Guide to Fundraising Conversion Optimization for 2017 NTEN Nonprofit Technology Conference

Your Guide to Fundraising Conversion Optimization

PRESENTED BY

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COLLABORATIVE NOTES

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EVALUATION LINKhttp://bfred.us/2mtfTmz

1.5 Credits for CAE and CFRE

@BeaconfireRED

@Habitat_org

Visit us at Booth 517 to get your Tips, Tools and Checklist for Testing

Sara Hoffman

Analytics and Optimization Lead

Beaconfire RED

Liz Murphy

EVPBeaconfire RED

Scot Ninnemann

Internet Strategist

Habitat for Humanity

Who we are

Jen Boland

Analytics and Optimization Lead

Beaconfire RED

#17NTCtestingtips

Z About Beaconfire RED

Digital Marketing & Fundraising

UX & Visual Design Web & Mobile Development

Full Service Digital Experience Agency

+ + =Changing the world

Z

• Habitat’s vision: a world where everyone has a decent place to live.

• Build and renovate decent, affordable housing.

• Homeowners:

○ pay an affordable mortgage

○ receive financial education

○ build homes alongside volunteers

• All 50 U.S. states and 70+ countries.About Habitat for Humanity

Looking for those quick tips?

#17NTCtestingtips© Warner Brothers

There is no such thing as one size fits all tips or a single

checklist, but there is a process and that’s what we will

focus on.

9 Steps for Optimization Success

1. Define your long-term goals and how you will measure success

2. Understand your traffic and your visitor journeys

3. Understand your visitors, especially the non-converting ones

4. Gather intelligence from competitors or experts

5. Identify your persuasive assets

6. Create your experiment strategy and plan

7. Design your challengers

8. Launch your experiment

9. Transfer learnings to other media

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Step 1 Define your long-term goals and how you will

measure success

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How many of you have had your boss

walk into a room and say:

“Hey I saw this cool

thing on X site,

can we test it?

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Keep your eye on the ball

Example Annual Goals

• Revenue: $1,000,000

• Donors: 11,000

○ Retain 7,000 donors

○ Acquire 4,000 new donors

• Budget: $250,000

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Step 2 Understand your

traffic and your visitor journeys

Traffic and Journeys

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Channel Report

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Start: Channels Report in Google Analytics

Channel Report

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?????

Organic Search – 90,122 Visits

Branded Search to Homepage

18,543

Donation Form

1,258 (68% drop off)

Non Branded Search to Deep Content

Pages

62,828

Donation Form

1,555(98% drop off)

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Donations

157(78% drop off)

Donations

14 (99% drop off)

Organic Search – 90,122 Visits

Branded Search to Homepage

18,543

Donation Form

1,258 (68% drop off)

#17NTCtestingtips

Donations

157(78% drop off)

Non Branded Search to Deep Content

Pages

62,828

Donation Form

1,555(98% drop off)

Donations

14 (99% drop off)

KPIConversion Rate

Time on Site

Exit Rate

Bounce Rate

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Non Branded Search to Deep Content

Pages

62,828

Donation Form

1,555(98% drop off)

Donations

14 (99% drop off)

Why this funnel?

KPIConversion Rate

Time on Site

Exit Rate

Bounce Rate

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Non Branded Search to Deep Content

Pages

62,828

Donation Form

1,555(98% drop off)

Donations

14 (99% drop off)

Why this funnel?

Supporting Metrics

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Only you can make the decision for investing or viewing this as a rabbit hole?

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BrightFocus Gift String

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5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

0-25 26-50 51-75 76-100 101-250 251-500 501-1000

Gift String Analysis

Control

Dig into other metrics

• Default ask was $50.

• Review past giving amounts

• Is that the right default?

Step 3 Understand your

visitors, especially the non-converting

ones

Habitat for Humanity “Visitor Journeys”

• Low donation form completion rate

• Survey of online donors: "Reason for your visit to our site?"

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Habitat for Humanity “Visitor Journeys”

Survey of online donors: “Reason for your website visit?”

○Mind already made up to donate to Habitat

Considering donating, but wanted more info first

All other reasons for visiting (volunteering, donatestuff, etc.)

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Mind already made up to donate to Habitat

Considering donating, but wanted more info first

All other reasons for visiting (volunteering, donating stuff, etc.)

Habitat for Humanity “Visitor Journeys”

• Survey of online donors: “Reason for your website visit?”

○ #1: Mind already made up to donate to Habitat

○ #2: Considering donating, but wanted more info first

○ #3: All other reasons for visiting (volunteering, donate stuff, etc.)

that’s…

• 3 different “donor journeys:”

○ Already decided to donate money

○ Already decided to donate stuff

○ Considering donating, but need to be convinced/reassured

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Donor Journey #3: Considering Donating, but Need to Be Convinced/Reassured• How to convince/reassure?

• Nielsen/Norman study (2009):

1. What does your organization do?

2. How will you use the money I give you?

• What info are we providing?

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Habitat for Humanity “Visitor Journeys”

• Does not answer key questions

• Not showing impact of donation

• Little here to reassure/convince

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Barriers to Conversion

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Low page loadForm errorsUX problems

Step 4Gather intelligence

from your competitors

Problem: Need to Reassure and Persuade

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Strong HeadlineUnderlined and linked texts = benefits of giving and unique value proposition

Problem: Donation Completion Obstacles

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ConversationalPersonal Experience

Problem: Increase Email Capture

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+1 for LightboxAdditional Segmentation Options

Problem: Increase Email Capture/Advocates

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NoticeableNon-Interrupting

Problem: Increase Conversions on Deep Content Pages

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Donation Asks on Deep-Linked ContentCould work well for “Rage Donations”

Step 5Identify your

persuasive assets

Habitat’s persuasive assets

Studies: decent, affordable housing transforms a family’s life

Habitat’s persuasive assets

Homeowner videos and stories

“What our Habitat house means to our family”

Habitat’s persuasive assets Focus groups: what resonates most with our supporters?

• Aspects of our work that they relate to?

• Language that clicks with them?

• Concerns, past or present?

• Misconceptions?

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Human Rights Watch Stunning Imagery

Social Proof

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It’s nicer way of saying

peer pressure

Social Proof – Quotes work too

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Social Proof

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https://blog.kissmetrics.com/social-proof-factors-2/

https://econsultancy.com/blog/65722-18-highly-effective-examples-of-

social-proof-in-ecommerce/

Step 6Create your experiment

strategy and plan

You are not AmazonYou can’t test everything

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Sample Test Needs DocumentTraffic Problem Solution Traffic Conv. Rate Estimated Increase

Direct Traffic Users who are aware of our organization and visit the homepage directly are not making it to donation forms at an anticipated rate

Add a top banner which builds the case for donating.

25,000 1.00% 50% more direct visitors make it to a donation form

Paid Search Donation form is slow to load, causing a high bounce rate.

Eliminate render-blocking JavaSCriptand CSS in above the fold content.

5,000 2.00% 25% more users complete a donation

Facebook Ads Donation form is slow to load, causing a high bounce rate.

Eliminate render-blocking JavaSCriptand CSS in above the fold content.

8,000 2.35% 25% more users complete a donation

Hypothesis Template

Based on <data discovered> we

believe <issue> is causing <undesirable

result>. We believe <change to be tested> will

help resolve <issue> and cause <desired

result>.

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Prioritize or Rank your Tests

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Test Plan

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Step 7Design your challengers

Habitat’s Test Challengers

Donation copy refocusing

• Test: “Why your donation transforms a family’s life”

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Habitat’s Test Challengers

Donation copy reformatting

• Existing: green box, “skip this”

• Test: black text, white background

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Habitat’s Test Challengers

• Hypothesis 2: site-wide content that convinces/reassures

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Habitat’s Test Challengers

Tactic: Make key site elements easier to understand

• Test: de-jargon (example: “affiliates”)

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Habitat’s test challengers

Tactic: Make key info easier to find

• Test: standard navigation terms

• Test: reorganize site navigation

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HRW: Drive More Visitors to Donation Forms

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+119% in visits to

donation form

BrightFocus: Get Conversions on Deep Content Pages

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ADA: Reformatted Donation Form Experience

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Old form

New form

Step 8Launch your experiment

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Habitat Test Results

Make key info easier to understand

Test: De-jargon the local search tool

Result: Donations up 22% (p < 0.01)

Make key info easier to find

Test: Use standard navigation term “About Us”

Result: Donations up 34% (p < 0.01)

Test: Reorganize navigation for scannability

Result: Donations up 42% (p < 0.001)

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Habitat Test Results

Donation copy refocusing

Test: Focus, “Why your donation transforms a family’s life”

Tested both completion rate anddollar amounts chosen

Result: Donors chose larger dollar

amounts (p < 0.05)

Donation copy reformatting

Test: No green box; standard black text on white background

Result: Donations up 48% (p < 0.05)

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BrightFocus: Raise Average Gift and Revenue

Existing Gift String

NEW Gift String

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BrightFocus: 85% Increase YOY for Gifts Over $151

Step 9Transfer learnings

to other media

BrightFocus Foundation AdWords TestUsing Google AdWords to test how effective different copy variations are at improving click-through-rates.

Control Variants

+25.2%

CTR Improvement

-6.9%

CTR Reduction

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AdWords Copy Used in Email CaptureBrightFocus rolled out “Don’t Miss Out” language to email capture form and saw an

improvement in email conversion.

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The Spaghetti Tests

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What worked for Habitat?

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Process outlined today

• What are our site visitors’ needs?

• What stops potential supporters from donating?

• What info would persuade/reassure them?

• What do industry-wide studies tell us?

• What are our hypotheses about what works, and why?

• What specific changes will address those needs?

• What happened when we A/B tested those changes?

• What do the results tell us about motivating our donors?

#17NTCtestingtips

NTC Housekeeping!SESSION HASHTAG

#17NTCtestingtips

COLLABORATIVE NOTES

http://po.st/17NTCtestingtips

EVALUATION LINKhttp://bfred.us/2mtfTmz

1.5 Credits for CAE and CFRE

@BeaconfireRED

@Habitat_org

Visit us at Booth 517 to get your Tips, Tools and Checklist for Testing