6 Successful Online Engagement

8/9/2019 6 Successful Online Engagement

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Successful Online Engagement


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What is Online Engagement?

Online engagement is reaching outto constituents using the Internet

The tools most commonly used inonline communications include

email messaging, internet forms,and websites


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Why Should I Care About OnlineCommunications?

Over 70 percent of Americans go online everyday

Over the course of 2004, daily Internet use grew at a rapid ratefrom 52 percent to 70 percent of all Americans logging in dailyto the Internet

Despite age differences in percentage of people using theInternet, the growth of Internet usage is seen across all agegroups

Email use is the number one activity and time consumer forthe vast majority of Internet users

Pew Internet and American Life Project, September of 2005, found thaton any given day, about 52 percent of American internet users aresending and receiving email, up from 45 percent in June of 2004.

(L. Rainie and J. Horrigan, Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2005)


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Advantages of Online Communications

Its a quick way to get in touch with your constituents

Its a way to reach constituents that use the Internet astheir primary mode of communications

Its another way to fundraise

Its a vehicle to mobilize constituents to influence statelegislators

You get immediate feedback about which constituentsare opening emails, clicking on the links, and filling outforms


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Advantages of Online Fundraising

Creates another way for constituents to donate to yourorganization

Designing and sending online appeals cuts out directmail costs of stamps and materials

Online fundraising appeals can be used to drawattention to mail materials that potential donors are

about to receive orhave recently received

Creates an area where people can always go to donate


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Engaging Constituents to Influence Legislators

University of California Case study In 2004, facing the biggest budget cuts in its history, UC implemented a

statewide advocacy campaign through email

The UC Office of the President sent a message to UC alumni with an urgent call toaction

Legislators were impressed by the thousands of messages they received The campaign secured statewide meetings and hearings that contributed to a budget

agreement between the University and the State of California

In that same year, UC also deployed an action alert allowing constituentsto express opposition to an amendment of a state bill that would haveunfairly increased energy utility bills on campuses statewide

This campaign generated 125,000 emails to legislators

Within three days there was a withdrawal of the amendment

From June 2004 to June 2005, more than 160,000 emails and faxes weresent to California legislative targets on behalf of the University


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Timing is Everything

Whether its a fundraising ask, apolitical action alert to an upcoming

vote, or a news story affecting yourcollege or university, timing matters

Email messaging allows you to quickly

communicate to your constituents ontime sensitive issues


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Internet Users Age Group

On average a larger percentage

of younger people use the

Internet(Source: Pew Internet & American Life

Project, September 2005 TrackingSurvey.)

Donors from a largeinternational aid organization

surveyed th

eir donors in th

e fallof 2003 and found their Internetdonors to be considerablyyounger than their mail donors

When surveyed again in the fallof 2005, they found similarpercentages for Internet donors

ge Group

Internet

Donors

2003)

Mail

Donors

2003)

Internet

Donors

2005)

3 6% 3% %

3 - 9 7% % 3%

-6 3 % 9% 37%

6 -7 % 3% %

7 + % % 8%

ge Group

% Group hat

se Internet

8- 9 8 %

3 - 9 83%

-6 7 %

6 + 3 %


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Internet Tracking Technology

Being able to track how constituents respondto Internet communications can improve theeffectiveness with which you engage your

constituents

Internet tracking technology allows you to: Track which constituents are opening your

communications

Track which constituents are clicking on the linksprovided in an email

Track which constituents are taking action by filling outforms they reach via email link


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Measuring Success

By the number of people who opened emails

sent to th

em? By the number of people who clicked on thelinks in an email?

By the number of emails/faxes sent to statelegislators?

Did the messages sent have an effect on policy? Did the messages build a stronger relationship with

state legislators?

By the amount of money raised in an onlinefundraising campaign? Offline campaign?

How do we measure online communicationssuccess?


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eNonprofit Benchmarks Study

http://www.e-nonprofitbenchmarksstudy.com

The eNonprofit Benchmarks Study, released February of 2006,provides a snapshot of key metrics and benchmarks fornonprofit e-mail communications, online fundraising and onlineadvocacy. Data was gathered from the following three sources:

Data was primarily taken from an in-depth review of statistics from15 nonprofit organizations -- six environmental organizations, sixcivil/legal rights organizations, and three international aidorganizations.

Aggregate data was obtained from Convio, GetActive Software andKintera -- three major providers of online communications tools fornonprofits.

Additional data was collected via an online survey of th

e broadernonprofit community (to which 85 organizations responded . Thesurvey included data from nine higher education institutions.

The study helps organizations begin to understand how to lookat and analyze their own online communications data. Itprovides context and comparisons for organizations doing theirown ongoing reporting.


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Tracking E-Mail Messaging

An organized tracking system is essential in order toanalyze, evaluate, test, and improve the overalleffectiveness of your online communications program.

Message

Title Audience

Type of

ommunication

ounce

Rate

pen

Rate

lick-Through

Rate

nsu scri e

Rate

Pageompletion

Rate

Response

Rate

M

W E

N 6 3

M R F N 3 8 3 9 8

M 3

F E

3 3 8 6

M

E

3 88 7

M

W E F

3 7 7


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Key oints to Track

Message

ReceivedMessageOpened

Clickedon Link

CompletedAction Page

Open Rate Click-Through Rate Page Completion Rate

Response Rate


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Open ate Screen Shot


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Priority Statistics: Open ate

Open ate

Definition: Unique Individuals who Open the

mail / Unique ecipients What Affects Open ates?

Subject Line

Quality of List

Timeliness

elationship with Sender


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Click-Through ate Screen Shot


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Priority Statistics: Click Through ate

Click Through ate Definition: Unique Individuals Clicking Link /

Unique ecipients

Common Types of Links ead ore ull Story Available lsewhere

Call to Action mail action

Phone action

Tell a friend action vent SVP

undraising

Survey

Share your story

Click through rates can be highly variable


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Page Completion ate Screen Shot


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Priority Statistics: Completion

Completion ate Definition: umber of people taking

action / Unique individuals visiting thepage

What affects completion rates? Content & layout of the page itself

xperience whether people have used thatpage before

Context whether the email messageproperly prepared people for the action


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Priority Statistics: esponse ate

esponse ate Definition: umber of people taking

action / Individuals who received theemail message

What Affects eturn ates Topic

Urgency Writing

History

Audience


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What Are Some Average Open ates?

eNonprofit Benchmarks Study open rates for all in-depth study partnersranged from 15 to 45 , while the average open rate across all partnerswas 25

Aggregate vendor data reported an average open rate of 19 across all oftheir clients (over 1,000 organizations

The self-report nonprofit survey reported an average open rate of 34

Open ates

Septem er 2004 to Septem er 2005

All artners

Average

All artners

edian

il % %

il % %il % %

F r i i il % %

l i % %

G r % %

r r % %


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Typical esponse ates

Not surprisingly, you can expect significantly lowerfundraising response rates

Again, using segmentation can increase response rates

Weekday did not have a

significant impact on response

rates

esponse ates

eptem er to eptem er

All artners

Average

All artners

edianR R

R R

R R M

R R M

R R M

Weekday esponse ate

M


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Page Completion ates

Fundraising page completion rates tend to belower than advocacy page completion rates

Here again, we see the positive impact ofsegmentation

Page Completion ates

eptember to eptember

ll Partners

verage

ll Partners

edian

RR

R M

R M

R M


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Message Length/Grade Level

How long is too long? Howshort is too short?

In the Benchmarks study,messages under 250 wordshad on average a 2.5 percentlower response rate

Except extremely shortmessages, the high performersvaried in message length

Does the grade level at whichmessages are written matter?

No, every organization has adifferent constituency sowriting level should be basedon an organizationsconstituents


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Successful Online Advocacy

The Benchmarks study found the followingto positively impact the number ofadvocacy actions taken by constituents

ultiple advocacy emails per month Larger list sizes

Longer duration of online advocacy program

Larger online communications budget

verge hole List

essages (per month)

verage dvocacy

ctions

Number of In epth

tudy artners

Less han One ,

One to o ,

o or ore ,


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Online Fundraising Gift Amounts

A erage Gift Si e Median Gift Si e

AllPartners $ $

Environment $6 $69

ight $ $77

International Aid $ $

ist Si e

A erage Annual

Online onation

otals

Median Annual

Online onation

otals

nder $ $

-7 $ 96 $7

ver7 $9 6 $

In the broader nonprofitsur ey, organi ationswith larger email listsraised significantlymore money.

In the Benchmarksstudy, both the in-depth study partnergroup and theaggregate vendor datahad an average giftsize of almost 100dollars.


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Online Fundraising Gift Amounts

Annual Online

onation

otals

er Gi

ing

e

el

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

All G

ups i

t l Ri ts I t

ti

l

A i

$5,000 O

!

$1,000 - $4,999

$250 - $999

$50 - $249

Gifts $50

Annual"

um#

er of Online$

onations%

er Gi& ing'

e& el

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

All G( ) ups 0 12

i( ) 1 3 4 1 t5 l Ri6 7 ts I1 t4 ( 1 5 ti) 1 5 lAi8

$5,0005 1 8 O2

4 (

$1,000 - $4,999

$249- $999

$50

- $249

Under$50

Between 60 and 70 percent of online donation totals for en ironmental andrights groups came in gifts that were under 250 dollars.

For en ironmental and rights groups, donations under 250 constitutedalmost 95 percent of the num er of gifts they recei ed o erall.


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Benchmarks Best Practices

Budget for Success or the in depth study partners, we saw a clear relationship between the onlinecommunications budget and two key indicators of success: the amount raised inonline donations and the total number of advocacy actions taken.

Length Your E-Mail List to Increase Online Advocacy andFundraising Impact

The study found that organizations with larger e mail lists were better able to achieveonline fundraising success, and saw significantly greater results in terms of onlineadvocacy outcomes.

Anticipate and Track List Churn When planning for e mail list growth, organizations must anticipate list churn.

With 2 percent of all e mail subscribers becoming unreachable, on average, withina 12 month period, it is critical to compensate for list churn and substantially grow an

e mail list.

Improve etention of List Subscribers Organizations with a greater percentage of subscribers retained on e mail lists for

longer than one year saw higher action participation rates and generated morecitizen letters.

Organizations should pursue list management strategies to increase the longevity ofe mail list subscribers by increasing retention rates and reducing churn.


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Benchmarks Best Practices

Carefully TrackMarketing and ecruitment Efforts Successful return on investment analysis absolutely depends on an organization

establishing careful tracking mechanisms up front, before online marketingprograms are launched.

Test Optimizing Day of the Week for Advocacy Message

Launch

Act Quickly to espond to Timely Events Some of the success that international aid organizations had with online

fundraising in 2004 2005 was due to the dramatic surge in online fundraising insupport of Asian tsunami relief efforts. This was made possible, in part, byreacting quickly to this emergency, to make information about relief efforts anddonation opportunities available via organizational Web sites and to e mail

subscribers. All organizations should have rapid response fundraising plans in place to move

quickly in response to urgent events and give subscribers opportunities to donateonline.

Carefully Target and Segment E-MailMessages To boost response rates, organizations should develop strategies to more

carefully target and track e mail messages.


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List Segmentation By TransactionalHistory

Segmenting by transactional history allows youto send messages to people based on their pastperformance Donors

irst time donors epeat donors

Core donors

on donors

Activists

irst time activists Core activists

Donor Activists constituents who have both given moneyand made actions

ews eaders


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List Segmentation By Interest Area

Segmenting by constituents interests allowsyou to tailor the content of your messages todifferent audiences likes and dislikes

Athletics

usic

Theater

Art

Science esearch

Alumni/Special Events

reek Life


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Segmentation By Demographics

Demographic information allows you to furthersegment your audience based on individual,family and lifestyle characteristics

Age

ender

Income

Households with Children


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Where Do I Get A Hold of This Interest Areaand Demographic Information?

Alumni Database

Donor Database

Individual Schools and Colleges

Online/Offline Surveys

Census Data

Voter File Data


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Online Survey Tools

http://www.surveymonkey.com/

http://info.zoomerang.com/

http://www.surveylink.com/

http://www.supersurvey.com/

6 Successful Online Engagement

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