Fundamentals of Acquisition

Transcription

1 Fundamentals of Acquisition

2 Brought to you by Shannon McCracken Karin Kirchoff

3 And now a quiz!

4 Who Are You? Agency? Non-Profit? Supplier? Other? Years experience? 1-3? 4-6? 7-10? More than 10? If you are not here to learn, you are here to teach!

5 How we ll spend the next 55 minutes: Debunking myths about Testing Telemarketing Lists Online Premiums Reviewing best practices Talking about real case study examples

6 Myth Numero Uno: We don t need no stinkin tests!

7 Our control works just IS working fine. The best time to test is when your control great! My competitor mails notecards Watch what (or petitions competitors or are t- shirts doing etc.) but TEST! so we should be able to as well! Let s Check rework your this housefile renewal (or appeal) mail and for mail great in new acquisition too. It ideas works when on the something house file so is working well it will work in acquisition and we but don t just roll out can save money too! with it!

8 Testing Ground Rules Dedicate 10-20% of every acquisition effort (expenses/volume) to testing Constantly test tweaks to your control to extend the life Don t assume YOU know what will work.

9 Tweaks - Different OE Treatment

10 Tweaks - Different Signers

11 The value of a backtest Organization-wide terminology change in response to very vocal stakeholders. Switch was flipped without test lead time, but we backtested. Minimal impact to our renewal donors. Some up, some down. Higher value donors seemed to like the change. Acquisition impact was significant, particularly to donor lists. Initial projection at rollout was ($172k) per year.

12 Steal, but test anyway Everyone uses a branded outer envelope. Except Special Olympics. But then anthrax scare (circa ). What was the anthrax overreaction toll on our donor file?

13 40,000 donors

14 Where s the next big idea? Watch what your core list audience is mailing Talk to your vendors/suppliers to understand new technology, new package formats, etc. Look at your house mail program, your online program, your TM program what is working and makes sense to test in acquisition What USED to work? Dust off old controls too!

15 How about YOUR ideas?

16 Myth #2: List testing one and done Validate your metrics of success: Campaign ROI vs. Longterm Value Set goals on category/subcategory level Are your test cells large enough to be valid? Are you testing too many changes at once?

17 List testing Understand and refine your selects Profile existing donors and consider modeling Is exchange an option, and how does that change your ROI? And remember, the flipside is true too your best lists today may decline over time. Keep testing!

18 Myth 3: TM is too co$tly for acquisition

19 To call or not to call That is the question Can you use TM as an acquisition vehicle? Limited lists on the market available for TM acquisition Warm prospects online activists/petition signers More common to use as a lapsed recapture strategy Segmentation is key Breakeven or net investment TM is no longer a stand-alone channel! Strategically integrate and it will work.

20 DM vs. TM Reinstated Donors

21 TM Rules! DOs Use strategically Call warm prospects (online activists, petition signers, etc.) Use to reinstate deep lapsed, former donors Make a part of your house file efforts too! DON Ts Call the phone book Forget to analyze TM results and look at both initial ROI and LTV Assume all prospects are the same segment and target based on testing

22 Myth #4: Donors acquired online will only ever renew online This myth becomes truth for many if you never fold them into a multichannel renewal program. 37% of online acquired Special Olympics donors renewed via direct mail. A peer org, same time frame, saw 48% renewal. A big difference? Mail frequency.

23 Anyone else tracking this? What kind of shift Set up shop in Integration Nation are you Dedicated URLs on direct mail to track source seeing? of online gift (1-15% of gifts driven by DM URL) Matchback online giving to acquisition list to ID donors who don t use dedicated URL Mail warm prospects (but watch the results!) (Obviously) your online activists with appeal and join messaging Test a TM effort to online activsts AND don t forget to include online donors in offline appeals, renewals, sustainer asks to retain them!

24 And by the way, what inspired that initial online gift anyway? 37% of donors who give online say that when they receive a direct mail appeal from a charity, they use the charity s website to actually make the contribution. Half of Gen X and Gen Y donors do this. From study by Campbell Rinker, as described in Chronicle of Philanthropy on 10/7/10.

25 Myth #5: Premiums can really increase my file size! Myth # 5 ½ : Premiums are way too expensive for me to use!

26 Premium Considerations Are you mailing front end or back end? What is your goal? What are your metrics of success? Number of new donors versus campaign net revenue? Do you have the analytics to determine donor value? Can you mail mission-oriented premiums? Are there certain list markets that need premiums and some that don t? Do you need to distinguish yourself from similar organizations? How will you retain? Do you have a New Donor Conversion series? Does your renewal series allow for renewing with the same offer? Do you need to? Is this a membership benefit?

27 Premium donors tend to become planned givers; can often be converted to monthly donors extend your brand by wearing or using the premium;

28 So, remember Test. Test. Test. Everything all of the time. Don t assume your idea WILL or WON T work. Integrate your channels DM, TM, EM (web, mobile, canvass, DRTV, etc ) Establish metrics and know your data Ask questions (of yourself, your peers, your client, your boss, your agency and of us!)

29 Shannon McCracken Karin Kirchoff