Reaching new audiences Tony Fawcett, Web Manager Campaign to Protect Rural England

Reaching new audiences

Tony Fawcett, Web ManagerCampaign to Protect Rural England

What CPRE doesCampaigns for a beautiful and living countryside, protecting green spaces for everyone to enjoy, while enhancing towns to make them better places to live.

Threat to countryside• Reforms to planning

have made it easier for developers to get permission to build more housing in the countryside

• Local democracy weakened

Save our countryside• CPRE’s charter to

save our countryside

• Speech bubble brand, idea of having a voice for the countryside

Three asks:• Don’t sacrifice our countryside, build

on brownfield land first

• A fair say for communities in shaping the places where they live

• More housing in the right places, building affordable housing near to where people live and work

Action: sign the charter• Distinctive, strongly

branded campaign action page

• Easy to sign up

• Postcode look up, quicker and easier for user and accurate data

Charter comments• We asked people to

say why they were supporting our charter

• Nice and short to keep it easy

• Two thirds of people made a comment

Advocates• The charter comments

allowed our campaigners to be our advocates in their own words

• We were able to use those comments in both online and offline media

In their own words…It is just so important that people have access to real countryside. An appreciation of nature helps soothe away the stress of modern life. I simply could not function without my regular doggie-walk or bike ride out into open countryside.Polly, Salisbury, Wiltshire

Campaign launch• Multi-channel

• Press coverage

• Celebrity endorsement

• Social media, Facebook and Twitter

• YouTube video

• Campaigns update email

• Consistent branding across channels

Campaign launch• Launch 14 July 2013

• YouTube video captures our values to fight to protect the countryside

• Easily embedded and shared content

First email• First email to

Campaigns update readers sent 17 July 2013, after media launch

Results: first email• Clicking on email link to

action landing page with pre-populated data

• 21,112 emails sent

• 39% open rate

• 3,396 signed the charter (41% of opens)

Social sharing• After signing the

charter people were encouraged to share their action on Facebook and Twitter to increase support

Social sharing: results• 1,697 from Facebook

signed the charter

• 44 from Twitter signed the charter

Reminder emails…• Reminder emails are a great way to

increase response rates

• 1,203 sign ups, email August 2013

• 421 sign ups, email September 2013

• 335 sign ups, email October 2013

Results end of 2013• By the end of 2013, 14,732 people had

signed the charter

• Over 300 leads converted to Direct Debit supporters through telemarketing

• E-newsletter subscribers increased by 50% from 17,022 to 25,519

• We wanted to continue the momentum

Beyond organic• In 2014, we decided to increase support by

running the charter campaign on the change.org website

• World’s biggest petition website. At the time of the campaign in July 2014, it had a UK reach of 3 million, and now 6 million

Multi-variant testing• Different headlines and images were tried

• Same body copy on all campaigns

• 5 different images

• 3 different headlines

• Total 15 variations

• The winner based on most sign ups

5 different images

3 different headlines• Help stop unnecessary greenfield

development. Over 700,000 houses already planned in the countryside

• Persuade politicians to take action before more of our countryside is lost forever

• Fight back and save our countryside from being sacrificed while brownfield sites lie idle

Image results1 2

3 4 5

Winner9,000 charter sign ups with a phone number and email through change.org

Converting campaigners• Fundraising campaign to convert

campaigners to regular givers

• Split test:

• Group A: phoned straight away, and sent a series stewardship emails

• Group B: nurtured through a series of emails, over three months, then phoned

1st email• More about the

charter campaign, threat to the countryside

• Simple call to action, join us on Facebook and Twitter

2nd email• Update: Government

creates brownfield incentives

• Call to action, send an e-card to a friend to spread the word

2nd emailCall to action, send an e-card to a friend to spread the word

50 e-cards sent, 233 sign ups to the charter

3rd email• Waste of Space

campaign launch

• Call to action, take a photo and add it our Waste of Space brownfield map

3rd email• Call to action, take a

photo and add it our Waste of Space brownfield map

• 400 crowdsourced photos were added to the map

4th email• Update: Waste of

Space map, 400 sites added to the map

• Election Manifesto launch

Split test results• Group A – phone first:

146 donors, 6.18% conversion, average £65.19 annual regular gift value

• Group B – email stewardship first:147 donors, 5.10% conversion, average annual regular gift value £61.28

• Better conversion result on phone first

Fundraising results• 293 regular givers from change.org, with

a 5.64% conversion

• Average gift value £63.62

• 528 regular givers, across all sources including our own organic leads

Results: 2014• 9,000 charter sign ups with a phone

number and email through change.org

• 34,170 total charter sign ups end of 2014

• Email list increased50% from 17,022 to 25,519 in 201365% from 25,519 to 38,747 in 2014

• 528 regular givers from campaigners

What we learnt…• Making our campaign action a petition

format made it easy to sign up our followers on Facebook and their friends

• Partnering with a mass petition platform extended our audience reach and sign ups

• Our mailing list has grown and we have maintained quality with a 36% open rate

What we learnt…• Keep the story moving, with updates on a

success, keep a positive message

• Engage people, with a simple call to action to begin with and progress onto more involved actions

• Campaigners make good donors, by relating a cause to fundraising

cpre.org.uk