We’ve preached the importance of continuous online testing and optimization. But it really hit home when that resulted in a 209% better conversion rate for one of our clients in 2011.
The first important step was identifying an area for testing where a lift in results would make a real difference. We settled on the donation experience on the website.
Move #7 in a series of “9 Best Moves” to achieve development goals and maximize fundraising success.
There are new ways of playing the game, and we have to be open to exploring and prototyping, testing and even failing with some plays so we can ultimately win. And to be clear, not everything has changed — the core principles of good marketing and fundraising still apply.
Help respond to disasters before they happen!
Responding to disasters is an important skill set for nonprofit professionals. That’s why Masterworks has submitted a “Disaster Response” session proposal for the Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) 2012 in San Francisco next April.
NTC organizers choose conference sessions partly based on how many votes each session submission gets. So would you help me out by voting for the session at the link below? Stop your disaster response from being a disaster.
VOTE FOR this session at: http://www.nten.org/ntc-session/12150
Dave Raley, Director of Digital Marketing, was recently featured as a guest blogger on the Nonprofit Marketing Guide. His post is included below.
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Ever heard of micro-engagement? Maybe you haven’t, but I would be willing to bet that you’ve seen it in action.
Micro-engagement refers to the current trend towards “small.” In our overloaded and crazy lives, we engage with the world through micro bits of time and attention. In fundraising, people are giving very small amounts of money. The same trend is happening in advocacy, our social lives and more.
QR codes — those little two dimensional barcodes — are all the rage among marketers today. From Times Square to t-shirts, they are popping up everywhere. But are they a passing fad? Are they ready for the mainstream? And even more basically — what are they in the first place?
What is a QR code?
QR code is short for “quick response code.” Simply, it’s a new form of barcode that allows for a lot of interesting data to be encoded.
But what marketers are really excited about is that for the first time, these barcodes can be scanned by the masses using a smartphone camera and a piece of software.
Ever wonder how your nonprofit compares in the online fundraising space?
The 2010 Online Giving Report from Blackbaud should be a big help.
Just published this week, the report includes some good stuff, including: 
According to the New York Times, “many nonprofits simply cannot afford the kind of promotional campaign needed to publicize mobile giving efforts, nor do they benefit from the kind of exposure that a round-the-clock, disaster-driven news event provides.”
A recent article quoted leaders in the field of mobile marketing essentially saying just that. In spite of the fact that the American Red Cross raised $2 million for Haiti relief efforts within the first 24 hours after the earthquake, and $30 million in mobile giving for Haiti overall, “the costs of maintaining a mobile donating program can outweigh the proceeds,” according to the Times.
Because texted donations are currently limited to $5 and $10 increments and capped by mobile phone companies, the quality and long-term value of donors acquired with this method is in question. And, if current donors who average $25 to $50 each time they give opt to respond with their phone, average gift size is obviously eroded.
Fundraising through mobile has been a hot topic lately, especially with the many millions of dollars raised via the channel after the Haiti earthquake. Mobile fundraising is a relatively young channel, and we know it can be complicated and confusing sometimes — so we've put together a whitepaper on the current State of Mobile Fundraising to help you out.
Download The State of Mobile Fundraising
The whitepaper spends significant time addressing specifically Text2Give — currently the most common method of giving in mobile (involves sending text messages and $5 or $10 gifts — this is how most money for Haiti was raised). Discussed topics include:
In the gold rush to make money on social networks like Facebook, it has taken a surprisingly long time for the social networking giant to fully integrate payments into its system. But last month, Facebook announced a partnership with PayPal that will allow users to use PayPal to purchase Facebook Credits - the default currency of Facebook. The PayPal deal represents another step for Facebook toward making purchases on the social network a normal part of our everyday lives. This is an important trend for fundraisers to watch.
Why should this be important to fundraisers?
IF Facebook succeeds in making the exchange of money via social networks a culturally normal thing to do, THIS would be a huge breakthrough for all commerce, including online fundraising.
Facebook already plays a large role in many people's social lives and consumes a large percentage of their time online - adding regular commerce to that is the next big thing. Most fundraising on social networks has continually struggled to perform. The notable exception is event-based fundraising, which is seeing repeatable, predictable success when integrated with sites like Facebook. So be on the lookout for how Facebook payments continue to evolve and be adopted - it should be a valuable indicator of how successful we can be in fundraising directly through Facebook.
It turns out that lab rats and donors have something in common - and it's a good thing! How could donors being like rats possibly be a good thing, you ask? Well, it helps us understand the importance of some fundamental fundraising techniques. Let's hear from Roger Dooley from the blog Neuromarketing:
...back in the 1930s, researchers made an interesting discovery: rats running a maze to reach food ran faster as they got closer to the food. This finding led to the “goal gradient hypothesis,” which states that the tendency to approach a goal increases with proximity to the goal. Simply put, the closer the goal, the more effort you expend to get there.
Dooley points out that this theory has been validated in humans in many different settings, including with frequent flyer miles, rewards-based credit cards and coffee shop punch card programs. On that last example, Columbia University researchers found that when individuals are given a rewards punch card, they will drink coffee more frequently as they approach a fully punched card.
