Institute of Fundraising: FAQ Guide to Improve Website Performance

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1 Institute of Fundraising: FAQ Guide to Improve Website Performance

2 INTRODUCTION Summary of Ve Interactive Operating across a broad range of sectors, Ve Interactive provide data-led tech solutions to not only attract high quality online traffic, but to convert this traffic into monetary results. Ve also work hard with many charity organisations, helping to drive more donations online and guarantee a better return on their digital marketing budget. Turning passive visitors into active donors The pressure on charities to justify marketing spend is greater than in any other setor. Most of this spend goes towards generating new traffic, and rightly so. However, something less broadly considered is what happens next: actually converting traffic into donations. 62% of donations are abandoned at the payment stage and this figure doesn t include those who never get that far along the donor journey in the first place. This level of donation drop-off depends largely on a website s performance. We know that, unfortunately, many small to medium sized charities don t have the resources to fully maximise the opportunities available through digital channels. That s why we teamed with Ve Interactive to produce this FAQ guide detailing elements of website performance where small changes can make a huge difference. 01

3 HOME PAGE What should my home page achieve? Every good home page clearly answers the following three questions - Who are you?, What do you do?, and What do site visitors need to do? It should concisely inform visitors that they re in the right place while leading them through your donation process with the minimum amount of friction. What information should you display on your home page? A short and compelling headline statement explaining your value proposition A smaller sub-heading, if required, to further reassure visitors that they re in the right place A prominent Call-to-Action button that leads to the donation process, making the next steps immediately obvious to the visitor I have a lot of information I need to publicise. How do I do this without losing the visitor s interest? There is a temptation with the home page to overload it with the many great things about your organisation. But displaying too much information will overcrowd the page and slow down the visitor. Use a navigation bar or another tabbing system to control this. Be strict with category titles and group information to fit your donor s point of view. 02

4 LANDING PAGE What should my landing pages aim to achieve? The landing page should validate the visitor s decision to arrive onsite while leading them to the next step as quickly as possible. What are the elements my landing pages should include? Clear value proposition Prominent primary Call-to-Action Captivating hero image Persuasive headline text Consistent branding Restricted website navigation What colour should I make my Call-to-Action button(s)? There s no one right answer. As the objective is to draw attention, it stands to reason to make the CTA colour different to your overall brand palette. Use a colour wheel to decide which shades naturally complement each other. This will help you strike the balance between noticeable and garish for your CTAs. How much copy should I have on my landing pages? This depends on the end goal of the landing page, but the general rule on copy is that it should be as long or short as it needs to be no more, no less. Short copy generally works better for lower risk exchanges, like securing an address or event sign-up. But for donations, giving more information on the specific project is advised. Regardless of the amount of information required, all text should be organised into small blocks, with direct benefits/selling points laid out in a bullet-point format. 03

5 PAYMENT PROCESS How do I reduce donation drop-off during the payment process? At this crucial stage, the key to ensuring that more people complete their donation is to maintain momentum. Do this effectively by removing all unnecesvasary friction from the process. Engaging customers with helpful information in an onsite overlay is also a very successful way to reduce donation abandonment. Find out where you are losing most donations by checking your website reporting system for pages with high bounce and exit rates. Use this information to focus your re-engagement efforts. How many fields should I have in my payment form? Although gleaning as much information as possible from donors is great for future marketing, it s best to stick to the purely necessary name, , payment details. Ve stats show that 1% of customers will abandon for every additional field on your payment form so keep it lean. 04

6 MOBILE STRATEGY Should I invest in a local app or a responsive-designed website? Responsive design has rapidly become a must-have for any transactional charity website. Mobile traffic has overtaken desktop, so the importance of delivering a consistent experience between the two has never been greater. While local apps work well for more established brands with a loyal following, they don t necessarily appeal to new donors. This is why they must be seen as behind responsive design on your list of priorities. 05

7 POST-ABANDONMENT Can I recover lost donations? In short, yes. Definitely. Donors who abandon at this late stage have already shown strong interest, so proactively reaching back to them is a highly effective way to increase online donations. There could have been a number of reasons why the user didn t donate at the time, such as not being ready or simply becoming distracted. But a personalised , with their donation pre-loaded and the right content is the perfect way to remind those users to complete their donation. I have a small/no digital team, will I be able to implement this technology conveniently on my website? Making changes to your charity s website doesn t have to be complicated or expensive, for example, Ve s technology can be implemented through a single line of JS code. To make things even more straightforward, we recommend implementing Google Tag Manager. This allows you to install new tech solutions in-house without the need for any external development or additional cost. Is implementing conversion enhancing technology affordable on a modest budget? With the right provider, conversion technology should be set up with an incremental payment model. This means you only pay commission for donations that would otherwise have been lost guaranteeing results for your spend. In order to reduce financial risk further, avoid signing any minimum term contracts with suppliers you have not trialled before. Also make sure that you pay on a cost per acquisition pricing model to reduce any undue cost by perfectly aligning your goals with those of your tech provider. 06

8 Ve Interactive Ltd