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365 days of learning

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Jonathon Grapsas

That’s how I’d describe the last year. 12 months on from setting up flat earth direct.

I thought it would be a good chance to stop and re-live what I’ve learnt (the new stuff), and things I’ve been reminded of once again. I should say, it’s only because of the wonderful clients that believe in us that I’m writing this post. So, thank you.

Things I’ve learnt.

This is the stuff that has slapped me in the face, may not have seen coming, but am certainly excited to have discovered it.

• Losing lots of donors recruited via face-to-face isn’t a fait accompli. Properly executed digital retention programs work to retain the majority of them. Think f2f: think mobile.
• Digital recruitment doesn’t discriminate. Small charities can do it too.
• The key to digital (recruitment) success is a “sticky” proposition.
• The value of ‘no’. Sometimes the offer to do something is more important than whether someone actually does it. (hint: teleconferences rock).
• Facebook isn’t a waste of time when it comes to recruitment. The keys are good content and advertising. (hint: great for event registration).
• Video really works. Brilliant way to tell stories (hint: see first point about F2F).
• Digital, you don’t have to do it. You’re better off doing old school stuff well than trying to do digital poorly.
• Technology should only be used to solve problems. For any other reason (it’s cool, fun, ‘worth a try’, cheaper, easier, ‘why not’) is a distraction.

Things I’ve re-learnt.

This is the stuff that’s been re-affirmed. Not necessarily new, and rather than being slapped in the face – just a nice, gentle shake of the shoulders to wake me up and remind me.

• Everything is different but everything is the same. If it works in one country, it’ll likely work in another.
• Direct marketing (and direct mail) isn’t dead. Well formulated DM appeals for support will still work. On warm and cold. Here’s one reason why (hint: nothing good arrives in the post).
• Incentives and premiums still play a role in fundraising.
• Regular (monthly) giving: there’s a lot of low hanging fruit still out there (hint: in your database).
• The old fashioned direct marketing and donor care principles apply in the new world. Just with some tweaking.
• Don’t overcomplicate. Simplicity and focus are critical. Just ask Steve (Jobs).
• Tepid is better than cold. Start with those you know, instead of those you’d like to know.
• The world really is flat. Work with people, partners, suppliers that get you great results. Don’t work with someone just because their office is around the corner.
• The early adopters invariably win. You don’t always have to be second. Those with the best results are typically those who know when to be disciplined, and when to be different and new.

I’m sure there’s more. And I hope there’s even more in the next 365 days.

Jonathon

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In the words of Steve

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Jonathon Grapsas

Focus and Simplicity

Steve Jobs shared many prophetic words in his life. In business terms, for me, none wiser than the following:

“That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

And if you’re an Apple geek like me you’ll totally understand how Jobs turned that vision into reality.

I talk about focus and simplicity a lot, because frankly, as a sector it’s not one of our core strengths.

Recently I was hosting a webinar called “the art of online retention”. We’ve been managing some regular/monthly giving retention programs (specifically for face to face recruited donors) which have been having some real success, and as I shared the pillars of these programs to the participants it became increasingly apparent just how poignant Jobs mantra was in all of this.

To illustrate this, take a look at the things that made these programs so effective:

• Regular, relevant content (stuff individual supporters are interested in)
• Ongoing feedback
• Sharing human stories, of people your monthly support is helping
• The ability to look, touch, listen and feel. Content shared through video, audio, and the written word.
• It was about ‘me’ (the supporter). We were asked for ongoing feedback.
• Supporters were encouraged to become agents of change by advocating as well as giving.
• We shared stuff from the desk of the CEO.
• We made it mobile friendly (easy).
• The content was delivered programmatically (in other words it was automated, taking the pain out of complex retention programs).

No real rocket science going on here.

Simple because we made everything so easy and seamless. We didn’t make people work hard to understand how they were making such a big dent in the problems of the world.

Simple design, simple language, simple messaging. We didn’t try and sound or look clever, we told it as it is. Simply.

Focused in that it was completely about the supporter and reminding them why their monthly support is so critical.

In a world full of clutter and noise, stop every now and again and remember what Steve said. Because “it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains”.

Jonathon

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Making great charity websites

Posted on April 21, 2012 by Jonathon Grapsas

What makes a great charity website?

The first thing is understanding (and in some instances accepting) what your website is there to do. The main two functions of charity websites are:

1. to raise money (fundraise)
2. provide information to service users

There are of course other purposes for some, including marketing events, advocacy etc, but let’s stick with the first two, and in particular for this post the first one. How to create a great website that helps you raise more money.

I believe the most important thing users want is that its easy to find their way around. They can sort through all of the content and find what they want without much hassle.

This was backed up with some great research done by the gang over at Hubspot who found that three out of every four people asked indicate that finding what they want is at the top of the tree.

You can see it here too.

So, what do we need to do to create a website that raises more money? I believe you must:

• Make your site easy to find (getting SEO working so you’re prominent in Google)
• Have a great navigation and make it easy for people to find what they want (as per above)
• Move people to give
• Make the entire experience easy. What the web geeks call usability
• Allow me to look, listen, touch and feel (give people other ways to engage: virtual tours, blogs, podcasts, video etc)
• Keep it focused. Ensure people know what you really want them to do.

Let’s look at each in some detail.

Make your site easy to find

Your website is not your fundraising strategy. Meaning if no-one can find it then its completely useless.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of your site in search engines. Let’s talk about Google because search is Google (with 90% of the market).

SEO is about knowing how to tell search engines that what you’re talking about is the most relevant solution for what people are searching for. And the difference between good SEO and bad SEO is stark. Get your organisation from the bottom of page 1 on Google to the top and we’re talking 12-14 times more traffic.

So how do we do it? Words and links. Health warning here, I’m not an SEO expert, for the purposes of brevity I’ll talk about two of the most critical elements of SEO.

Words. People want to see the words they’re searching for reflected back at them in search engine results. You need to spend time thinking about the keywords that are important to you. And then work hard to ensure those words are reflected in the great, engaging, relevant, newsworthy content you have on your site.

Don’t try and be clever by simply stuffing keywords into your site to improve your ranking. Google is a little too smart for that.

If you’re an animal welfare shelter then perhaps the following may be keywords you’d want to focus on: animal shelter, pet shelter, lost dogs and cats, animal welfare shelter, dog shelter, help dogs.

Links. As Google says, what others say about you is more important than what you say about yourself.

That means find other reputable organisations to talk about you. In blogs, articles, news items etc. You might need to seek these out. Think about those who you want talking about you that are themselves in fact ranked highly by Google.

One way to do this is start a blog on your site and link to some of those sites.

Above all you need to have terrific content on your site that’s regular, interesting, newsworthy and relevant to what you do.

Have a great navigation and make it easy for people to find what they want

I like Amnesty International Australia’s site as a case in point.

You’re left under no illusion about where you need to go to find what you’re after. Check out their work, get involved, donate. Well laid out, aesthetically pleasing, clear.

And as you see below, as you hover over the navigation you can then see the various choices you have next.

Move people to give

Simple tips to motivate me to support:

• prominently display lots of rich media (particularly video).
• ensure seamless integration with your offline appeals. If something’s really important in the post then it should feel equally important on your site (that means give it adequate real estate on your homepage).
• lots of faces. I want to see people, cats, dogs. Use images.
• strong, emotive copy. Can be long if needed. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that it has to be short.
• get all the good stuff “above the fold” in the page. Means I’m more likely to see it as I don’t have to scroll down on my computer/tablet/smartphone to see it.
• share stories. Explain the need. Make the ask.

Make the entire experience easy

Usability means making it easy for people to use the website to achieve their goal, and how satisfying that process is. Usable websites are easy to understand and navigate, as well as efficient, effective and enjoyable. Remember:

• the homepage is usually the first thing visitors see, so make it about your supporters and your beneficiaries. As mentioned above share faces. Great example of this from Oxfam Australia below.

• get all the important/compelling stuff where it’s most likely to be seen (above the fold).
• search function is in the top right hand corner of the site (and stays there on every page).
• navigation stays the same throughout the site (whichever page you’re on). In other words it doesn’t jump around depending on which page you’re on. That goes for buttons that have a call to action attached, particularly the donate function.
• all links work, pages load quickly, visited links are distinguished from unvisited links and its easy to get back to the homepage at all times.
• donor friendly donation page. Functional, but with some warmth attached. Logically laid out, like the Amnesty International Australia example below. Ask for the gift first, then ask for my personal details. Credit card details following that. Ideally with some imagery and compelling copy somewhere within the page. You still need to convince me to make the gift, the job isn’t quite finished.

• mobile optimised (friendly). Around 10%-15% of all searching done now is via smart-phones/tablets so either have a fully optimised site that sits alongside your main site or make some simple changes to your site that at least make the mobile visits much more friendly. There’s a great post here about options for mobile optimised sites. And an example of a mobile optimised charity site below.

 

Allow me to look, listen, touch and feel

Let me listen to podcasts, watch stories about people who have been helped, stick my hand up and take action, comment on your blog, look at images from the field.

The point is about giving me many and varied ways to enjoy your work. When it’s hard to take people to the coalface, do the next thing and take a virtual tour. I love this example from the Sunnybrook Hospital in Canada. You can take it yourself here or see below.

Keep it focused

Make it clear what you want. Do you want me to give? Take action? Leave a gift in my Will?

Now of course there may be multiple things you want me to consider. Don’t paralyse with too much choice. Think about what are the most important actions you want visitors to take and provide a clear pathway to that end goal.

For fundraising driven organisations it’s likely you really want people to start a monthly gift, perhaps give you cash, or leave you a bequest. For some signing up to your big annual walkathon might be numero uno.

Whatever it is make this prominent.

One of my favourite charity sites is Greenpeace UK. It’s so damned simple. Take a look below.

Donate now, so we can do more campaigning.

Two-thirds of the homepage dedicated to that message. Brilliant.

The final word

Once you’ve got all of this sorted, you’re part way there. But remember, just because you build it, doesn’t mean they’ll come.

Jonathon

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Getting digital really working

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Jonathon Grapsas

Firstly, thanks to Reinier and the gang over at 101Fundraising blog for inviting me to share a post recently. I was asked to talk about what makes an effective digital fundraising program. I’ve re-posted my thoughts here below.

So what does a solid, well performing digital fundraising program look like? It’s the question I’m often asked, and am going to share, as best I can in a little under 1,300 words.

Dispelling the myths

One of the most frustrating things about the digital world is that it is full of illusion, and quite a lot of BS.

Here are some of my favourites:

• Social media is the next big thing and will transform charities fundraising programs
• Digital is completely different to the offline world, and as such different teams should be working on each program
• Email and landing page copy must be short

Wrong, wrong and wrong.

The problem is these myths permeate all over and are considered truisms by most. The reality is that good practice direct marketing crosses channels. Sure, there are some nuances, but there are more similarities than differences.

Understanding where digital fits in

It’s essential as fundraisers we have a clear pathway, and that the role of digital fundraising is well defined.

For some, it may be a significant driver of acquisition growth if other vehicles are being used extensively. For others it may simply play a supporting (retention/integration) role.

The key is knowing what’s a reasonable amount of time and energy to dedicate to getting it working. I see far too many fundraisers spending a disproportionate amount of time obsessing about finding Facebook fans when they can’t accept regular gifts online or stressing over the content of a tweet when their website is cluttered, unclear and not mobile optimized.

Ask yourself, what value is this delivering for our program? Could I be delivering a better return elsewhere?

Getting your house in order

Too many try and run before they can crawl. It’s easy to get caught up in the latest technology craze, but are QR codes really going to change the world?

Consider this as a checklist for getting your house in order:

• Is your website focused? Providing a clear navigation for visitors, making it apparent what you want them to do. Relevant, updated and rich content. ensure the most important stuff is above the fold in the page.
• Do you make it easy to support you online? Ensuring we don’t paralyse with choice, including a well laid out and compelling donation form.
• Is your email marketing working? Email is still king, do you use it effectively to support appeals, acquire new supporters and care for donors?
• Are you easy to find? How far up Google’s 1^st page are you ranking, if at all? Remember, what other people say is more important than what you say about yourself. Find ways to get reputable sites to link to you.
• Are you mobile optimized? Over 10% of all web traffic comes from mobile devices, is your website optimized for mobile? Can visitors easily view, touch, feel and use your site on their mobile device?

If the checklist above has more crosses than ticks, it’s fair to say your priority online is getting the basics right before leaping into unchartered digital territory.

Make it feel the same: integration

The key to getting your online and offline programs living in harmony is making sure they say the same thing. If it sounds important in the post, make sure it sounds just as important online. That includes ensuring it’s prominence on your website.

Same goes for asking. If you’re asking me for a specific amount offline, but give me the option to go online, ensure the asks marry. Failure to do so confuses, and ultimately suppresses response.

But don’t forget to surprise and delight every now and again. How many of you provide a moment where your supporters would shriek, “wow, have you seen this?” as their partner walks in the door. Invited them to a teleconference/webinar, said thank you in a way you’ve never said it, invited me to the opening of your new shelter.

Finding new supporters online: recruitment

The great part about the digital world is that it doesn’t discriminate against small charities. It is possible to have success finding new supporters online. It isn’t easy, but it’s doable.

Here are the keys:

• Look for tepid prospects. That is, people who have some relationship/affinity with you.
• Spread your wings. It’s difficult to get one online channel working in isolation. Display advertising, re-targeting, paid search, Facebook Advertising, email prospecting etc. They all have their role, but usually as a joint approach, not as a standalone campaign. Economies of scale make it much easier to run an acquisition program with three or four of these running simultaneously rather than on their own.
• What’s in it for me? Incentivise. Why would I give you a phone number? There’s got to be something in it for me. A gift, the chance to win something, the promise you’ll send me a fun update. Incentives help increase participation, particularly important if you’re trying to capture phone numbers.
• Consider a staged approach. That is: ask for something small upfront (cash, action, lobby, share) then move people, very quickly, along to the next stage of the relationship.
• At the heart of every conversation, think “how can I convince this person to become a regular giver”?

I call the process of getting all these items in sync, fuelling the funnel. It’s illustrated in the diagram below. Begin with several prospect sources, filter them to your left with less prospects, ultimately finding new, long term regular givers.

And finally, be realistic when it comes to online acquisition. Give yourself a year of testing and refining before passing judgement. A return of around 0.5-0.6 in year 1 is reasonable, and would provide the evidence needed to rollout.

Hanging onto them: retention

Finding donors online is tough. But the magic for me is the effect that digital communications can have on “keeping” supporters. Not necessarily those recruited online, but those that we know like to look, listen, touch and feel in the digital environment.

One such group (traditionally a little younger: late 20’s through to mid-late 30’s) are those recruited on the street (face to face). We’ve been undertaking some interesting testing over the past year with clients and found the following works:

• Developing rich content. That includes lots of video, podcasts, stuff people can “do” (surveys, advocacy pieces), regular stories shared, the odd SMS here and there. Keep it interesting, story driven and about “me” and the impact I’m making.
• Delivering regular content. So much that it feels uncomfortable when you see it written on an annual activity plan. Lots in the first few months post sign up (minimum weekly), still lots thereafter (every few weeks). The important thing is the positive reaffirmation. Keep reminding me how I’m changing the world, even one person’s life.
• Automating it. If you can, develop a system (a set of email triggers) that automates the process. Doesn’t mean content isn’t up to date, changeable etc., but placeholders can easily be filled. If you don’t automate it, you won’t do it as often as you should.

The wonderful team at Cerebral Palsy Alliance in Australia have developed a program like this. Take a look below at one of the “magic moments” videos created to remind our wonderful regular givers why they give up a few dollars a month.

Struggling with attrition on face-to-face acquired donors for a while, after just a few months they’ve managed to slash attrition rates, including the average month 1 attrition reduced from 12% to 4%. All by sending rich, regular and automated content.

Oh, and don’t forget to ensure its mobile friendly.

Digital really isn’t that difficult

Once you cut through the chaos and get the fundamentals right, the digital world really isn’t that scary. The most important thing is to understand exactly where it fits into your plans.

Jonathon

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Nothing good arrives in the post

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Jonathon Grapsas

I have a pretty balanced view about channel performance, and the role various mediums play for charities.

I don’t subscribe to DM being dead, nor do I think it’s an area of growth.

Certainly don’t believe all the hype about social media, and for the most part still believe it’s an unwanted distraction.

Do believe in the power of digital to support, retain and nurture (and hence raise shedloads).

I could go on.

But this post is about the role of the mail, and why to the amazement of many it continues to perform really well. And for many charities be the lifeblood of their work.

There are two factors at play here: internally what you can control, and externally what you have no influence on.

Internally: that means producing compelling story-led appeals, incredibly personal, littered with several (personal) asks, clear, focused etc.

Externally: the state of play in the post. So just why does DM still “work”?

I can sum it with a couple of snaps below. Frankly, nothing good arrives in the post. And that augurs well for our sector.

The first photo is the array of mail I’ve received the in the last week. The second photo all of the stuff Kate’s received.

In short: bank statements, election paraphernalia, phone bills, real estate listings, more bank statements, sales leaflets. And so on.

How many of these pieces of mail would you leave the pub for? How many of the them make you shriek with excitement “look what I got”? I’d suggest very few.

When was the last time a birthday invitation arrived in your letterbox? A letter from your aunt overseas? Gee, even a postcard from your folks trip up north?

Insert scratching of the head. Can you recall the last time? A wedding invite 9 months ago perhaps?

The post is full of garbage: impersonal, irrelevant, chest beating junk.

Nothing good arrives in the post. Except your (warm, personal, compelling) letter.

Jonathon

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