Archive for the ‘Retention marketing’ Category

The simplest planned giving marketing strategy (5 things you must do)

Wednesday, January 9th, 2013

The simplest comprehensive planned giving marketing strategy boils down to these 5 things:
-Building awareness: branding, education, PR/news stories, etc.
-Generating leads: acquisitions campaigns
-Cultivating leads: nurture campaigns
-Closing gifts: face-to-face, telephone, or personalized asks
-Stewarding gifts: acknowledgement, gift acceptance, donor recognition, etc.

Once you get your head around your overall strategy, then you need to choose which channels will help you meet your goals (depending on your budget). Last, you need to choose your tactics. Oh… and, finally, you need to actually do the marketing. Inertia and internal roadblocks/hurdles kill any chance of getting the results you desire.

I have found that direct mail and email are the most effective channels for generating leads if you have a good list and your organization is mid-sized to large. Otherwise, the telephone channel (calls in the form of donor survey/thank-yous) and the face-to-face channel work best.

The most important wild-card factor is the quality of your LIST.

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Posted in Cultivation, cultivation marketing, Email, Fundraising, lead generation, Lead Generation/Nurturing, marketing, Planned Giving, Planned giving, Planned Giving Marketing, Retention marketing, Stewardship, strategy | No Comments »

It’s Mildred not Millie!!

Sunday, October 28th, 2012

Face it… you are not her friend.  You don’t want to be her friend.  And she doesn’t want you to be her friend.

Yes, you work for an organization that she may love because it empowers her. Your organization can do what she cannot do on her own.  You can feed the poor for her.  You can deliver clean drinking water to impoverished nations for her.  Or you can cure a disease for her.

You help her to help others.  She believes in your ability to do that.  And that’s why she gives.

But she deserves your respect.  Her name is Mildred.  Not Millie!!  Her friends call her Millie.  And, although you work together to help others, you are not her friend.

She cares about several causes.  And, if you annoy her, she’ll give to another organization.  Perhaps even a competitor.  Ah yes! Let’s not forget… there is competition in fundraising.

So, when you write to Mildred asking for money, you better get her name right.  Because getting it wrong is downright disrespectful.  But even worse, getting it wrong shows incompetence— which breeds distrust.  And distrust is the beginning of the end of your relationship together.

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Posted in Data Management, Direct Marketing, Donors, Fundraising, marketing, Planned Giving, Planned giving, Planned Giving Marketing, Retention marketing, Uncategorized | No Comments »

What the heck is email marketing automation?

Monday, November 7th, 2011

With the development of social media – and the problems of spam and information overload – email may be losing some of its power. Smart spam filters are making it more difficult to get your messages through to your prospects and clients. Yet, although it’s not quite as effective as it used to be, it’s still a cheap way to reach a lot of people.

So now, more than ever, it’s important to make sure that your emails are truly helpful, targeted and informative. Don’t anger your hard-earned database of prospects with useless, irrelevant spam. Treat your contacts with respect and they’ll respond.

But did you know that you can “automate” your emails by planning a series of messages that will go to a prospect based on their interests, a series of assumptions and desired reactions.

For example, if you’re selling home remodeling services, your first email could be about all your services. But based on where each respondent clicks (such as kitchen remodeling or painting or wallpapering), you could deliver automated emails that are entirely relevant to the respondents’ individual needs.

That way a prospect interested in kitchen remodeling would subsequently get emails only on that subject. Also, the follow-up emails can be set up to deliver better and better offers over time.

This tactic requires a lot of preplanning and is sometimes only effective for large lists, but certainly worth looking into. Once you have developed an effective plan, you can leave it to run for several months.

 

 

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Posted in Blogging, Communication, Email, marketing, Multi-channel marketing, Retention marketing, strategy | No Comments »

5 reasons why customers say good-bye to you.

Monday, May 16th, 2011

Customers say good-bye for 5 main reasons:customer retention

1. Intentionally pushed away – If they are unprofitable to serve, then they are not worth pursuing unless you can convert them to a more profitable product or service category.
2. Unintentionally pushed away – It’s sad but true. Profitable customers can be lost due to a service issue such as improper handling of a complaint,  dissatisfaction with your product or service, disapproval of changes or policies, or a basic feeling that their business was taken for granted.
3. Pulled away – Yuck!  A competitor offered them a better deal and they bit on it.
4. Bought away – Even worse… a competitor made a financially compelling offer to switch.  That means you weren’t listening to your customer or your relationship wasn’t tight enough with them.  A loyal client that likes you and appreciates your product or service will show signs that they are being compelled to leave you.  Take note!!  Stay involved!!
5. Moved away – When a customer has moved away from the primary service or trading area there is not much you can do about it.

Bottom line:

Keep a close eye on your customers.

Changes in customer behavior can help you identify which ones are about ready to churn. As customers near the end of their life cycle, there’s a reduction in activity. Some customers say goodbye formally, others informally.

For instance, stopping your periodic visits is an informal way of terminating your relationship with your doctor.  Transferring your medical records to another doctor is a formal termination. Another example is using your credit card less (informal) versus canceling your card altogether (formal).

By the time a customer formally terminates the relationship, it’s often too late to win her back. So watch for signs that could be signals of informal termination.

And be sure to observe the five reasons why customers defect (above).

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Posted in marketing, Philosophy/motivation, Retention marketing, strategy, Uncategorized | No Comments »