6 Multichannel Integration Recommendations for Fundraisers

Two weeks ago, nonprofit constituent engagement solutions provider Convio unveiled a new study on nonprofit integrated multichannel marketing. The study focused on five core areas:

• Integrated marketing metrics
• Integrated marketing best practices
• Activity levels in new media
• Organizational strategy
• Integrated marketing priorities

Not surprisingly, the results revealed that there is an overwhelming consensus that an integrated marketing approach makes the most sense in today's fundraising landscape, and the benefits are extensive — unification of messages across channels strengthens the brand, can cut through the clutter and increase response rates, engage new audiences, grow revenue, save money, etc.

With that in mind, Convio offers six recommendations at the end of the study to successfully integrating all marketing channels to communicate with donors and supporters.

Don't be intimidated
Given the amount of marketing channels out there and the wide range of metrics to measure them, multichannel integration can seem overwhelming. But research shows that both large and small organizations can succeed and have succeeded at integrated marketing. The key is to take the necessary steps to successfully and efficiently integrate all channels. Then have the patience to see results.

Before heavily investing in new media, master basic online-offline integration
The biggest buzzwords in the fundraising industry for the past two years or so are social media and mobile. While both channels absolutely should be explored and provide excellent engagement resources, the best organizations master the basics of online and integrated marketing first. It's tempting to over-invest in the new, shiny mediums, but that's a foolish approach if you aren't already well-versed in multichannel integration.

Establish the right key metrics
That means cross-channel metrics, not just single-channel metrics. Looking at direct-mail response, online metrics and e-mail metrics in silos just doesn't cut it these days. More focus is needed across the board on donor migration from one channel to another, as well as engagement and retention across channels. Convio suggests that larger organizations track just about every metric available and analyze them closely, while smaller organizations with smaller budgets should focus on the metrics that really define integrated marketing progress.

Align your organization
It's crucial to have buy-in from the top down for multichannel integration to work. The most successful organizations have embraced it as a key philosophy from the CEO down to the program staffers. Successfully integrated nonprofits have several common traits. For the most part, they:

• are constituent-centric
• have established goals to measure success across channels and programs
• incent employees to work together
• align online and offline functions under one leader

Ensure your systems enable your strategy
Your systems should allow you to engage donors consistently across channels. Marketing messages should not solely be designed with one channel in mind. Your systems also need to provide analytics to make sense of all the data to drive sound marketing decisions. Single-channel views are not as thorough as cross-channel data today.

Test, test, test
Just like with everything in life, some things may work better for one organization than another, so it's vital to test which practices work best for you. No matter what level of integration your organization is at right now, there is always room for improvement. So continue testing new tools and techniques using integrated online and offline marketing to engage constituents. You can't learn and/or improve without continually testing both new and old techniques.

To download the full report, click here.