Integrated Direct Response BasicsFebruary 20, 2015 | 11am – 12pm Eastern

Speakers: Andrew Magnuson & Sherry Minton

Thank you to our session sponsor:

SPEAKERS

Andrew Magnuson, Director – Digital Fundraising, American Heart Association

Sherry Minton, Director – Direct Response, American Heart Association

Let us know what you’re thinking!

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Agenda

• Have a better understanding of the goals, roles, and motivations guiding each “side of the “house”.

• Be able to identify the gaps in your own integrated direct response program• Understand the next steps needed in order to better integrate• Have greater empathy for the roles, strengths, and challenges of your cross-

channel counterpart.

At the end of this discussion, you will:

So, What’s the Problem?Years of misunderstanding, organizational misalignment, and mistrust have made it hard for offline and online marketers to play well together. Why?

“Online Gal just wants to try shiny new things.”

“It doesn’t raise that much money in the scheme of things”

“Online is focused on style over substance”

“Lack of sophistication”

“Doesn’t understand what donorsreally want.”

“It’s needs to be all about hard ROI”

“Offline Guy is more focused on typeface than interesting engagement.”

“Unwilling to try new things.”

“Thinks I’m trying to steal their cheese.”

“Doesn’t understand importance of engagement and cultivation.”

“Offline Guys is just focused on ROI”

“Doesn’t understand what donors reallywant”

“It can’t just be about hard ROI”

A horse of a different color…

Shared Goals

• Focus on metrics, measurable results.• Challenged to acquire, retain, and upgrade

donors.• Require a clear, compelling value proposition• Attempts to drive behavior towards a call-to-

action• Iteration is king: need to constantly test and

optimize

Shared Challenges

• Limited resources• Complicated data environment• Segregated infrastructure• Requirements to justify costs vs. results• Competition for donors’ attention and dollars

…Is still pretty much a horse.

6

Role in this worldC

ost

Efficacy of $’s Raised

SEO/SEM

Online Banners

Retargeting

Email Appeal

DM Appeal

Telemarketing

Major Giving Officer

ProspectingDM

Acquisition

Conversion

Print Banners

Can We Be Friends?

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Organization are usually not aligned to best enable the partnership of Offline and Online. However, the biggest hurdles are usually self-imposed. What does it take to “Play Nice?”

• Respect the role (and value) the other plays in your shared universe

• Be open to learning from one another (and attend each other’s meetings!)

• Have a shared goal

• Respect each other’s strengths (and learn to exploit them)

• Respect each other’s unique challenges

• Understand YOUR shared key metric for both Online and Offline fundraising

What it means to “Integrate”

• There is no single playbook for integration• Find the overlaps in audience focus on unified

donor experience• Find the gaps in audience get out of the way• Coordinating segmentation is hard. We have to do it

anyway.

Highly Unified Mission & Audience Highly Complex Mission & Audience

Clarity of Value Proposition

Shared design + campaign assets

Emphasis on timing

Define Donor Experience

Identify donor overlap

Testing/Research

Multiple Donor Types

Suppression Segmentation

Threshold/Upgrade Marketing

Triage Resources

Shared Priorities

What Success Looks Like

The outcomes of a successful integration strategy should differ between organizations. However, they all have these in common:• Unity around “Core Value Proposition”• Consistent donor experience across all channels• Cross-channel metrics that inform success

The experience in one channel informs and influences the donor experience in another channel.

Example: Honor/Memorial Giving• We know their “orientation” starting data point & “persona” creation• Immediate online follow-up/thank you• Offline receipt, with longer thank-you (further explains donor impact)• Online stewardship, surveys, and insight to donor impact• “Close the sale” with offline direct response

Example: Project HOPE

• Focused first on developing “Core Value Proposition” 105x leverage offer.

• Became central theme of:• Direct Mail Appeals• Offline Newsletter• Online Newsletter• Email appeals• Homepage banner• General Giving form

• Results:• DM up 30%• Online up 50%• Homepage bounce rates down 25%• Donation form conversion rates up 15%

Offer development was “channel agnostic” and focused on core marketing principles that apply to all channels:• Instantly intuitive• Donor-centric• Provides line-of-sight to gift impact

Next Steps

1. Define your shared goal (conversion rate, retention rate, etc)2. Articulate the very best donor experience you can imagine, and map these “touch

points” across all channels3. Develop shared assets along the conversion funnel4. Figure out the segmentation or data gaps5. Measure results intra-channel and cross-channel6. Identify population segments based on behavior 7. Adjust tactical mix based on shared performance and cost metrics

This all sounds great. But where should we start?

Continue the discussion!

• The vision of the IMAB is to promote a discussion of the various successes and failures related to integrated marketing: understandings, trends, benefits and adoptions of integrated marketing activities within the nonprofit community.

• Visit us at imabgroup.net today!