I’m kicking myself because I didn’t think of this and I certainly can’t take credit for it.  A brilliant researcher (Russell James III, J.D., Ph.D., Professor, Texas Tech University) gave me the idea recently.

The best way to measure the effectiveness of your legacy gift marketing is really quite easy.  Keep in mind that most donors will not inform you of the final decision.  So, since your organization is probably conducting donor surveys fairly regularly, just be sure to consistently include questions that aim to determine:

• How much of your donor base is aware of the fact that they can leave a legacy gift to support your mission (because awareness is a key ingredient of successful marketing)
• How many (what percent of your donors) answer affirmatively to a question about their intentions 

For example ask:

Thanks to LUMA for providing this awesome graphic that shows just how many tools you could use for marketing efforts these days.  These tools make marketing “easy”.  But deciding which ones to use… that’s another story.

]]> http://www.imarketsmart.com/blog/2013/05/marketing-is-easy-right/feed/ 0 http://www.imarketsmart.com/blog/2013/04/another-idea-to-think-about-before-you-write-your-fundraising-copy/ http://www.imarketsmart.com/blog/2013/04/another-idea-to-think-about-before-you-write-your-fundraising-copy/#comments Wed, 01 May 2013 04:50:48 +0000 admin http://www.imarketsmart.com/blog/?p=1407 Carol Pollack from Planning and Endowment Consulting had a great idea to add to yesterday’s post.    ]]>

Carol Pollack from Planning and Endowment Consulting had a great idea to add to yesterday’s post.

….Just a cute reminder.  Print it out and hold it in front of the mirror.

It’s not about me!

1. Announce a gift you recently received (a modest one… legacy gifts mostly come from average folks— not the rich) and say “thank you”

2. Promote a video about a legacy donor

3. Share a link to a legacy donor story

4. Publicize rate changes or smart giving opportunities that can deliver unique donor benefits (and have a deadline)

5. Share information about past gifts and how people still benefit from those gifts today

6. Provide offers for free estate planning information

7. Remind donors to make a will and consider your organization when doing so

8. Share photos from and stories about Legacy Society events

Can you help me add to this list?

80 20 rule for planned giving

So you probably won’t see much of the fruits of your labor.  And, years from now, someone else will probably get the credit for your hard work and smart strategic planning.

But we’re not bummed-out, are we?  Even if the seeds you plant and have already planted might not benefit the organization you serve for 10 to 20 years (or more)… and even if you won’t get the credit for a good bit of your hard work… you and me… we love planned giving!

Here’s why:

• We know that the 80 / 20 rule applies to planned giving.  In other words, we know that a small number of donors (“the 20″) will leave amazing gifts (“the 80″) if we educate them about the possibilities.
• We know that these donors are average folks.  They aren’t rich elites.  We can relate to them.
• We know that future generations will benefit because of our hard work and conscientiousness today.
• We know that we are already in the midst of the greatest transfer of wealth.
• We know that the conversations we have with prospective donors bring out amazing stories of passion and love.
• We know that we can help make the world a better place.

My hat goes off to everyone in the planned giving community every day.

Today Seth Godin writes, “Repetition increases the chance that you get heard.”  And, he continues, “Delivering your message in different ways, over time, not only increases retention and impact, but it gives you the chance to describe what you’re doing from several angles. “This time Seth’s post DOES apply for planned giving marketing.

Recently a client told me they thought they should ONLY print and mail planned giving newsletters to people over 70 in their database a couple of times a year.  No email.  No Facebook.  No telemarketing.  No print ads in their magazine.  No inserts with acknowledgements.  No banner ads online.  No letters.  No posters at events.  No brochures at Board Meetings.

Just newsletters.  Only a couple of times a year.

Of course I advised against that strategy.  Some of the smartest folks in the world agree with me.

Be like Seth.  Be smart.  Push your messages as repetitively as possible to as many people as possible (since anyone can leave a planned gift).

Seth Godin is pretty smart.  He really understands marketing.

In his recent blog post he discusses why we should sometimes avoid “easy leads” and, rather, seek to qualify our leads more vigorously.  But when it comes to planned giving marketing, I feel that what he’s talking about and what we’re doing are very different.

First let me point out that my firm used to be a bare-knuckle marketing “hired gun” for some of the toughest businesses in the Washington, DC region.  Back then we were mostly doing hardcore lead generation.  One of our clients was a home improvement company.  For them, we had to find ways to find “highly qualified” leads.  The cost of sending someone out to a home to quote on a job that averaged only $3,000-$10,000 was just too high.  So, we tested adding questions to our surveys on landing pages.  Then we arranged for telephone calls to follow up on every lead (to ensure that both decision-makers of the household were present before sending a sales rep out the door).  Then just before the sales person left to go meet them, again we’d confirm that all the decision-makers would be present.

Now, for our marketing planned gifts, the “sale” is very different.  We’re not selling a product but rather a life choice and a large investment.  We’re aiming to help people align their legacy mission with that of the nonprofit we serve.  So we need to widen the funnel a lot.  Then we need to cultivate the relationships (possibly for many years) with financial/educational information, mission-oriented information and conversion-oriented options (to get folks to raise their hands) because:

1- You never know which ones of these leads are just tire-kickers and which ones will leave a gift.  Some people might say they will not leave a gift only because they don’t want phone calls.  They just want to be anonymous.

2- For most folks it’s a HUGE jump forward to request this information at all.  By doing so they are moving from the avoidance stage to the consideration stage of a very long and emotional, non-measured (even erratic) decision-making process.  Considering the fact that over 50% of Americans never create a will at all, the fact that they are requesting this information is simply tremendous. This point should not be overlooked and all of these leads should be treated like gold.

3- It takes time.  Some people will act right away to make a legacy gift decision.  But most people will skim the information an organization sends out in response to requests and soon put it all in a drawer.  Hopefully it’s near their tax information or their legal stuff.  But, yes… that’s right… it will probably sit in a drawer.

4- Here’s where the magic happens.  When your organization takes the effort to remind these leads about the planned giving concept and seek ways to get them to educate themselves further about the benefits they would enjoy (for their soul and their pocket-book), something special happens.  I know it’s time consuming and tedious.  But the largest and most impactful gifts happen in the minds of your donors when you are not there.  It’s a slow process.  It requires frequency and repetition.  It requires well-conceived messages.  And it always must include easy ways for people to move to the next step in the consideration process.  In planned giving marketing we must treat each lead as if it holds the potential for a $1 million gift.  Cultivate a relationship with each one properly over time and, because it’s a numbers game, you WILL end up with boatloads of money for your organization.

5- Most importantly, this “sale” usually happens when no one from the organization is around.  Simply stated, most folks don’t need to involve you and your staff in order to make this kind of gift/investment.  That’s the hardest part to grasp but the critical reason why this “sale” is so different from what Seth Godin is talking about.

For more on the slow sale concept, read about the tortoise and the hare in planned giving marketing here.

For effective planned giving marketing, you really should be keeping track of your metrics. That’s because it’s not like traditional fundraising.  You can’t send out a letter and count the dollars 6 weeks later.  It just doesn’t work the same way.

I’ve seen some foolish things in planned giving marketing.  But one of the worst mistakes you can make is to look at immediate revenue as your number one metric.  Instead, since planned giving marketing involves a long-term fundraising strategy, you really need to measure “activities”… not dollars.

This has been proven effective in the private sector for enterprise-level sales (and you better believe that planned giving is an enterprise-level sale) where the best sales managers and marketing directors know that you shouldn’t only measure outcomes.  Rather, you should measure activities.  If the activities are happening and the numbers are going in the right direction, the revenue WILL follow.  It works every time without fail.

Here are the activities we recommend you measure for effective long-term planned giving marketing:

1- Lead generation and disclosures

• Number of leads generated
• Cost per lead generated
• Number of highly qualified leads generated
• Cost per highly qualified lead generated
• Number of disclosures generated
• Cost per disclosure generated

2- Awareness/reached Number of people reached with planned giving messages in the following:

• Publications including magazines, newspapers, newsletters, etc.
• Inserts in acknowledgements
• Facebook posts
• Banners or posters
• Etc.

3- Cultivation numbers Number of people nurtured with on-going messages multiplied by the frequency of those messages via:

• Telephone calls
• Personalized letters
• Personalized emails
• Marketing automation emails
• Face-to-face visits
• Proposals written
• Proposals properly presented

4- Engagements With the right software, you can now track individual prospect engagement with your organization online including:

• Number of times visiting your website
• Number of clicks on that website
• Where were the clicks (what topics)
• How long did they spend online (on average)
• Number of cultivation emails opened
• Number of clicks on cultivation emails

]]> http://www.imarketsmart.com/blog/2013/04/what-activity-metrics-you-should-measure-for-effective-long-term-planned-giving-marketing/feed/ 1 http://www.imarketsmart.com/blog/2013/04/how-the-tortoise-beats-the-hare-in-planned-giving-marketing-every-time/ http://www.imarketsmart.com/blog/2013/04/how-the-tortoise-beats-the-hare-in-planned-giving-marketing-every-time/#comments Mon, 15 Apr 2013 00:22:53 +0000 admin http://www.imarketsmart.com/blog/?p=1278 I’ve been thinking about all the different philosophies that people have when it comes to planned giving marketing.  There are so many out there that it’s hard to know who really knows their stuff.  There’s no consensus.  And, I can honestly say that there’s no “one-size-fits-all” strategy.  Each organization has to determine what works for [...]]]>

I’ve been thinking about all the different philosophies that people have when it comes to planned giving marketing.  There are so many out there that it’s hard to know who really knows their stuff.  There’s no consensus.  And, I can honestly say that there’s no “one-size-fits-all” strategy.  Each organization has to determine what works for them.

But one think I know is true for sure.  You simply can’t beat doing things right.  So that’s what lead me to create this little graphic that compares the tortoise and the hare in planned giving marketing.

Which one are you?