What’s the Value of an Appended Email Address? A Client Case Study.
posted by Catherine Algeri on Thursday, September 17, 2009
Those people coming to your non-profit and saying, “Yes, please, email me!” have long been the holy grail of email list building. The idea is that these people are the most likely to respond and donate to your future email campaigns. After all, they sought you out, not the other way around.
But what happens when it is the other way around, and you seek email addresses for donors on your file? What if most of your names are from email append? How will this effect the performance of your donor file?
Our client Latuman, Maska, Neill & Company decided to tackle those very questions!
And the answer….
… is pretty exciting!
While we fully recommend reading the whole story Can You E-Append Your Way into Greater Donor Value? here are a few of the highlights of the Lautman, Maska, Neill & Company analysis:
Client Background:
* Non-profit in question has an email file.
* 90% of their e-mail addresses were acquired through e-appends.
Performance of Donors with an Email Address:
· Make more gifts throughout the year (1.65 gifts versus 1.24 gifts) …
· Give larger gifts ($25.04 versus $19.94) …
· Have a 28% higher multi–year retention rate …
· Gave almost double the revenue in their first year of giving …
… Regardless of whether the person supplied the email address or it was obtained through an e-append!
Even on a file where 90% of the email addresses came through email append, the non-profit saw great results!
More gifts, larger gifts, and long-term gifts. That’s the power of an email append!
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How is Your Email Marketing Program Stacking Up?
posted by Jocelyn on Tuesday, September 08, 2009
According to new survey by Forrester Research, ”Email marketing is having a banner year as marketers:
1) grow their lists with the promise of ‘green marketing’;
2) turn on more and smarter programs to boost sluggish sales (donations - my emphasis);
3) shift money to email from direct mail; and
4) improve email effectiveness by linking it to other channels like search or user-generated ratings and reviews.”
How is your email marketing program stacking up?
Jocelyn
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You’ve Got a Big List of Online Subscribers. Now What?
posted by Jocelyn on Thursday, September 03, 2009
So you’ve got a growing online list - folks who’ve subscribed to your e-newsletter, signed a petition or done additional business with you online.
Now what?
Well, if you’re like most organizations you keep emailing them. After all you’ve won permission to stay in touch. But what if email isn’t enough to take them to the next level. What if it’s not turning them into donors?
Ans: Try sending them a piece of mail. Yes, that’s right. Trying putting your online subscribers into your offline acquisition mix.
How?
Do a reverse email append. A reverse email append is the process appending postal addresses to your email file.
Here’s how it works.
In summary, if you’re interested in deepening your relationships with your online subscribers you may want to reach out to them via the mail.
We can help!
Cheers!
Jocelyn
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New Study Says that Email Appending is an Effective List-Building Tactic
posted by Jocelyn on Thursday, August 13, 2009
I new study called Online Tactics & Success | An Examination of the Obama for America New Media Campaign by The Willburforce Foundation, The Brainerd Foundation and M+R Strategic Services examines the the key elements of success in the Obama for America Campaign. One tactic which they highlight for list-building is email append.
List Appends
A list append is a simple process: an individual’s name and mailing address are matched against commercially available data to obtain their email address.
Individuals ‘appended’ in this way are then sent an email message by the sponsoring organization offering them the opportunity to opt-out from future communications. The Obama campaign used the email append process to obtain email addresses for supporters for whom they only had mailing addresses.
According to Andrew Bleeker, Director of Internet Advertising, it is “key to append people who have done something positive for your organization – made a gift
offline, volunteered. These people will perform… Don’t do this with people who have never done anything for you, even if they are good targets for other reasons.”
Many nonprofits have successfully used an email append to acquire email addresses for their direct mail donors, and OFA’s experience seems to reinforce that this is an effective tactic.
Of course, we are biased because email appending is our signature service. That said, many of our clients are having success with email appends. Specifically, building your online list with an email append is very cost effective and can help you:
This last point, may be the most important because, as we all know, multi-channel donors are the holy grail.
Cheers!
Jocelyn
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Time to Wade Into Social Media
posted by Jocelyn on Tuesday, August 04, 2009
I had the pleasure of talking to a group on nonprofit fundraisers, marketers and advocates at The Bridge Conference in July. Here is a copy of my presentation and coverage of the session in Fundraising Success.
Hope it helps!
Jocelyn
Time to Wade (Cautiously) Into Social Media
By Abny Santicola
Social media has turned the giving pyramid on its head. With the traditional pyramid (occasional givers and event participants at the bottom, then annual/recurrent givers, then major givers, and planned and deferred givers at the top), fundraisers knew who their audience was and had a pretty good idea of how each segment would give.
Now, that’s all less clear, and those at the bottom of the pyramid require nearly the same amount of time, energy and attention as those at the top.
So said Jocelyn Harmon, director of business development at Triplex Interactive, in the session “Bridging Your Direct Marketing and Social Media Activities for Fundraising Success” at the 2009 Bridge Conference held just outside Washington, D.C., in late July.
In a tough economy, with limited financial and human resources to work with, how should you allocate your time?
Harmon said when people ask her if they should have a Facebook profile, she recommends answering the following questions:
Understand the capabilities of the different media, think about what you want to do and fit your goal to a tool. For example:
Content is king online, and it takes a lot of time to create. According to ThePort, the average nonprofit is allocating 25 percent of one full time employee to social media.
Harmon recommended that an organization first ensure that it has a solid Web site with a usable interface that gets people to where it wants them to go. Then focus on getting a reliable e-mail program in place. Lastly, wade into social media carefully.
