The Digital Donor

Confusing Activity with Productivity

2011-11-04T08:31:00.002-05:00

I have a terribly bad habit. When I'm on an airplane, I have a tendency to be a "Nosy Parker" and try to read the magazine article, newspaper-- or even better-- powerpoint sildes of the people sitting in front of me. I'm fascinated by what occupies the attention of my incidental traveling companions.

So I'm sitting here, somewhere between Minneapolis and Dallas, spying the deck of the dude in front of me. Here's the headline of the slide he's been stuck on for the past 65 minutes:

"We are starting the process of identifying the implementation roadmap now, but it will not be complete until February 2012" (It is currently October 2011)

And then here is the schedule that followed:

October - Pre-draft of roadmap version 1.0
November - Workshop to refine roadmap 1.0; refine timeline, activities, and resource allocations
December - Review version 2.0 with Steering Committee; refine timeline, activities, and resource allocations
January - Incorporate findings from architecture assessment; refine timeline, activities, and resource allocations
February - Seek approvals for business cases and roadmap version 4.0

Really? Five months, just to get a plan together. Now, admittedly, I have no clue what this roadmap is for. But I think this is a good metaphor for how we often meet for the sake of meeting, and desperately quest for consensus when what we probably need is just strong leadership. To me, this seems like a throwback to a time where life moved much slower. In the digital, ever-connected age, we need to be agile and move quickly. What is cutting edge today is old hat tomorrow.

Or, it may be that we satisfy ourselves with activity when we should be striving for productivity. I read a study recently that suggested that when we talk about our goals and plans, subconsciously it is just as satisfying as actually doing them. So maybe we need to talk (and meet) less and fixate on actually doing more. Perhaps we need to ask for forgiveness instead of begging for approval.

Or maybe I just need to mind my own business on airplanes.

The Human Assembly Line

2011-10-18T23:29:00.000-05:00

If there is one thing that absolutely terrifies me, it is the assembly line. The thought of pressing the same button every day, week, month, year, absolutely nauseates me. Well, living in a post-industrial America, I shouldn't have to fear that any more...or should I?

As I survey the way that most businesses are organized, it is very comparable to a human assembly line. For some reason, we think that the best way to organize effort that leads to output is within very narrow, hierarchical units. The larger the organization, the more narrow, and the more hierarchical it becomes.

But is that really the most efficient use of resources? If you hired multi-talented people, couldn't they be able to perform multifaceted roles? It seems that the greatest loss of efficiency comes from one person trying to communicate to another person exactly what they are thinking.

For example, a strategist writes a document that outlines her strategic plan, and then an account person needs to pass that along to the client to get feedback that gets passed back to the strategist, and then the consolidated document gets passed to a project manager that breaks each element of the strategy down into smaller tasks that can be assigned to various talents. By the time it reaches the end-- no matter how well the initial concept is documented-- there is substantial disconnect between the people executing the idea and the idea's originator.

What if instead, they could just execute what they were thinking? Instead of investing in technology, and books about process, and consultants to help us break down tasks into smaller and smaller pieces that can be inserted into a queuing system and managed by yet another set of resources-- would it not be more efficient to cross train employees to be multi-talented? Looking back on all of the various projects that I have been involved in, I've found that I've been most engaged, most fulfilled, most stretched, and most rewarded on projects that I've been able to take from drawing board through results presentation.

Three Questions Every Employee Asks

2011-09-01T06:08:00.003-05:00

Our senior management team just started reading 12: The Elements of Great Managing by Rodd Wagner and James K. Harter, Ph.D. In the book, the authors break down the Q12 statements that were introduced in First, Break All The Rules. These statements are based on Gallup's data from over ten million workplace interviews and they represent what every employee needs to be truly engaged at work.

As I've thought about these 12 statements, I think they can be summarized within the following three questions that every employee asks themselves:

1. Do I matter?

2. Does what I do matter?

3. Does the company matter?

Let me break them down:

Do I matter?

If I truly matter to the company, I will be provided with the tools, training, and resources I need to do my job effectively. I will be compensated fairly. I will be provided opportunities to learn and to grow. I will have the overwhelming sense that I don't work for my manager, but that my manager works for me. I will be set up for success, not destined to failure. I will be provided benefits that give me and my family peace of mind. I will have a clear career path and a manager that helps me to constantly move forward. From time to time, my company will even provide opportunities for me to just have fun.

Does what I do matter?

If what I do truly matters, then I will will be missed when I'm not around. I will feel safe and free to speak up and provide my opinion. I will receive help when I need it without feeling threatened. I will freely give and receive trust. I will not live in fear of making a mistake. I will be able to easily draw a line between what I do and how it creates impact. I will be asked what I think about policies, processes, procedures, and people. I will be respected for my unique contribution to the team. I will be surround by people I genuinely like and that genuinely like me. I will receive public recognition for a job well done and private redirection for a job not so well done. I will know what success looks like and how I can obtain it.

Does the company matter?

If the company truly matters, then people will buy/donate/subscribe/retain/hire. Our competition will know us and study us. Our product or service will get results. Industry leaders will apply within, not have to be recruited. Other companies will try to copy us. Investors will want to own us. The way our industry, vertical, sector, or even the world works will be different.

These are just some initial observations, but from them I think a new credo may be formed from perhaps a single ageless question, "Where can I find meaning in life?" Some of the greatest minds in history have wrestled with this very question and it seems we are still wrestling with it today. Sadly, if we seek to extract ultimate meaning in our lives from our careers we will be perpetually disappointed. Industry is man-made and ultimately has an end. Many have reached that peak and found nothing but disappointment. So if we put our complete hope in finding meaning in enterprise, we will find that it is in fact meaningless. There must be something more that drives us, inspires us, and satisfies us with real meaning and purpose. Something that brings meaning to work, not in it. Something bigger. Something that surpasses everything that we can create through the work of our hands. Do you know what that is? I do.

Humility

2011-08-05T17:34:00.001-05:00

Humility is the mark of greatness. Humility enables a leader to recognize his limitations, and seek out others to come along side him to bring perspective, diversity, and wholeness to an organization.

Humility enables an employee to reach out, reach up and grow in his skills and abilities through training, continuing education, and mentoring.

Humility enables a consumer to become a customer. It is the first step to realizing and meeting his needs and desires.

Humility enables a married couple to get help when they are struggling with the pressures of work, kids, bills, and relationships.

Humility enables a drunk to get sober.

Humility brings resolution to an argument.

Humility leads a broken man to the Lord.

Humility is necessary for courage to be born.

Humility seeks forgiveness, offers forgiveness, and accepts forgiveness from others.

Humility is the key to progress, to innovation, and to optimization.

Einstein Was Only Half Right

2011-07-26T17:00:00.002-05:00

Albert Einstein was credited with defining insanity as, "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Well, in the modern world, I'd say that Mr. Einstein is only half right. We live in a world that is changing so fast that if we do the same thing over and over again and expect the same results, we might be considered just as crazy. This is especially true with fundraising and marketing in general. The same old same old doesn't work like it used to. There is another law at work in our modern world that is becoming more and more relevant. That is the Law of Diminishing Utility or the Law of Diminishing Returns. When we approach fundraising with the same old approach, we will find that we will eventually run out of margin. Please don't misinterpret this-- I am not suggesting that direct mail is going away anytime soon. My conviction is that we need to rethink how we do direct mail. We need to make direct mail more integrated to stay relevant with a growing audience of people that don't write physical checks anymore. We need to integrate mail with mobile, web, and social media. We need to innovate and optimize the way we approach fundraising. Think I'm crazy? That's what they said about Einstein.

Hey Social Media, Show Me The Money!

2011-07-11T23:29:00.007-05:00

First, let me apologize to all of my social media guru friends and colleagues. What I'm about to share may greatly distress you, disturb you, and just plain insult you. Too bad. This is something that has been pent up for way too long and it is time to let it out. If you are really upset, take it out in the comments.

I attend and speak at a lot of conferences related to fundraising and marketing. And it doesn't matter where I go, or what the focus of the conference is-- inevitably one of the keynote sessions is going to be talking about "how social media is going to transform your organization." But the case studies they offer up are all about some obscure campaign that's earth shattering success is measured by the number of "Likes" on Facebook. Are you kidding me? As if you can take those magical "Likes" and cash them in for something real and tangible like a meal for some poor child in Africa, or a cure for cancer, or to support a missionary in China. Show me the money!

Okay, so my beef isn't necessarily with social media. It is in the way we use and measure social media. Maybe it's just because I'm a direct response guy, but I want to be able to show how social media moves the needle when it comes to the three key building blocks to fundraising success: new names, new donors, and more donors. The rest is just fluff. Let me share with you a new recipe I've been cooking up with social media.

Eggs, Milk, Flour, Sugar, Butter

Each of these elements have tremendous utility on their own. However, if you combine each of these elements in the right measure, under the right conditions, you get something completely different-- you get a cake!

Same is true with our different communication channels. We sometimes get so myopic, so siloed in our thinking about what we are going to say on each channel that we miss the greater opportunity to combine the channels to get something that is way better than just the sum of the parts. So, we decided to test it out.

'What if We Could Get 100% Response Rate on a Direct Mail Piece?'

That's the question we asked ourselves. Now, we know that for all practical purposes expecting a 100% response rate is tomfoolery, right? I can see the old-school DM guys having some fun with this. But if we made our direct mail dynamic...if the mail wasn't an end in itself, but a beginning...if we could find a way to make a direct mail piece go viral...then, maybe we could talk about a new concept-- the Effective Response Rate. The effective response rate is the total number of responses--from any channel-- that all originated from a single piece of mail.

Well, I'm sure you can guess what happened...I mean, I wouldn't write a blog post about an experiment that completely flopped would I? [Hmmm...that is an interesting question, I actually think I would if I thought that there was a key learning that could be taken from it.] The campaign that we launched combined highly personalized direct mail, with an online interactive game and social media, and our effective response rate for the direct mail piece was 213%. Boom!

How did we do it?

First, we started by thinking about our ideal target audience. Our plan was to create a campaign that they would want to engage in. Did we have specific business objectives? Absolutely. But instead of making those objectives the focal point of our message, we created an environment where the target could experience our value proposition instead of us shouting about it.

Then, we made it fun. We created a competitive environment where people were incentivized to engage with the campaign every day, and most importantly, recruit others.

Finally, we made it easy for people to recruit others by integrating social media. By providing a team incentive, and an individual incentive we were able to drive the right behaviors that helped us accomplish our business goals.

In the end, we were able to experience the exponential benefit of tightly integrating the channels to accomplish far more than each could accomplish on their own.

Want to See the Actual Case Study?

I'm being somewhat vague intentionally. See, I would love to have the opportunity to talk with you about exactly how we were able to generate an effective 213% response rate for our direct mail campaign-- but you have to meet me half way. Shoot me a direct message on Twitter at @DigitalDonor, and I'll set up a time to walk you through the case study. I'll also probably ask you some questions about your specific business or campaign objectives so be prepared to share that. Together, we can think through how you too can combine all the channels to bake a sweet treat for the CEO.

Fresh, Joy, Love, Tasty

2011-06-11T23:15:00.001-05:00

Have you ever noticed that most companies today don't market their products, they market your values. I was at Panda Express for lunch today. There, hanging in the in the middle of the restaurant, were four not-too-subtle banners. Each bore the image of one of PE's finest entrees along with a single-word:

"Fresh"

"Joy"

"Love"

"Tasty"

"Fresh" and "Tasty" I get, but "Joy" and "Love?" Since when do we go to a fast food restaurant to get our fill of these? I prefer the Orange Chicken.

A Proven Formula to Optimize and Revolutionize Your Email Program

2011-05-03T12:25:00.004-05:00

When it comes to optimizing email campaigns, best practices are not enough – you need a rigorous methodology. This workshop will teach you how to focus your thinking on what really works when it comes to increasing response and enhancing revenue. After completing this course you will be able to:

Discern the email marketing messaging sequence

Learn about how others are finding success during these times

Apply the email messaging effectiveness formula as illustrated through actual case studies

Download the Presentation: Discover the Proven Formula for Optimizing Email Campaigns

This presentation was delivered on Thursday, April 28, 2011 at the Christian Leadership Alliance Conference in Dallas, TX

Other Resources of Interest

Also, I’ve included some links to some additional resources that were referenced in the presentation:

Free Email Optimization Webinar - If you missed the presentation at CLA, or if you would like to see it again, we are hosting a free live webinar on Wednesday, July 20th at 12:00 PM CDT. Space is limited, so please sign up today.

Convio 2010 “Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index Study”– Lots of great metrics and insights in this report. This will help you know how you “stack up” with other nonprofits across key metrics.
MarketingExperiments - This organization is the applied research arm of MECLABS. These are the folks that invented the Email Effectiveness Index that was discussed in the presentation.
Convio’s “The Next Generation of American Giving”– This is a study on the contrasting charitable habits of Generation Y, Generation X, Baby Boomers, and Matures. Lot's of great takeaways in here.

The Most Important 85 Characters in Your Email

2011-04-29T11:36:00.000-05:00

Want to know a secret? People aren't looking for a reason to open your email, they are looking for a reason to hit DELETE. So, how do you get them to open?

Best practices would say to focus on subject line optimization. Which is a great place to start. But you can Google the best way to write a good subject line and find plenty of help on that.

I want to share with you what I'm experimenting with-- the first 85 characters in the email body which just so happens to show up in most inboxes and desktop notifications.

You can tell that most marketers are totally ignoring this. Their first 85 characters goes something like this, "Make sure you add myEmail@MyDomain.com to your whitelist...." or, "If you are having trouble viewing this email, click here...."

According to best practices, these are spot on-- but here is where it might make sense to challenge these best practices by testing something else.

What if you can use those 85 characters to extend your subject line, or better yet, make a compelling value proposition statement that encourages folks to open?

Check out some of these:

Which ones would you want to/need to open?

I have a bad habit of using myself as a focus group of one, but I have to admit, I usually scan my inbox and often look at nothing but the first 85 characters of the email to see if it is worth my time to go any further. I do this with personal emails, work emails, and emails I've subscribed to receive.

I'd love to hear your feedback based on experimenting with this concept. Post a comment, or send me a message on Twitter (@DigitalDonor) with your results.

You Could Be The Next Star!

2011-03-16T08:53:00.005-05:00

I just received an email announcing that Simon Cowell, that sinister former American Idol judge that everyone loves to hate, is launching a new singing competition show called The X Factor (don't ask me how I got on that mailing list). This time, would-be pop stars of any age will compete for a $5 Million contract with Sony.

So, same old game, bigger pay day.

Is there still that much pent-up demand to be instantly famous? Maybe that's why our economy sucks so bad-- the millennials that should be gearing up to build the next tomorrow are too busy hanging out in audition holding rooms trying to look good in distressed designer jeans, spiky hair, doing their best Justin Bieber impersonation (wow, I sound old when I talk like that).

I'm SOOOOO over American Idol, but I have to admit the paradigm is brilliant:

Invite customers to create the product. This is the crux of the show-- you invite people to present their proposal for for a new product idea. In the case of Idol, that proposal is in the form of an audition.
Select a panel of experts to vet the product ideas. This is the early stages of Idol when the judges decide who advances and who gets sent home. It doesn't hurt when the judges have quirky personas themselves.
Recycle the leftovers, and sometimes the rejects become the main thing. Idol does this brilliantly. They take the best of the worst auditions and turns them into compelling content. Remember William Hung? "She bangs, she bangs...oh, baby, and she moves, she moves!"
Let the customers design and shape the final product. Once the contestants have been narrowed down, the viewers at home get to decide who will be the next star. This is customer-driven innovation at its finest!
Create a pent-up demand for the product before it is even released. By voting for their favorites, and helping to create the new star of American Idol, the people at home become vested in the product they've helped to shape and line up at the record store (or I guess iTunes), to purchase the album the minute it is released. Apple does this too-- iPhone 7 is coming in 2014-- are you ready?

So, although I think Simon's next show is going to lay an egg like Duets, and his other post-Idol start-ups, I do think there is life to the American Idol paradigm. Think about how you can engage your customers and donors in helping to shape your next program, project, or ministry. Follow the American Idol model and "who knows-- you could be the next big star!"

This, Not This...

2011-02-21T14:46:00.010-06:00

The past two weeks in North Texas have been among the coldest, like ever. The first week of February our offices were closed 4 out of 5 days due to ice and snow. The next week wasn't much better. Another storm rolled through shutting down schools and businesses again.

So what does that have to do with anything related to marketing? Well, actually quite a bit.

During that cold snap, I received two emails that I think represent the best and worst in terms of relevant messaging. So I figured I'd attempt to channel one of my heroes, Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, CEO of MECLABS, and do a heads up comparison of these two emails using his legendary "This, Not This" bit.

Below is a copy of the first email I received that came from The Creative Circle which is a local talent placement agency.

Now, granted the message envelope isn't that great. The subject line is "Talent Update" which is the same subject line for every email I receive from them. But because my email system displays the first two lines of the email through a desktop notification, I was drawn immediately to the highly relevant comment about the weather:

"Brrrrrrrrrrr! Did you make it to work today?"

Actually, no, I didn't-- our offices were closed. I read on:

"If you didn't, I bet the work is just piling up, and that is where the Creative Circle comes in..."

Brilliant. The value proposition is established and tied to a very relevant need I have.

He's right. Work is piling up. Maybe I do need to reevaluate my department's staff plan.

From there the email goes on a little bit of a rabbit trail. True, the Super Bowl was in town. Yes, I get the connection to needing a [marketing] "champion". But perhaps that could have been saved for a completely different email. Maybe after the Super Bowl?

Anyway, aside from that the email did a great job of using external relevance-- things that are happening in the world around us-- to create a message that resonated very strongly with me.

Now, for the "Not This" example.

A couple of days later I was still home, our offices were still closed, and it was still the coldest it has ever been since I've lived in North Texas. But now the news channels were reporting that this wasn't just a North Texas cold snap, the winter storms were hitting the entire country!

It was at that point I received the following email:

Okay, so right off the bat this thing is whack. In the message envelope, the sender is "Cool-Off." What? I know that this is the name of your company—but dude—seriously? Do you think anyone is looking to cool off?

This same ridiculousness is repeated in the subject line, "Limited Time Offer from Cool-Off.com.”

Because I do this stuff for a living, I just had to open the message and find out what they would say next, but if I didn't I would have trashed this thing instantly. When I did open it, it just kept getting better (and by better I mean worse—much worse). There was a big hero shot with a pool and palm trees, and a big momma-gamma misting fan. Ha!

But then I spotted the headline:

"Summer is Right Around the Corner..."

Um, what?

Then the first sentence (which was one giant hyperlink): "Beat the Heat" and Save (25-30% OFF) on all Patio Misters..."

Is this a joke?

Then I scanned the "In This Issue" (apparently this is a newsletter) and there were three "Quick Links:"

Register Now - For what exactly? What a silly thing to have at the top of your "Quick Links." Register Now for more bad emails, or to access your site, or for more irrelevant offers???
News - Sorry, not interested in any news. I get that from Fox.
More About Us - Well I guess it is all about you, huh? Obviously sales are down being it's FRIGGIN FREEZING everywhere in the country and you guys want to try to get a boost. Well, I'm sorry 'friend.' If you want to do business with me in the future, you may want to think about me, my needs, my problems, and then begin a relevant conversation with me that makes sense. I'm not stupid. I'm not going to buy a mister hose just because it is on sale. You need to think before you hit the send button next time.

Alright, enough with the rant. The key takeaways here are simply this:

1. Every time you send an email you are initiating a mental conversation with the recipients of that message. Make sure you don’t start a conversation that makes you look stupid, insensitive, or out-of-touch. No one wants to do business with people like this.

2. Relevancy is the key to good email communication—in fact, it is the key to good communication in general. Howard Gossage, an old ad mogul once said, “The real fact of the matter is that nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. Sometimes it’s an ad.”

3. Beware of sending the wrong message to the wrong person at the wrong time. Social media changes the game in a lot of ways, and bad marketing can take on a life of its own. I wrote another post about that called, The Wrong Message to the Wrong Person at the Wrong Time.

What's the Diffrence Between For-Profit and Non-Profit?

2011-01-31T10:59:00.004-06:00

Every organization on planet earth asks for your money. Some are for-profit companies and some are non-profit companies. Both start with basically the same goal:

How do I solve a problem?

Through the exercise of solving a problem a product is born, or a services is created, or a program is developed. But ultimately, success is determined by how effectively an organization can solve the problem.

Take McDonald's for example. Their challenge is to fix the problem of hunger. They create arguably good-tasting, low-cost, quickly prepared food. Through the course of solving the problem of hunger McDonald's sells the products they create to people like you and me. Now, McDonald's isn't the only one in the hunger business. So, to convince you that they are better at solving your problem of hunger than someone else, McDonald's consistently sends us messages to remind us that they are the best place to turn when you are hungry. McDonald's asks for your money.

Now consider another organization that is in the hunger business, Feed the Children. Feed the Children provides meals to children around the world that are malnourished or suffering from starvation. Just like McDonald's, Feed the Children exists to solve the problem of hunger. Just like McDonald's, Feed the Children asks for your money. But there is an obvious difference between these two organizations. When you give your money to McDonald's you are trying to solve your own problem, but when you give your money to Feed the Children, you are solving someone else's problem.

So, why do people get so bent out of shape when non-profits ask for money? Is it because we are all completely self-centered and we'd much rather spend what we have on ourself? Consider this. We live in the richest country in the world and are the most generous nation in terms of what we give to charity, yet still on average Americans only give about 2% of their annual income to solving others' problems. How might the world change if that 2% was more like 20%?

That's why I'm in fundraising.

Why Donors Don’t Donate On Your Web Site

2011-01-30T14:49:00.000-06:00

Usability, or lack thereof, is one of my pet peeves. The other day I was hopping around some of the big nonprofit sites to see how they were handling their donation user experience. I thought that perhaps there would be some best practices that I could glean and share with my clients. It didn’t take long to discover that most nonprofits do everything that they can to discourage would-be donors from making a donation. One particular site that stood out the most had no fewer than 11 screens that the poor, helpless potential donor would have to click through in order to make a donation. Can you believe it, 11 screens! I guess that they wanted to make sure that the donor was really, really, really serious about making a donation.

So you don’t make the same mistake, consider these following best practices:

It’s all about the experience. Making a donation has a completely different feel than ordering tchotchkes from Amazon. Do away with the online store feel and try to create a one-to-one relationship between each project and the associated donation response form.

Less clicks, more dollars. There is a direct correlation between the number of clicks that you put between a user and goal and conversion rate. The technical term for this is called Funnel Abandonment or Checkout Abandonment. Try to limit the number of screens that the user must click through in order to complete the donation. If at all possible, enable the user to complete the donation on the same page that prompted it.

Um, can I have a little help here? If you do have a multi-step check out process, clearly communicate that to the user. Provide some frame of reference as to where they are in the check out process and when the torturous form-filling will end. Give them clear directions as to what information is required and optional, and for the sake of everything holy, provide the user with coherent and easily identifiable error messages.

You have not, because you ask not. We recently launched a microsite for a client that included a free resource offer for users that filled out a registration form. The goal was purely name acquisition. About a month into the campaign we added an option for users to also make a donation through the form. That simple little change translated into thousands of “extra” dollars and did not affect the conversion rate for the form whatsoever. Whenever appropriate, add a donation option to registration or name acquisition forms.

No, I don’t remember my password! Putting a login screen between a user and a donation form is like putting an obstacle course between a grocery shopper and the check out lane. It seems like a good idea—after all, once the donor sets up their account all of their information will be saved, right? Wrong! I learned this lesson the hard way. Trust me, don’t do it.

Although this is not a comprehensive list, by following these best practices you will be helping to make the online donation experience a positive one.

Have You Ever Heard Of...

2011-01-20T08:54:00.000-06:00

There is a lot of talk about brand these days in the nonprofit world. But, what is your brand? Isn't it a collection of ideas and experiences that your customers and donors carry around in their heads? It seems that no matter whom you talk to—the brand expert d'jour—you often get a very different interpretation of what a brand is and, more importantly, how you can make it more effective.

So . . . since it seems there is no clear science for the right way to approach your brand, I figured I'd get out there with my own branding thoughts.

How many times have you been engaged in conversation with a friend or colleague and they asked you, "Have you ever heard of ______?" If you answer yes, the conversation will shift to a discussion of whatever _____ is. If you answer no, the same will occur. It is in these moments that I believe that your brand is defined. Forget the fancy focus groups, pyramid diagrams, catchy tag lines, or even that killer logo—your brand is what people talk about.

So what makes an organization worth talking about? Well, it's often the things that either receive the least attention or get overlooked completely. Here's my short list:

1. Who picks up the phone when someone calls?

If you are like most companies these days, it's an automated system. Usually the first thing folks hear is, "In order to better assist you, we have created the following options: For sales press 1, For service press 2 . . . Start typing the first 3 letters of the persons last name . . . If you know the extension of the party you wish to reach, you may dial it at any time . . . "

Want to know how that translates to your customers and donors?

"In an effort to better serve our needs and cut our costs, we have implemented an electronic answering service. We don't think you are important enough to hire an actual person to answer your call—but if you want to buy something from us today, press one and you can talk to a real person right away. After all, we've spent a great deal of time writing our upgrade scripts for our telemarketing firm in India—and we always like to increase our average sale value."

And the whole time, your customer is thinking, "Gosh, I just want to speak to a real person . . . I just have a quick question . . . I don't know how to spell his last name . . . if I knew the extension of the person I am trying to reach, then I wouldn't have dialed the main friggin number!"

If you want to have an organization worth talking about, start by hiring the best receptionist that you can find. Give them the title, "Brand Representative" and pay them twice what a typical receptionist makes. Give them goals by which you will measure their success and develop metrics to plot their success. Better yet hire multiple Brand Reps so that no matter when the phone rings, there is always someone there to answer the call. Can you imagine what kind of "brand" impression it would leave if someone called your organization after hours and an actual, live person picked up the phone? Not only that, but the person on the other end of the phone was actually knowledgeable and able to address your donor's question? Even if they didn't have an answer on the spot, what if they recorded the question, routed it to the correct person, and then the very next morning the donor received a call from someone in your organization with an answer? Do you think that might get people talking?

2. What about when things go wrong?

How can we turn a boo-boo into an opportunity for great branding? An order gets messed up. The wrong product ships. A flight is delayed or cancelled.

The last one hits home with me. I travel a lot for work and have amazingly horrendous luck with having my plane leave at the actual, advertised date and time. But because I fly a lot, the airline knows me. They know exactly how many miles I fly, where I fly to, and how many times I've experienced delays—or worse—cancellations. What if once in awhile, when things go wrong and my flight is delayed and I'm sitting on the tarmac in 100 degree Dallas heat with no air conditioning, nowhere to turn, and all I can think of to do is post nasty Facebook updates about the airlines—what if at that moment I received a call from my airline. "Mr. Kachuriak, this is Bill from American. I know you are not thrilled with the delay of your flight, so I just wanted to call to personally apologize. As an Elite Platinum member we very much value your trust and thank you for your patience today. Let me buy you lunch when you get to Reagan. I just emailed you a voucher you can use anywhere in the airport."

Wow! Talk about a lasting branding impression! I would go from feeling like a victim to feeling like someone truly special . . . and I can promise you that I'd be talking about it with everyone when I reached my destination. When it comes to your brand, people believe what other people say, not the clever brand promise that you post on your website.

Another important point to note is that your customers will understand and accept that things can and will go wrong. It's part of life. It's what you do about it and how you respond that will differentiate those trying moments as either positive experiences or negative ones.

3. Do you know how to say thank you?

This is one area that is especially poor for nonprofits. We are great about sending out that appeal letter on time and error-free, but we get a little bit more lax in our fervor to send out a thank-you. One of the greatest experiences I ever had working in ministry was when things were going very bad financially and we had everyone in the organization from the CEO to the janitor spend 4 hours a week in our call center making calls to donors thanking them for their support. Two amazing things happened as a result:

The month we did the calling campaign was the only month in the previous 9 months that we were in the black. The amazing thing was that we were not allowed to ask for money on the calls. The call campaign was exclusively to thank donors and ask if there was any way to pray for them. But as we began to talk to folks, they would ask if they could make a donation over the phone.
The more amazing thing was that the calling campaign sparked a revival at the ministry. Some of us for the very first time got to talk to the people that we were ministering to and hear them tell us how much our ministry has blessed them over the years. I held the record for the longest call at 124 minutes. I was captivated by an elderly widow that had spent her life working in the Miami public school system. She actually wrote a manuscript about her experiences that no one had read—including her—in over thirty years. She sent me a copy and I'm working on getting it published. The point is that this wasn't just about the donors anymore, it became about the staff. Working in a nonprofit, and especially a nonprofit ministry, can take its toll on staff. Generally, you are under-staffed, under-resourced, over-worked, over-extended, and at times even a bit jaded. That's what makes this such an important principle: take care of your donors, and they will take care of you.

So, to recap, here are some ways to make your brand talkable (in a good way!):

1. Get rid of the answering machine. Let your customers and donors know that they are important and that their call is important to you. Answer their calls all hours of the day and night. If you say you will get back to them, do it! These folks are the reason that you have a job.

2. Look for opportunities to turn a mistake into a positive experience. You can
differentiate your organization much more in this area than any other magic formula, value proposition, or USP. Start with your largest donors/customers and work your way down. Remember, larger donors often start as smaller donors, and you never know who might have the capacity to give more—but beyond that—if you want to have a strong brand, a brand worth talking about, treat every donor as if they were a large donor.

3. Learn how to say thank you. Amazing that the manners we learned at the earliest age are forgotten so easily. Go out of your way to let your donors know how much you appreciate them and you will be blessed—financially and personally.

To All You Youth Leaders Out There

2011-01-13T22:33:00.002-06:00

Rarely do we receive the privilege of knowing that the choices we make actually make a difference in someone else’s life. Just today, I received proof that when we respond to the call of the Lord—in even a seemingly small way—that it does not return void. Here’s an excerpt from a Facebook message I received:

Subject: Overdue Thank You

Hey Tim,
I hope this message finds you well. It has been way too long since we last spoke. I'm about to start my final semester at [College] on Monday, but being home for Christmas caused me to think about high school and the old small group. I realized that I'm not sure I ever thanked you for all of the time that you spent with us. Looking back, I am sure there were many other things that you could have been doing with your time.

So, I wanted to make sure you knew how much I appreciated your time with us. Some of my fondest memories are from times that we spent together with that crazy bunch of guys. That group was such an encouragement to me. God truly used you in my life. Thank you for your time and your heart for the Lord. You had a great impact!

God Bless!

Here’s what I believe. Had I not been the one that responded to the call to lead this high school small group then the Lord would have called on someone else. But because I did respond, I now am receiving the blessing of knowing that I have been used by the Lord to make a difference.

Be sensitive to the Spirit’s leading. Don’t ever confuse the reality that He is the one that does the work. But always remember that being used by God is a blessing and the perfect fulfillment of our very purpose for living.

What a day! God is good!

Abortion Statistics Pro Life and Pro Abortion Folks Can Agree On

2010-12-21T09:24:00.004-06:00

Regardless of whether you are pro life or pro abortion, it is hard to argue with these facts.

Via: Pro Life

Digital Fundraising is Green!

2010-10-08T07:45:00.000-05:00

Hey folks, want to shrink the size of your carbon foot print? Consider donating online. Think about how much direct mail winds up in the trash. If we could convince everyone to put down the checkbook and pick up the mouse, we could save tons of money, tons of trees, and cut down on tons of waste. So let’s just all make our donations online now, okay?

Maybe someone should create a T-shirt to help spread the word.

Full-on Double Rainbow All The Way!

2010-09-01T21:43:00.002-05:00

By now, I’m sure many of you have seen the epic viral video from Hungrybear9562. If you haven’t, it’s well worth the three minutes and thirty seconds.

I’m completely intrigued by the reasons why this video is so popular. Personally, I love it. I’ve shared it with tons of people. First, because it makes me laugh. But there is something else very appealing about this clip. Forget whatever preconceived notions you may have formulated about the mental state of the author. I think this video is so viral because on some level, we would all love to be like this guy—completely and totally amazed with childlike wonder at something so seemingly trivial. What if all of us reacted like Hungrybear9562 to seemingly trivial things? How would the world be different?

Shameless Pitches

2010-08-26T22:23:00.005-05:00

I recently attended a conference where the last general session was billed out as a compilation of the best fundraising ideas of the year. This was the session “not to be missed!” Now, you know how you get that groggy, if-I-have-to-put-on-my-smiley-face-one-more-time feeling at the tail end of a conference? Well, I powered through that. I got myself geared up and ready to be inspired.

Total disappointment. Instead of “15 Great Ideas” I got to sit through 15 shameless pitches. Then it got me thinking. Ironically, the big idea I took away from this session was more of a things not to do list.

Here we go:

10 Things Not To Do When Speaking at a Conference

1. Don’t Sell
How annoying is it to pay to go to a conference to learn new things and then have to sit through a series of capabilities presentations? People aren’t stupid. Focus on what you can give away, not what you can take away.

2. Don’t Forget the Passion
I had a college professor that said 80% of what we communicate is emotion and 20% is information. If you get bogged down trying to get in all the right points, you often miss the point.

3. Don’t Read From A Piece of Paper
Preparation is good, but the best presentations I’ve experienced always have a hint of improv. Remember, your audience is what is most important, not your own personal agenda.

4. Don’t Do Bullets on PowerPoint
I swear, PowerPoint has made us all dumber presenters. No one wants to read bullet points on a screen—no one.

5. Don’t Forget to Make Sure the Presentation Makes Sense to Someone Other Than You
I’ve added this one specifically because there was one presentation I saw that was so unbelievably out there, everyone was checking their coffee to make sure they weren’t dosed with something.

6. Don’t Try to Be Too Cute
Creativity is great, but content is king. Don’t try to trump clarity with persuasion.

7. Don’t Be Afraid to Make it Interactive
Give the audience a chance to engage and be part of the presentation. Let them stop you, ask questions, raise concerns, and help to drive the agenda. A dialogue is always more interesting than a monologue.

8. Don’t Be Afraid to Inspire People
What has happened to vision? Give people something big to believe in and then show them how they can achieve it. Challenge them to apply what you’ve taught them.

9. Don’t Tell Me Turn to The Person Sitting Next To Me and Have to Say Something Stupid
Really? How old are we?

10. Don’t Forget About The Cynical Blogger in the Crowd
The wrong message, to the wrong person, at the wrong time can be devastating. Check out the blog post I wrote about this topic: The Wrong Message, to the Wrong Person, at the Wrong Time (notice the utter hypocrisy here…shameless, huh?)

Don’t Ever Apologize for Asking for Money

2010-08-24T15:56:00.004-05:00

As nonprofits, why do we feel so sheepish about asking for money?

Do we not believe that our causes are worthy of donor funding? I doubt it.

Do we think that asking someone to give a gift to our organization is offensive? Maybe.

But why do we feel this way? The reality is that every single organization on planet Earth asks for money. Some are nonprofits. Some are for profits. But they all ask for our money.

For profit organizations ask for your money in exchange for goods and services. They spend billions of dollars on advertising and marketing to target you with the right messaging and number of impressions to convince you that their product is uniquely suited to meet your needs. Oh yeah, and they make billions of dollars in profits too. But have you ever been offended by a TV commercial for no other reason than the fact they asked you to buy their product?

So why do we get so bent out of shape when we receive direct mail and emails from nonprofit organizations that are doing truly meaningful work and making zero profit?

I think it comes down to two things: our own self-centeredness and a twisted perspective of how nonprofits should spend donor dollars.

On the self-centered bit, here is something to consider. When you give to a nonprofit, the benefit goes to someone else. I think we get ticked from repeated asks because on an unconscious level we are all pretty selfish. We would rather spend our hard-earned money on treats for ourselves. When we receive an opportunity to give, we gag because it reminds us that no matter how good a person we portray ourselves, we are secretly pretty selfish. But that’s just part of the problem.

The second issue is even more problematic for nonprofits. Somewhere at some point someone decided that in order to be “donor worthy” a nonprofit should only spend 25% of their expenses on “overhead” and the remaining 75% should go directly to programs. Here’s the fatal flaw in this approach—by keeping salaries low for staff members, and under spending on critical revenue drivers like marketing and fundraising, nonprofits will consistently fall short of their ultimate potential.

The staff compensation issue makes recruiting the necessary talent virtually impossible. In most instances, talented leaders have to make the decision to either make money or do good. Imagine if the compensation for a nonprofit executive was in line with the compensation of a for profit executive? Would we see more talent pursuing careers in the nonprofit sector? I think so.

Lack of spending on marketing initiatives is another part of the problem. Ironically, if nonprofits were not demonized for spending on things like branding and advertising, then they wouldn’t have to ask for money as often, and less people would be offended by the constant appeals for funds. Nonprofits ask for money in most of their communications because they have to. All messages are measured almost completely by ROI.

How Do We Change the Game for Nonprofits?

If you work at a nonprofit organization, imagine what you could do for your cause if you were able to compensate your staff appropriately and invest more dollars in branding, marketing, and advertising. How could this change the game for you?

Now what if every charitable organization was free of the same constraints? How might our culture change if suddenly nonprofits had much larger platforms to get their message out? Imagine watching television and seeing story after story of people’s lives being impacted through the work of nonprofits. How might that inspire philanthropy? What if messages promoting generosity became as prevalent in our world as messages promoting consumption?

Want to learn more? Check out Dan Pallotta’s new book, Uncharitable.

Rocky Balboa or William Wallace?

2010-07-18T23:49:00.004-05:00

Two movies I absolutely love: Rocky (the whole saga, really) and Braveheart. Both feature exceptional stories and two amazing characters. On the surface, you might think that these movies share a lot of similarities. Both are inspirational stories. Both feature a main character that endures amazing punishment, suffering, and self-sacrifice to accomplish an amazing goal. But if you analyze what motivates each man, you find two very different stories.

Rocky Balboa is motivated by fear.

In the original Rocky movie, we see a big, strong, rough, tough scrapper constantly fighting his immeasurably small self-esteem. Rocky’s deepest fear was that people would think he was a bum—a nobody. Towards the end of the movie, right before his legendary fight with Apollo Creed, Rocky confesses to Adrian, “When that bell rings—and I’m still standing—then I’ll know that I’m not a bum.”

The very last movie in the Rocky saga, Rocky Balboa, captures the essence of the Rocky credo. In a scene where Rocky is visiting the grave site of his beloved Adrian, he confronts his son, now a grown man, about his own self-esteem issues:

“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done! Now if you know what you're worth then go out and get what you're worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain't you!”

Fear is a very powerful motivator. In fact, there are cases where people in very frightful situations were able to accomplish amazing, even superhuman feats. But most of the time fear is a very self-centered motivator. In the case of Rocky, his fear of failure stemmed from his weak self esteem and placing all of his self-worth on how others viewed him. We watch the movie and are inspired by the amazing iron-clad will that got him to continually endure unbelievable punishment and continue to move forward, but ultimately, it was self-centered motives that drove Rocky. He wasn’t fighting for his country, his family, or even a belief he held—he was fighting for himself.

Contrast that with the story of William Wallace.

William Wallace was motivated by a belief.
The movie Braveheart depicts the story of William Wallace, a Scottish patriot that paved the way for Scotland’s independence. In the film, we see another remarkable story of inspiration. In the face of great adversity, outnumbered and outmatched, William Wallace led an army of peasant farmers against the legions of highly trained British troops in an effort to win Scotland’s freedom from tyrannical rule (sounds remarkably familiar, huh).

Here we see a leader that was motivated by what he believed. His belief was in a free and independent Scotland. This belief was something that transcended himself and spilled over into the hearts of the battered and oppressed Scottish peasant class. There is a scene very early in the movie after William Wallace’s father was killed by the English where William dreams that he sees his father and he gives him this very short, but unforgettable pep-talk, “William. Your heart is free. Have the courage to follow it.”

Follow it he did. And in the process he inspired men to do amazing things. In one famous battle scene, the Scottish militia has gone out to meet the English on the battlefield. Typically, Scotland’s nobles would negotiate a deal and then lead their army away. But it is at this moment that William Wallace delivers one of his most inspirational soliloquies:

“I am William Wallace! And I see a whole army of my countrymen, here in defiance of tyranny. You've come to fight as free men... and free men you are. What will you do with that freedom? Will you fight?”

“Aye, fight and you may die. Run, and you'll live... at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin' to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take... OUR FREEDOM!”

Later in the movie, after his father betrays William Wallace, Robert the Bruce a leading contender for Scotland’s crown confronts the elder Bruce:

“Men fight for me because if they do not, I throw them off my land and I starve their wives and their children. Those men who bled the ground red at Falkirk, they fought for William Wallace, and he fights for something that I never had… I don't wanna lose heart. I wanna believe as he does.”

When it comes to our fundraising messages, we have a choice.

Fundraising is no different. We can either motivate our donors to give out of fear or out of a shared belief. The former usually leads to churning and attrition, while the latter leads to lasting relationships. So, how do you communicate with your donors? Are you inspiring them with a vision that is based in a shared belief, or do you tap into their deepest fears? Are you Rocky Balboa, or William Wallace?

Look, Smile, Thank

2010-07-08T22:28:00.004-05:00

I was driving from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando and stopped over at a service plaza to grab a quick dinner. The restaurant was a cafeteria-style Italian restaurant where you were issued a still-damp red plastic tray and had to navigate the different “Tastes of Italy” to assemble your own personal dinner courses. As I was checking out, my eye happened to catch a small message taped to the top of the clerks computer monitor.

In case you can’t read it, the message says:

Look at the Customer.
Smile at the Customer.
Thank the Customer.

As you can tell, I only dine at the finest restaurants.

At first I scoffed at this tiny employee manual cheat sheet. ‘Do people really need to be instructed in how to be kind and courteous?’

But as I thought about it more, I realized that this tiny treatise contains the essentials of a donor or customer retention program. Let me break it down:

Look at the Customer. Too often we communicate with our donors with our heads down. We break into our well-rehearsed ask and don’t make much of an effort to make our message relevant to the person to whom it is intended to reach. If we took a good look at our donors, we may discover that what motivates them to support our cause is vastly different from what we think motivates them. This is why donor research and data analytics is so very important. In order to engage our donors in a conversation, we must understand what motivates and drives them to take action.
Smile at the Customer. If we are doing noble work (and I would reason that everyone reading this is indeed doing noble work), shouldn’t we be more joyful? Shouldn’t our messages to our donors reflect that joyfulness? Too often we shroud our fundraising messages in doom-and-gloom, if-you-don’t-give-now-then-bad-things-are-going-to-happen type rhetoric. Why? We should be asking for support with a smile on our face because we know that the work that we are doing is worth it, that the difference that we can make is real, and that the support that we receive connects our organization to our donors. We need to tell people the exciting things that are happening. We need to tell them what their donation is accomplishing. We need to engage cheerful givers.
Thank the Customer. If there is one thing that most nonprofits do a poor job at, it is thanking donors. Too often, we become so acquisition-focused that we neglect the big gaping hole we have in our current donor file. Most of the attrition that nonprofits experience is because donors a) don’t feel that their donation is making an impact; b) don’t feel connected to the organization; and c) don’t think that their donation will be missed. By simply thanking our donors we can overcome two of these main causes of donor attrition and make our donors feel more appreciated.

So maybe we can all take a lesson from the Italian buffet place and tape a little reminder to our computer screens:

Look at the Donor.
Smile at the Donor.
Thank the Donor.

What if Everything You Thought You Knew About Marketing was Wrong?

2010-06-24T17:30:00.007-05:00

As marketers we pride ourselves in our exceptional marketing instincts. We are studiers of behavior and masters of persuasion. We understand the psyche of our customers and donors and can conjure up the perfect messaging cocktail that always gets killer results…or so we think.

Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, Director of Marketing Experiments, shared a startling fact during the Marketing Sherpa Email Marketing Optimization Summit: the majority of the time, marketer intuition is dead wrong. To prove this point, Dr. McGlaughlin put three different versions of an email up on the screen. Each version was designed by a different agency, and each version was visually stunning. Then he asked those in attendance—all top email marketers in their own right—to vote for the version of the email that they thought would get the best response. About 4% got it right. In reality, every single version of the email that was designed by a competent design agency underperformed the control. So, in actuality, it was really a trick question—every version of the email stunk—some just stunk worse than others.

This illuminates a very important principle when it comes to email marketing: if you are not testing your creative, if you are just going with your marketing gut, you are most likely leaving a lot on the table. You need to be constantly testing and optimizing your email campaigns to ensure that you are making the most of every opportunity. By the way, this is a Biblical principle. It’s called stewardship. We need to think of every campaign as a resource entrusted to us and we need to use every tool available to ensure that we are not wasting what has been put in our hands to manage.

So, What Do You Need to Get Started Testing and Optimizing Your Email Campaigns?

First, you need a way to quickly and efficiently measure email response. Personally, I like to use Google Analytics with eCommerce tracking enabled coupled with a custom Google URL. This gives me clear insights into exactly what each email campaign is doing in my key metrics of clicks, conversions, and average gifts.

Next, you need an optimization methodology. Dr. McGlaughlin often puts it this way, “Best practices are not enough—you need a rigorous methodology.” We use a methodology that helps us to focus our thinking on what truly matters when it comes to optimizing an email campaign. This is best represented by the following heuristic:

Finally, you need to be committed to testing. For instance, we do not let an email campaign leave our shop without testing something. Start small with subject line A/B spit tests. Carve out a sample group from your email file and break it into two segments. Send the email to the two different segments with two different subject lines between 24 and 48 hours before your actual send date. Based on your open rates, roll out with the winning subject line. It may take a little while to get going, but once you are able to see the fruit of testing and optimization, you’ll be hooked.

The Fellowship of the Unashamed

2010-06-04T14:10:00.002-05:00

Tullian Tchividjian shared this with me, a piece written by Dr. Bob Moorehead. I've decided to commit it to memory...who's with me?

I am a part of the fellowship of the Unashamed. I have the Holy Spirit Power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure. I am finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame visions, mundane talking, chintzy giving, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don't have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by presence, learn by faith, love by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power.

My pace is set, my gait is fast, my goal is Heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few, my Guide is reliable, my mission is clear.
I cannot be bought, compromised, deterred, lured away, turned back, diluted, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won't give up, back up, let up, or shut up until I've preached up, prayed up, paid up, stored up, and stayed up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I must go until He returns, give until I drop, preach until all know, and work until He comes.

And when He comes to get His own, He will have no problem recognizing me. My colors will be clear for "I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.." (Romans 1:16)

Testing a New Marketing Idea is like Making Pizza

2010-05-24T12:40:00.004-05:00

I have never made homemade pizza before, so when my friend told me this weekend about the great homemade pizza he made, I knew I had to try my hand at making my own. As I reflect back on the process I went through to make the pizza, many of the same principles can be applied to launching a new marketing initiative.

Principle #1: Foundational Best Practices - Get Some Advice from Someone Who Has Been Successful

The first thing I needed to do to get started on my pizza was make some pizza dough. So, I called my friend who had recently made a pizza and I asked him for the recipe for making the dough. I followed his instructions closely because I knew that the foundation of a great pizza is a great pizza crust. I also knew that I had no experience making crust, and so it was easy to seek out help for this part of the project. Here are his instructions to me:

The same is true when launching a new marketing initiative. Talk to others that have been successful and find out what they did. Don't be ashamed to admit that you don't know how to get started. Follow best practices-- especially for foundational elements.

Principle #2: Customize and Improvise - Add In What You Know Works

I'm originally from Pittsburgh, PA. My favorite pizza is made at a place called Mmm... Mmm... Pizza. They make a Barbecue Chicken Pizza that is out this world. Eating it enough times, I have learned what ingredients they use to make it awesome: barbecue chicken, green peppers, onions, K.C. Masterpiece Barbecue sauce, and french fries. So, I did my best to customize my pizza with toppings that I knew would make the pizza awesome, and along the way, I introduced some elements that were new. For instance, I sautéed the peppers and onions on the grill before adding them to the pizza.

Again, the same principles can be applied to your marketing program. Add in elements that you have learned to be effective with your target audience. Don't be afraid to improvise and improve upon certain elements. Use elements that worked on you.
Principle #3: Test With Those You Know and Trust

My pizza was complete and now it was time for the ultimate test. But I didn't throw a party and invite all of my neighbors-- I served up the "beta pizza" to my family. I knew that I could depend on my family to give me feedback that I could act on. And since my goal was to make the perfect pizza, I was realistic enough to know that this first go would not be perfect. And so, when my wife said that the crust was a little over done, I knew that next time I needed to take it off the grill earlier. Below is a picture of my Barbecue Pizza, version 1.0:

Same is true when testing a new marketing idea. Start off by testing with a segment of your audience that you know is engaged and will give you actionable feedback. For instance, if you are testing an email campaign, send to a segment of your file that has a history of high engagement (open rates and clickthrough rates) and a history of response. The feedback that you get (opens, clicks, and responses) can be benchmarked against past campaigns and will give you the information that you need to tweak the program before you roll it out on a larger scale.

Obviously, there is more to successful pizza and successful marketing than what I've shared here. But the next time you are thinking of testing out a new idea, think of my barbecue chicken pizza and try to follow these principles. If that doesn't work, call Domino's-- they deliver!

The Secret to Social Marketing: A How-to Video

2010-05-13T12:16:00.006-05:00

This short video illustrates the secrets to successful social marketing:

First, you need to step out of your comfort zone and start posting some interesting, original content
Don't get discouraged, be brave and keep posting
When you attract your first follower, welcome him warmly-- try to get him to emulate your content and improvise
Now, there are two of you creating interesting, original content
That first follower is very important because he waves the others on; he tells them "It's alright. Come and join us!"
Then you get your next follower-- and three is a crowd!
Then, come in two more followers
...and immediately three more
Then, people start following in droves
Congratulations! You have a network of enthusiastic followers-- you are now a successful social marketer!

Marketing vs. IT—the Epic Battle for your Web Site

2010-05-06T13:58:00.003-05:00

Who is running your web site—Marketing or IT?

How you answer that question will usually predict how successful your organization is at moving the needle in the four essential fundraising functions:

• Acquiring names
• Converting donors
• Raising dollars
• Communicating impact

Marketing people think about their intended target audience—the visitor, constituent, donor—and that helps to shape how they approach every aspect of the web site. Marketers care most about what happens on the other side of the screen when real people have to interact with content and complete tasks. A marketer takes a constituent-centered approach to the web.

IT on the other hand, is most concerned about what impact the web will have on operations. IT will always operate from a perspective that ensures that back-end processes are most efficient, that data collected is complete, and that data processing requires as little human resources as possible. An IT person takes a very organizational-focused approach to the web.

If the goal of your web site is to build and maintain relationships with constituents, engage them in your mission, and inspire them to get involved, then your web site needs to be very constituent-focused. People are smart—especially online people. If your web site is very organizational-focused, they will recognize it immediately and will stiffen up their defensive instincts. But when you design your web site with the intention of meeting the needs of those most important to your organization—your constituents and donors—you will find that they will thank you by completing more conversion goals.

Not Sure Who is Running Your Web Site? Consider the Following Questions:

Do ideas drive online programs, or are programs a function of technical limitations?
Have you been told, “we can’t launch this new program because it won’t easily integrate with our donor management system?"
Do your donors have to jump through a series of hoops in order to make a donation?
Have you missed out on potential fundraising opportunities because of technology issues?

The Wrong Message, to the Wrong Person, at the Wrong Time

2010-04-28T13:52:00.003-05:00

Relevance is the key to marketing. As marketers, we strive to serve up the right message, to the right person, at the right time.

But what happens if we get it all wrong?

I was at a conference last week in San Diego, and just this morning, I received a post card mailer with a headline that read, “Don’t be in Last Place!” The subtext told me to stop by a vendor booth at the conference—but the conference ended last Wednesday. Failed! The irony is that this vendor was in last place—their message didn’t arrive until after the conference was already over.

The offer on the flipside of the post card told me, “Be a Winner!” and talked about how I could win an iPod touch. Failed! Obviously, I am not a winner—I didn’t get the iPod touch. In fact, I didn’t even know about the contest.

Just a few years ago, the damage that this type of marketing blunder would have caused would be limited to probably me, a few of my associates around the office, and maybe a few of my colleagues that I would have shared this with.

But today, in the age of the democratized media, where anyone with a blog, Twitter following, or Facebook account can instantly syndicate any message around the world, this type of blunder can prove to be very costly.

Take the example of the ad agency exec that didn’t realize his role as an ambassador for his brand (and they’re supposed to be in the brand-building business right??) and became the subject of international embarrassment to his company by posting a stupid comment about a client’s home town (read the whole story here).

The key takeaway in this example is summarized in the following statement published by the ad agency’s client:

“This lapse in judgment also demonstrates the need to apply fundamental communications principles in the evolving social networking environment: Think before you speak; be careful of you what you say and how you say it.”

So the moral here is simply this: when thinking about your marketing strategy, make sure that you approach it from a defensive perspective as well as an offensive perspective. There are just too many people out there that can potentially give you brand heartburn by using your marketing mistakes against you.

Fundraising in the New Economy

2010-04-26T15:08:00.002-05:00

In this economy, we have a whole new set of rules and realities. Learn what you need to know to navigate change as you:

Develop better relations with donors

Learn about how others are finding success during these times

Discover what will motivate donors in 2010

Download The Fundraising in the New Economy Presentation

This presentation was delivered on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 at the Christian Leadership Alliance Conference in San Diego, CA

Other Resources of Interest

Also, I’ve included some links to some additional resources that were referenced in the presentation:

Convio 2010 “Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index Study”– Lots of great metrics and insights in this report. This will help you know how you “stack up” with other nonprofits in key areas.
Convio’s “The Next Generation of American Giving”– This is a study on the contrasting charitable habits of Generation Y, Generation X, Baby Boomers, and Matures.
Benjamin Zander Ted Talk– I would strongly encourage you to invest the 20 minutes it takes to view this presentation by world-renowned conductor, Benjamin Zander. This is especially inspiring for anyone that finds themselves in a position of leadership.

The Presenters

Todd Dexter
President
KMA Direct Communications
tdexter@kma.com
972-244-1900

Tim Kachuriak
VP, Digital Marketing
KMA Direct Communications
tkachuriak@kma.com
972-244-1900

Everything is Amazing, and Nobody is Happy!

2010-04-23T11:20:00.003-05:00

I came across this clip yesterday on a flight back from San Diego and I laughed so hard that I was literally crying.

Then, I sort of got depressed.

We truly do live in amazing times. The technology we have today is unbelievable. And yet, we are constantly, and consistently, unsatisfied by what our technology has provided us with.

The ability to move across the country in hours, not years.

The ability to instantly communicate with virtually anyone, anywhere on planet earth.

The freedom to shop from our home, work from the golf course, and be entertained while commuting between activities.

But yet, no one is satisfied. When our technology breaks, we freak out. When we have to wait for something, we become restless. And when we can’t afford something, we go into debt.

So, could it be in technology’s quest to solve problems it has actually created even more?

Taking Pages from Obama’s Fund Raising Playbook: Raising Money for Ministries Through Digital Media

2010-03-10T09:06:00.011-06:00

You may not agree with his politics, but it is hard to argue with the fact that Obama’s 2008 Presidential Campaign changed online fundraising forever. This workshop will dissect the strategic thinking and tactical execution of how the Obama Campaign leveraged web marketing, email marketing, streaming media, and social and mobile networking to engage constituents and move them from interest, to involvement, to investment. By the end of this session, you will walk away with an online fund-raising playbook that you can quickly put into action to turn your web properties into a dynamic donation generating machine.

Download The Presentation

Other Resources of Interest

Also, I’ve included some links to some additional resources that were referenced in the presentation:

KIMBIA– “The Greatest Innovation in Online Fundraising I’ve Found.” These easy to deploy giving widgets have helped us to achieve unprecedented conversion rates on some of our microsites and landing pages.
Convio 2009 “Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index Study”– Lots of great metrics and insights in this report. This will help you know how you “stack up” with other nonprofits in key areas.
Benjamin Zander Ted Talk– I would strongly encourage you to invest the 20 minutes it takes to view this presentation by world-renowned conductor, Benjamin Zander. This is especially inspiring for anyone that finds themselves in a position of leadership.

The Presenters

Spencer Whelan
Director, Marketing and and National Accounts
KIMBIA
swhelan@kimbia.com
512-474-4447

Tim Kachuriak
VP, Online Marketing
KMA Direct Communications
tkachuriak@kma.com
972-244-1900

How Does My Web Site Look to You?

2010-01-08T07:54:00.000-06:00

The bummer about designing web sites is that the design must always take into account the fact that not every visitor is viewing their web site from the same browser, operating platform, screen resolution, or even from the same kind of device. This creates challenges for designers because regardless of the varying combinations of factors, the web site should look and function consistently. Out of all of the factors that affect the rendering of a web page, browser compatibility usually presents the most significant challenge.

Because of these challenges, it is important to add a “Browser Check” step to your testing and prelaunch checklist. A Browser Check will help you to quickly identify problems with your web sites and flag them so that your designer/developer can address them before the site goes live.

There are a few tools out there that will enable you to preview or take screenshots of your web page on various operating platforms, browsers, and screen resolutions.

Below are a few to consider:

www.browsercam.com - A great service that offers both screen captures and remote access to different devices and operating platforms. Free trial is available.

www.crossbrowsertesting.com - This one is cool because you can usually use the service free for 5 minutes at a time. You select the operating platform that you would like to test and then have the option to launch several different browsers to test.

NetMechanic Browser Photo - The Browser Photo tool by NetMechanic is a good solution if you don’t want to get too technical. The application runs a report that grabs screenshots from 24 different pre-defined computer and browser combinations.

Deliverability: The Scariest Thing about Your Email Program

2009-12-09T10:35:00.000-06:00

Here are some scary stats about email:

30% of practicing marketers don't take the time to figure out their actual rate of delivery. - MarketingSherpa "Email Marketing Benchmark Guide 2008" (2008)

Only 75% of permission based emails reach the inbox - Lyris, Q2 Email Advisory Report Card (2007)

Average delivery rate to the top 10 ISPs is only 83.8% - Lyris Technologies EmailAdvisor ISP Delivery Report Card Q1 2007 (2007)

Only 40% of marketers have delivery rates over 90% - Internet Retailer Survey Report on Email Marketing (2007)

IPs that were listed on just one of the top 12 blacklists saw their delivery rates plunge to an average of 35%. - Return Path (2008)

30% of practicing marketers don't take the time to figure out their actual rate of delivery. - MarketingSherpa "Email Marketing Benchmark Guide 2008" (2008)

So, let me sum all of that up in this simple statement: if you haven’t stopped to consider the deliverability of your emails, then chances are your emails are not reaching their final destination.

Poor deliverability can completely skew your perspective of your entire email program. For instance, if only about 40% of your emails are reaching your recipients—and if you have no way of knowing that—then your open rates are going to be completely off. Also the total response rate will likely be very low. You may think that it is because your appeal was a failure, but in actuality it is because you’re only reaching about half of your total donor file.

So the first key is to work with your email program administrator to determine what your actual deliverability rates are for your emails. Many enterprise-level Email Management Systems will provide this information. If you are using a homegrown or more basic level system, you may want to consider moving to a more robust application. After all, you may be missing out on capturing revenue!

You will also want to implement some email best practices. These will help to ensure that your emails have the best opportunity to be delivered to their final destination in your donors inbox.

Authenticate Your Emails. Authentication allows the Internet Service Provider (ISP) and the receiver of an email message to confirm the identity of the sender. Unfortunately, this process has not been standardized across all ISPs, so some will use SPF (Sender Policy Framework) records, some will use Sender ID, and some will use Domain Keys. In order to ensure that you are covered, you really need to do all three.

Make Sure You Ask…and Then Ask Again. A surefire way to ensure that you have permission to send email messages to recipients is by using a double opt-in process. In a single opt-in process, the user fills out a form on your web site and checks a box that states “I would like to receive email updates from this organization.” The double opt-in method takes it a step further. When the user submits the form, an email is sent to the address specified with a link that the user must click to “confirm their desire to receive emails from this organization.” Double opt-in lists are pretty much ironclad when it comes to permission.

Turn Down the Volume. If you send high volumes of emails, then you run the risk of tripping a spammer flag somewhere. Try to identify ways to segment your sends into smaller distribution groups, or consider throttling your sends over a longer period of time.

Stop All the Complaining. Spam complaints (when a recipient clicks “This is Spam”) can be an email deliverability death sentence. Most ISPs have very low thresholds for the number of complaints an email can receive without being defined as spam. Make sure you are providing adequate devices within your email so that recipients that desire to opt-out can. Get on the ISP feedback loops—if a recipient complains, remove them immediately. The key is to be proactive.

Give Your List a Good Scrub. Many older email lists will have outdated email addresses that can wreak havoc on your email deliverability. For instance if you have a high “hard bounce” rate, or if you happen to have a spam trap address on your list, then you can pretty much kiss your recipients inbox goodbye. Talk to your email provider to see if they offer an email list scrubbing service. This will help you cleanse your list from bad email addresses, improperly formatted email addresses, and spam traps.

Do I Need to be Concerned About Meta Tags?

2009-11-03T22:28:00.000-06:00

I received an email from a client today about web site Meta Tags that I thought I would share on this blog. Hopefully this sheds some light on one of the most common misconceptions about Search Engine Optimization:

Hi Tim,

I have a quick question that is one of those Web 101 things....Can you explain to me if the term "meta tag" is relevant today? I know meta tags used to be embedded in HTML coding, but is this the equivalent of our keywords [our] site?

Good question. The simple answer is that in terms of getting your site to the top of Google (or any modern search engine for that matter), Meta Tags are completely useless. There are of course best practices that should be followed:

The "TITLE" tag should be optimized - Although this is technically not a Meta Tag, using accurate keywords that can be found in the content of the page is a best practice technique. If you look at the blue (or gray) bar at the very top of your browser, you will see the Title tag. The Title Tag is also the anchor text (or link) that is displayed in the search results.
"Description" Meta Tags Can Leveraged - The "Description" meta tag can be used in the search engine results snippet (i.e. the brief description text that is displayed below the link in the search results. If you do not specify a Description tag, then the search engine will dynamically create a snippet and bold the keywords that are found on that page in context. I tend to think that this is a better method because it will embolden the keywords making them pop more, and it will help prove to the user that the page is relevant to what they are looking for.
"Keywords" Tags are Completely Ignored - Way back in the day, when Webcrawler was the browser of choice and everyone was connected with thier 14.4 Dialup modem on their 486 DX-66, if you could write a good Keyword Meta Tag, you would be at the top of the list...but that is like so, 1994. Ha!

If you would like to transform into a complete search engine nerd like me, you can check out the official Google Webmaster blog: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/12/answering-more-popular-picks-meta-tags.html There you will find a more in-depth explanation of the summary points above...of course you may need a geek translator to get past the second sentence. Ha!

Keeping Up With the Jones'

2009-10-22T15:24:00.000-05:00

I don’t know about you, but with all of new online marketing tactics, it can sometimes get confusing. I mean, just because one organization was able to leverage Twitter to raise $250,000 does that mean that tactic will work for everyone? Not hardly. Here are some tips to help you think strategically about your online marketing efforts:

Start with the end goal in mind. I know it sounds very obvious, but sometimes in the haste of trying to jump on the latest technique for leveraging your Facebook page, we lose site of our end target. For NPOs it is usually always one of three things:

More Names
More Donors
More Dollars

Start with these high-level goals and the form more specific objectives and targets. This will help you stay focused on the prize as you dive into the minutia of tactical execution.

Select your tactic based on who you are trying to reach. I worked with an organization that wanted desperately to tap Facebook, but when we stopped to consider their intended audience it became very clear that this was not the right approach. In the end we developed a plan to leverage E-Cards which ended up producing amazing results. I suppose the maxim here is, fish where the fish are…and use the right bait!

BTW, if you don’t know who exactly is your intended audience, try using Quantcast to get an idea of the types of visitors that frequent your web site.

Test your way into it. One of the greatest features of online marketing tactics is that you can usually start small and roll out based on results. If you are launching an SEM campaign, start with a small sample budget and test different landing page options. If you are sending out an email, carve out a sample group and test different subject lines, designs, layouts, and copy. The point here is to start small so that if/when you roll out on a larger scale you can maximize the results.

Track EVERYTHING! When it comes to online marketing, there are really no good excuses for not tracking everything. At a bare minimum, use Google Analytics—it is free and powerful when wielded correctly. For instance, you can integrate it with your ecommerce system to track revenue for different referral sources, and you can use the URL Creator to create custom clickthrough links that gives you detailed reporting for landing pages, banners, and email campaigns.

Try not to get sucked into the hype. Often, the new kid on the block gets all of the attention when it comes to marketing tactics. However, it is the old reliable tactics that continue to do the heavy lifting brining in the lion’s share of revenue. When it comes to online fundraising, email is still king. Before you develop a new Facebook strategy, take a good hard look at your email program. How is your deliverability? What do your open and clickthrough rates look like compared to industry averages? Is your email file growing? Are you integrating your channels effectively?

Keeping these points in mind will help you to think on a strategic level when it comes to adopting new ways to get more names, more donors, and more dollars so your organization can have more impact.

Laugh Your Way Into the Next Big Idea

2009-09-14T08:27:00.000-05:00

I don’t know about you, but I hate serious meetings. On second thought, make that loathe completely. In fact, I do everything I can to lighten the mood. I can recall being in executive staff meetings, with suits, ties, and bad coffee—the youngest person in the room by at least a decade—and busting out my very best Swedish Chef impression. Or another time when I demonstrated how to deactivate the new door security keypads without having to remove the keycard from your pocket by getting close and friendly with the wall.

The cool thing about humor is that it helps you exercise the same mental muscles that you use when applying creative thinking strategies. Humor begs us to look at things from a different angle, or with a different set of assumptions. It helps us to apply optimism to a problem to find something good out of what might be really bad. And it gives us a little bit more room to think in terms of a hypothetical which may lead us to an entirely new revelation.

So next time you are faced with a very difficult problem, remember the lyrical words of Monty Python:

If life seems jolly rotten
There's something you've forgotten
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.
When you're feeling in the dumps
Don't be silly chumps
Just purse your lips and whistle - that's
the thing.
And...always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the light side of life...

Increasing Open Rates with Donor Generated Content

2009-08-17T14:05:00.000-05:00

When it comes to inspiration, the artist Pablo Picasso is attributed with saying, “Good artists borrow, great artists steal.” I’ll have to let you decide where this “new idea” falls. To give credit to where credit is due, I have to thank my friends at MediaPost for coming up with a killer new ad campaign that incorporates real testimonials from their subscribers.

Their concept is simple: provide potential advertisers with a window into the quality of subscribers that read their emails as an effort to promote email sponsorship opportunities. The execution of this strategy however, was nothing short of genius.

Step 1: Collect Testimonials, Pics and Permission
A couple of months ago I received an email from someone on the marketing team at MediaPost requesting an endorsement for one of their email publications. I was requested to submit a picture of myself, my job title and company name, and a short testimonial about my favorite MediaPost Newsletter. The email stated that my picture and testimonial may be used in one of their ads. Fine with me.

Step 2: Launch Ads, Watch Open Rates Soar
Okay, so who doesn’t like getting a little free face time in people’s inboxes? When the campaign first launched, I received emails from some colleagues and friends that saw the ads. And so now you can bet that I’m opening ever MediaPost email to see if my ad shows up. Brilliant.

What Would Picasso Do?
So, what can we “borrow” and “steal” from this campaign that can be applied to a fundraising scenario.

Well, let’s break it down:

Donor Generated Content Rules! When donors tell others what your organization means to them in their own words it often resonates better than any slick marketing line could ever do. The reality is that many people will find it easier to relate to the guy sitting next to them than the guy that’s standing in front of everyone. Use that to your advantage.

Donors Like Being Appreciated. A good way to measure someone’s heart is by looking at their checkbook. When people give, they are making a statement that they believe in this cause or organization enough to make an investment knowing that they may not receive anything in return. However, the one thing we can offer them is our gratitude. By highlighting your donors can build deeper relationships that last.

People Like Seeing Their Picture. I’m sure some folks are shy and would like to remain more anonymous, but most of us like getting a little attention every now and then. If you can get your donors to share their picture and agree to appear in a publication you may be surprised by the results. Using this approach in email is even more effective because it creates a viral effect—when donors see their picture and their story in an email from your organization, you don’t have to ask them to “Send-to-a-Friend”—they will!

Four Percent For Freedom

2009-07-30T16:36:00.001-05:00

Take a minute and sign this petition to President Obama. We are asking him to spend a minimum of four percent of GDP on defense.

Four Percent For Freedom

Barack Obama - He will save the day!

2009-06-25T08:23:00.002-05:00

Probably one of their very finest videos!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

The Media Revolution!

2009-05-08T13:46:00.003-05:00

I just read this article on CNN.com about Rupert Murdoch saying that,

"We have been at the forefront of that debate and you can confidently presume that we are leading the way in finding a model that maximizes revenues in return for our shareholders... The current days of the Internet will soon be over."
- Rupert Murdoch

Murdoch's frustration is that this silly Internet fad doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon, and the online monetization models aren't feeding him the mega profits that TV and newspapers once did.

That's because instead of the media elite holding all of the strings and controlling all of the content and distribution of that content, the Internet has given the power to the people to more efficiently and effectively spread content to reach a global audience. So what we have are more options when it comes to getting our news. A friend of mine has best described this phenomenon as the "Democratization of Media."

Murdoch has it backwards: it is not the current Internet models that are going to go away, it is the bloated, sluggish, models associated with traditional broadcast media. After all, do people still go to movie theaters to watch the news?

Viva the Media Revolution!

If At First You Don’t Succeed…

2009-04-30T15:39:00.008-05:00

From the time I first jumped into the web site making business, there has been a common question that is usually asked by my clients right before we launch a site: “So, am I going to be able to know who is looking at my site?”

The answer has always been, ‘Well, not exactly.’ But now there is a new technology out there that is taking us one step closer. DemandBase offers a slick, realtime “ticker” that displays the name of the company that is viewing your web site along with keywords that were used to find your site in a search engine. Although this application does not display the actual identity of the person who was browsing your site, the app taps into the LexisNexis database where you can download contact information for key personnel.

What this means for Internet marketers is that we now have a way to convert our unconverted web traffic.

Allow me to explain. Let’s say that your potential prospects are like trapeze artists. They start their voyage on one side of the tent and your goal is to meet them in the middle to grab them and swing them over to the other side. But even with a good system in place to convert those prospects (i.e. a killer landing page complete with compelling offer, call-to-action, and easy response device), you are not going to be able to reach everyone and some are going to inevitably plummet to the ground. Splat!

Now imagine that there was a net installed beneath the trapeze apparatus so that when your grip slips on some of those prospects they are saved by the net, giving you another opportunity to reach them. That net is DemandBase.

A Search Engine Marketers Dream Come True
The DemandBase software is HUGE for search engine marketers. For instance, let’s say that you launched a targeted SEM campaign for lead generation. If you are doing everything right, you should be sending only good pre-qualified traffic to your site. But for a variety of reasons, you are not going to get everyone to bite on your offer. With DemandBase, you can now build a prospect file from the unconverted visitors. The great thing about this prospect list is that the contacts are usually warmer leads because their organizations have implicitly expressed a need for products, services, or information relevant to what your organization provides. This can translate to higher response rates while mailing fewer quantities saving you thousands of dollars.

Be Careful What You Wish For
Okay, so I’ve discovered that there is a downside to knowing exactly who’s on your web site and what they are looking for. I demoed the DemandBase Stream software a few weeks ago for my agency. As I sat there gleefully watching the little ticker streaming at the bottom of my screen with lead after lead, I was suddenly paralyzed as I read one particular entry:

Organization Name: US Courts
Search Term: Tim Kachuriak

I guess they’ve finally found me!