Are Your Online and Offline Efforts in Sync?

• The website looks so different from the direct mail that she thinks she's arrived at the wrong place. She goes somewhere else.
• She can't find the "Donate Now" button because it's camouflaged by a tasteful and congruent brand color. Or there isn't one at all.
• She can't find the offer that came into her mailbox. It was simple, affordable and concrete. The website talks about the conceptual underpinnings of the organization or high-flown claims about how cutting-edge it is. The mail was about meals for hungry children, but the website is about "hope" for "emerging communities." (Don't laugh; I'm not making this up!)
• It's so hard to find, fill out or complete the donation form that she gives up.

Direct-mail response rates have been dropping across the fundraising industry for several years now. One of the things driving this is the new channel-crossing behavior. I've seen figures saying as much as 30 percent of donors who respond to direct mail do so via the Web.