Planning your charity’s marketing campaign
Last year, research from the Data & Marketing Association (DMA) found that charity campaign effectiveness had been declining over time, peaking at 3.4 effects per campaign in 2019 and dropping to 2.3 effects by 2021 (read more about that in the Late Autumn 22 issue of this magazine).
So what can charities do in order to make the most of their marketing campaigns? At the heart of effective supporter engagement is a combination of data, creativity and technology – and acquisition campaign planning is one activity that combines these three areas to great effect for your charity campaigns. This article will explore what good planning campaign should deliver and how to go about implementing it.
Challenges to donor acquisition
In addition to the socio-economic challenges that charities face like any other business – such as the current cost of living crisis – there are several other issues which they face on an ongoing basis:
SHARE OF WALLET. The competition for donor acquisition within the sector has led to calls for the merging of charities where their causes align, involving the smaller, more local charities which are unable to keep afloat during an uncertain economic climate. These provide frontline services within their local communities and those who rely on the assistance of these charities will feel a direct impact.
CONVERSION. Conversion of donors onto a regular giving (RG) programme has long been a significant challenge for the majority of charities. The initial (often cash) donation given by a supporter, while helping to provide a cash injection, will often not allow the charity to break even.
ATTRITION. Donor attrition, either due to an ageing donor base or economic hardship, means that many charities suffer the “leaky bucket” syndrome, losing more donors annually than they can recruit.
INSIGHT. Understanding the motivation of their current donor base is critical for charities to be able to try to recruit prospective supporters who may deliver longer term value.
DIGITAL. Many charities have long been behind the curve with digital marketing, often due to a lack of in-house resource and skillsets and limited budgets. In addition, an internal view that the digital audience is not an appropriate target market has been a hindrance, although this has been addressed in recent times by a huge number of charities which were unable to fundraise via face to face or mass participation channels during Covid.
The requirement for accurate data and personalised targeting is greater than ever and will help with identifying prospective donors digitally in conjunction with traditional direct mail and/or as standalone activity.
Planning acquisition campaigns
Acquisition campaign planning entails sourcing and selecting the optimal media platforms (e.g. print, digital, email, telemarketing, face to face, TV, radio, outdoor and social) for acquiring and retaining new donors. When planning a campaign, it’s best to think in terms of multi-channel activities, as no single channel works in isolation.
When all channels are planned simultaneously, all the insights derived from each channel can be applied to future campaigns irrespective of channel. Communication never gets lost, and you can be confident that every pound spent is being used in the most cost-effective channel.
Ideally, planning should also be data driven, drawing on historical results, donor/supporter insight, and the planning expertise of a data marketing agency, which can help to maximise return on investment, drive response rates, and increase volumes campaign-on-campaign.
Results of good campaign planning
The key aim for charities is to deliver long term value, sometimes called “Acquisition through to Advocacy”. Communication cycles will vary by charity but can typically include an acquisition piece (e.g., direct mail, doordrop), which may include a reminder 2-4 weeks later via the same or a different channel.
Once acquired (with an initial cash donation or better, a regular gift), the supporter may then receive ongoing communications such as a welcome letter/call, and then up to 4-6 additional communications in the first year, depending on their preferences.
These may be information based, showing the ongoing work of the charity, but they can also include additional appeals. If recruited on cash giving, donors will receive another communication to try to convert them to regular giving, or a call with the same objective. A regular giving supporter may receive an upgrade call or communication after their first year of giving with the aim of increasing their regular donation.
Good campaign planning should deliver a number of things: firstly, well-performing campaigns with improving response rates across a range of media. It should also deliver new thinking, ideas and innovation on how to keep campaigns not just on track but improving over time.
Better planning will deliver results based recommendations and accurate forecasts, provided in a timely manner in a digestible format. With strong project management in place, tight timescales can be met and will allow for plenty of time for sign-off and approval.
Implementing a campaign plan
The first thing to do is to identify your campaign objectives: what do you want to achieve with your campaign? Do you know who your target audience is? What budget do you have, and do you have scope for new ideas and testing? You should also think about what your primary KPIs (key performance indicators) for measurement are, e.g. response rate, average donation, cost per new donor etc.
Understanding the above will enable you to formulate a strategy that will deliver a campaign to target and on time, and which also allows for a better understanding of the campaign objectives.
Considerations to take into account when formulating your campaign include:
- Budget – how much money do you have and for how long?
- Campaign volume – how many prospective or existing donors do you want to reach?
- Timings – how long do you want your campaign to run for and when?
- Audience targeting – who do want to approach (demographic, geographic region etc.)?
- Your existing supporters, including their profile – how do want to approach these?
- Ask level – how much (in terms of a donation) are you asking for? Is it a one-off or regular donation?
- Creative – depending on how many channels you’ll be using, how many different creatives will you need?
- Testing – can you test, refine and feed results into your campaign?
- Channel overlap – where do channels overlap? You want to ensure they complement each other without cannibalising each other.
- Seasonality – is there a seasonal requirement or tie-in?
- External factors – what’s happening in the wider world and could it impact your campaign effectiveness?
- Online and offline – how can these best be combined for maximum campaign efficiency?
- Your short term and long term objectives – be clear on these and how they work together.
So quite a lot to consider!
When measuring and reporting your campaign, the metrics you should be looking to capture include response rate; average donation; ROI (return on investment); new vs existing donations; cost per new donor; lifetime value (LTV); second gift rate; halo effect (creating brand loyalty) with other media; coded and trackable; analytical tools such as Tableau / Power BI / Google Analytics; and final channel attribution.
Stay flexible
It’s important that your campaign stays flexible. As organisations and individuals, we don’t work in a vacuum, but plans are just that. Be aware of the external environment and conditions that might impact your campaign results, and be ready to change plans to reflect these. Understand respective donor behaviour, and test and learn different channels and techniques to enable lower risk options to be implemented. You can also implement audience listening with internal and external stakeholders, via social media, for example.
Testing, learning and implementing enables campaigns to be improved incrementally. As a team, brainstorm changes and ideas. Keep focused on one objective and have a fixed, measurable hypothesis.
Utilise segmentation – that is, identify and categorise your donors so that you can personalise communications to them accordingly – and track campaign delivery and results. These should be incorporated back into the control pack so that they can be tested again. Don’t be afraid to reject test outcomes if they’re not meeting your objectives.
Printed media
Charities can see incredible campaign results with printed media such as direct mail (DM) or partially addressed mail (PAM). In fact, print is the leading channel for the delivery of new donors to help to continue to grow your supporter base.
There are a number of things you can do to make the most of your printed media. Identify its purpose: be very clear about what result you want to get from it and have a very clear call to action that reflects this. Decide if it is prize-led or cause-led. Ensure that it is personalised – this is where the data you hold on your prospective donors is invaluable. Vary your asks so that you’re not repeatedly asking for the same thing.
Practically, think about ways to save on postage, select the most appropriate paper weight and how to achieve standout designs that will capture attention. QR codes can also be used to great effect, driving people to your website or a specific landing page with more information.
Data and historical insight
In summary, every charity campaign should be led by data and historical insight. You can then secure incremental improvements and lower risk with “test and learn” campaigns.
Ensure you select the channels that are in line with your campaign’s objectives and most suited to your target audience. Document campaign performance for future reference, including recommendations, and stay aware of the external environment and how that may influence your media plans. And don’t be afraid to change them if they’re not working.
With these considerations in mind, you’ll be able to deliver effective charity campaigns every time.
