diversify your channel mix with an integrated message. If you haven’t already, make sure you have a digital prospect plan as part of your 2012 acquisition.

Plan Smarter

How do you plan your holiday fundraising budget? If you are like 99% of the people who plan any budget, you just up or down it by 5-10% each year. But don’t start there. Start with a different question. What are your organizational plans, and what revenue growth is needed to accomplish them? How many new donors do you need to grow your budget by that amount? All you need to calculate that are metrics on new donor performance and annual donor value. With that, you can get a really good idea of how many new donors you need to meet your goals. You may realize that the budget required may or may not be possible, but don’t just start with a plus or minus 5% approach. First, start with your goals.

The worst thing you can do is chop. The best way to acquire fewer donors is to do less. And your future revenue will suffer as a result. Instead, do these few, simple things:

-       Plan prospect timing efforts around the election.

-       Integrate your message across channels.

-       Look at increasing digital prospect opportunities.

-       Budget with your goals in mind first.  Then reconcile.

-       And vote Grizzard in 2012!

This time of year is a great time to read all the predictions about fundraising in the coming year.

Here are a few topics I’ve seen recently:
1. Predictions on total charitable giving
2. Top 10 social media trends
3. Top 10 trends in mobile
4. Predictions on political fundraising
5. Global fundraising trends
6. Trends about privacy, new channels, integration, peer-to-peer and many others.

List Building is the Critical Factor

But there is one thing that stands out that is at the core of almost every trend. It is the one thing that you must focus on if you are going to have success. That one critical component is “list building.” It doesn’t matter if it is direct mail, email, social media or mobile, there is a direct correlation between list growth and revenue growth. Here is a great chart from Convio that illustrates this correlation:

As you develop your strategic plan for 2012, focus your efforts on list building. Here are a few places to start:

1. You should have two-three places on your home page where readers can sign up for newsletters, events, advocacy, etc.
2. Build engaging campaigns to encourage people to register on your website.
3. Use Search and Google grants.
4. Break down the silos and cross market across channels.
5. Append phone numbers and email addresses (just be careful and don’t SPAM).
6. Create compelling content that encourages supporters to engage with you.
7. And don’t neglect your direct mail list building.

There are plenty of other strategies, but this will get you started.

Here is a great article in Forbes that explains the transformation going on in the marketing industry. I think each point applies to us in fundraising. It summarizes this change into five key areas that have the biggest impact.

1.Big Data

Large data sets are here to stay. Getting your arms around all that information is a challenge, but once you do, it’s incredibly empowering. Clearly, marketing isn’t just art; it’s science, too. And there’s no doubt that, going forward, harnessing and mastering big data will lead to competitive advantage and growth.

2. Integration

Channels have multiplied, and consumers now can access more touchpoints with your brand than ever before. But don’t let all these new possibilities overwhelm you. Instead, simplify your approach by focusing on integration. Zero in on your message, and make sure it’s consistent across channels. Then, test, measure and analyze to determine where you should concentrate your efforts for optimal ROI. One-off point solutions and data silos only add to the confusion and slow you down. Today’s forward-thinking marketers realize that integration is not just the key to success; these days, it’s the key to survival.

3. Engagement

Marketers today have to let go. These days, customers have control, and they belong at the center of each marketing initiative. Communicate with your prospects and customers with information that is relevant − that’s the only way your message will be heard above all the noise.

4. Nurturing

Now that marketing campaigns are spread across so many channels, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to gauge which particular initiatives are succeeding and when/where you need to step in to nudge prospects through the pipeline. For instance, it’s no longer enough for marketers to look just at first and last touch. Instead, you need to incorporate analytics across all touchpoints to get visibility into the process and a clear view of the customer.

5. Viral

We’ve all heard the success stories − a video campaign that reached millions of viewers over the course of three days or some other project that created enormous buzz seemingly overnight. But perhaps the most important point is to stop aiming for viral. Aim for pleasing your audience instead. Give your customers information they want and need. Make it compelling. And be sure they can easily share your message.

Remember: Long-term success today won’t come from one “Big Win” on a social-media channel. In order to drive revenue, you need to blend online messages with offline messages and learn how to aggregate and analyze data so you can understand trends and apply those insights to your go-to-market campaigns.

This is excellent advice and relevant to every nonprofit organization. I would add that, in my opinion, the two most important areas are breaking down silos (integration) and measurement (big data). Addressing these two issues will raise you more money without any increase in your budget. How are you approaching these two critical issues?

Recently, I saw a tagline for an Extreme Endurance Race:  “Death is cool until you die”.  I think this has some relevance to our industry.

It seems at least once a month the “cool” topic of the day is a debate about the death of direct mail.  Each author takes a position either for or against traditional mail’s demise.  If you believe that direct mail will never die then I caution you to not interpret that to mean that you should just stay the course and take the same, single channel approach of using direct mail.  If you are not embracing and adapting to the new realities of today, then you will die. In fact, for some organizations it might be too late to bridge the gap.

If you take the side that mail is dead in a couple of years, then I caution you not to dump your direct mail program and move to a purely digital strategy.  Yes, the postal service is losing billions of dollars, but the USPS is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation.  The USPS of 2020 will look very differently than it does today, but there will be a postal service.

It’s “cool” to debate the issue of direct mail’s future, but to be successful, it is critical that you not pick a side, but immediately implement an integrated strategy that utilizes all channels of communication.  Don’t risk your career and your organization’s future by taking either side.  It’s not an either/or debate.  It’s about understanding and investing in strategies that leverage the unique opportunities that exist today.

Let me know if you agree, or if you have picked a side.

Integrated marketing is a term that most people in the advertising business are familiar with by now. Loosely, this means a marketing campaign that encompasses multiple types of media that are tied together with a uniting message or theme. Media types can include direct mail, email blasts, billboards, banner ads and direct response television – just to name a few.

Looking at the performance of each individual piece of an integrated campaign is important. Knowing cost, ROI, average gift, response rate, etc… can help determine efficacy and direct strategy for future campaigns. However, measuring the effectiveness of components such as billboards or social media strategies is a little more complicated than direct mail or DRTV. We can use the assumption that one-to-many vs. one-to-one marketing impressions are often more cost effective, but it is still more difficult to show results.

For example, if a direct mail donor receives a mailing, sees your billboard and notices that one of her Facebook friends is now a fan of your organization, and then decides to make a gift on your website – was she more likely to donate due to the confluence of all of the media impressions? Anecdotally, the answer is yes, but quantifying that information and putting it into an easy-to-comprehend chart or graph is challenging.

Even as we move towards this smaller, more connected and integrated world, one of the common questions I get as an analyst is, “Can we just look at direct mail giving? That’s all that we’re responsible for.” The answer is usually, “We can isolate those gifts, but you’re excluding the value of your integrated marketing efforts.”

That’s one of the reasons why we recommend looking holistically at your donor file – and not slicing it up into discrete pieces. This allows you to see the impact of a truly integrated marketing plan. If direct mail revenue drops 5% one month, but unsolicited online giving increases 30%, you aren’t necessarily losing any money – the donor is simply shifting her preferred giving channel.

Looking at revenue from white mail and unsolicited online giving received during integrated media campaigns is often a good barometer for their effectiveness. We recently completed an analysis for a client showing that while direct mail revenue was down 6% YOY, overall revenue was up 5% YOY – fueled partially by an increase in online and white mail giving.

Looking at individual pieces of an integrating marketing campaign will always be an important part of direct response analysis and strategy. But, focusing too narrowly on any one aspect of an integrated campaign will only give you tunnel vision.

As always, please subscribe to our blog, tweet us, or simply say hi on Facebook and give us your thoughts. And, please share this with your friends.

Most every industry whitepaper, blog post, and trends report points to a similar conclusion.  Single channel direct mail is on the decline and digital fundraising is rapidly increasing. While most seem to point to similar recommendations, there is wide disagreement on how fast this change is going to take place.  I have heard ranges from direct mail will be dead in 5 years to direct mail will never die.

Based on current trends as reported by Target Analytics and Convio, I think the typical organization will (or should) be raising at least 50% of its  revenue from individuals via channels other than direct mail by 2016.  Today, most organizations are less than 10%.   But this takes a commitment and focus to integrating your message across traditional and digital channels.

For organizations that are not investing outside of traditional mail, they are sure to experience a funding gap.  Their direct mail revenue will begin to decline and it will not be offset by online giving fast enough.  The internet’s impact on other industries has not shown to be a linear impact.  As adoption increases, the decline accelerates.

Over the past 10 years, the entire purchase model for catalogers flipped from mailing back an order card to receiving a catalog and placing orders by web or phone.  The exact same thing is happening in fundraising.  Direct mail will still be used as a communication tool, but the method donors choose to respond is and will continue to change.

If your organization is slow to adjust to these new realities, don’t panic.  There is time, but take action now.  It’s an exciting time to be in fundraising, but only for those willing to change their approach.

I just read Joshua Ramos’ book The Age of the Unthinkable and I highly recommend it.

The thesis of the book is that we are living in a revolutionary moment with challenges that are continually escalating in complexity. Unfortunately, according to the viewpoint of the author (and I agree with him), the models we Americans use for addressing these challenges are far too simplistic and were engineered for use in a different century. More often than not, these so-called “fixes” cause more problems than they solve.
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Remember the good old days when direct marketing’s biggest boast was its ability to empirically measure results of each and every action?

Well, two things you need to know about integrated marketing. First, it works – I have proof (my creative friends tell me that is called teaser copy).  Second, it takes more work to measure.

Let me illustrate by sharing the contents of a recent, not-so-hypothetical meeting:

Client: Bill, we are not happy. Revenue from direct mail appeals was down this fall. What are you going to do to fix it?

Bill: I looked at your data and, overall, your revenue is up 21%.
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It was another great year at NTC! Thanks to all of those who attended my session Saturday morning on Integrated Marketing and Multichannel Fundraising. As promised the presentation is now posted, and you can find it below. Thanks again to NTEN and the Georgia Center for Nonprofits – it was great to be part of the GNC’s Leadership Summit series. I cannot wait until next year!