Effective Email Marketing for Fundraising: 3 Keys to Consider
How do you increase giving among alumni and other constituents during the worst economic downturn in a generation? How do you inspire a deeper connection between alumni and their alma mater? How do you connect alumni more effectively to the needs of current students? And how do you do this via email?
This was exactly the problem that Carnegie Mellon University asked Media Logic to solve. With an aggressive capital campaign under way, Carnegie Mellon was looking for a way to inspire a broader group of annual donors to participate – to connect them emotionally to the work of the university. And what better way to do that than by focusing on the compelling stories of current Carnegie Mellon students.
Working with the team at Carnegie Mellon, Media Logic developed the concept of “Fuel the Fire.” At the core of the concept was the idea that Carnegie Mellon students dream big and follow their passions with intensity and that donors could help “fuel their fire.” The concept was then translated into direct mail, email and a dedicated campaign microsite.
Email marketing proved to be particularly effective in reaching donors who had not given previously or whose giving had lapsed. We saw a 16.8% conversion rate (percentage of visitors who clicked through to the site and completed the credit card processing form). This compares to an industry average of 2%-10%. Overall, Carnegie Mellon exceeded its dollar goal for the annual campaign.
We’d like to share three key takeaways:
- Move donors along the pipeline: As part of the campaign, we blasted initial emails, as well as follow up conversion emails based upon a person’s actions (opened or did not open the email, did or did not go click through, etc.) and learned through analytics that the most effective emails were the follow-up “reminders” which resulted in the largest number of opens and click-throughs. The lesson is that you can never consider an email solicitation as a “once and done” proposition. Your donors need time to think about making a gift, and perhaps a few reminders before they act.
- Make it easy to make a gift: We experimented with various links in the email blasts (to student stories, to “about the campaign” content, etc.) and learned that embedding a dedicated giving form in the microsite and direct links to that giving form were critical to the campaign’s effectiveness. So, the more clear and direct your message, and the easier it is for donors to make that gift, the more successful you will be.
- Timing is key: Analytics also showed us the most effective days/times for getting our emails opened and read. For this particular audience, we learned that weekends were the best time – perhaps due to corporate email security procedures, or the time required to think about making a gift and submitting credit card information. Your audience may have different behaviors, but you can use analytics (and a little experimentation) to track activity and modify your strategy based on the best time for your donors to make their gifts.
