Four Integration Recommendations

Fundraising programs that promote interaction between communication channels — primarily phone, mail and Web — yield higher-value donors.

This was the topic at another session on channel integration at the DMA Nonprofit Federation conference in Washington last month, which featured the unveiling of the study “Integrating Online Marketing (eCRM) With Direct Mail Fundraising,” co-authored by Convio and StrategicOne.

A case study analyzing the effect of eCRM on donor behavior for the SPCA of Texas, the study found that donors touched through multiple communication channels have a higher long-term value, retention and lifetime value, whether they start as direct-mail-only donors or as online-only donors.

In the session, Steve Bradford, direct marketing manager for Prison Fellowship Ministries, Mike Rogers, CEO of StrategicOne, and Vinay Bhagat, founder and CSO at Convio, presented case studies supporting the study’s findings and tips on how to use eCRM to optimize integrated fundraising efforts.

Some of the things they recommended to session attendees included:

1) Collect e-mail addresses through all forms of communication, e.g., direct-mail reply devices (specifically thank-yous and annual tax statements), special events, and inbound and outbound telephone contact.

2) Use mail, radio, TV and telemarketing to champion the online medium. Offline campaigns reminding constituents of the plethora of information on your Web site can be used as a source of new name acquisition.

3) Drive donors to customized landing pages or micro-sites through direct-mail campaigns. Coordinate the brand and message of the landing page with the theme of a direct-mail campaign, but create landing pages that supplement — not regurgitate — the direct-mail component, providing additional details for those who visit them.

4) Collect mail addresses for online visitors. When a new e-address is acquired through the mail — and vice versa — a customized communication stream that integrates online and offline communications should be established to convert one-channel donors to dual-channel donors.

For a complete copy of the study, www.strategic-one.com/Integrated_Marketing_White_Paper.pdf