understanding key metrics of direct mail, online, & multi-channel fundraising

Understanding Key Metrics Of Direct Mail, Online, & Multi-Channel Fundraising

March 2, 1:45-2:45

Welcome to Our Session!

Introductions:• Bryan Terpstra, VP of Fundraising, LW Robbins• Paul Habig, Exec. VP, SankyNet (@paulhabig)

Tweet along with hashtag #DMA

This is a fundamentals session –

- Understanding the most important metrics & buzz words people use in offline, online, and multi-channel worlds

- Will cover the basics – and get you started with advanced

- This session is useful for those: - New to the industry - Just starting out in online/multi-channel

fundraising

• File Audits: Essentials you need to know!

• Key Metrics/Benchmarks used for: DM Appeals Online Appeals Website Analytics SEO/SEM Analysis Multi-Channel Analysis

Here’s what we’ll cover today:

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File Audits:Essentials You Need to Know

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File Audits• Measuring and tracking donors, not

campaign results

• Typically look at trends across years and across multiple channels: direct mail, online, telemarketing, special events, etc.

• Four major audiences: New Donors, First Year Renewal Donors,

Multi-Year Donors, Lapsed Donors

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What you want to know “Is my program growing?”

• Things to measure: # of new donors over 3-5 years Value :

- Average Gift Gross Rev./ Total # of Gifts- Rev. Per Donor Gross Rev./ Total # of Donors- Gifts Per Donor Total # Gifts/ Total # of Donors

New Donors –

2010 to 20112007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Percent Change

New Donor Acquisition

Current Year Donors 10,968 7,279 4,869 5,528 4,789 -13.37%

Current Year Gifts 15,074 10,490 7,262 7,358 6,426 -12.67%

Current Year Revenue $493,217 $505,453 $317,652 $402,106 $452,097 12.43%

Current Year Average Gift $32.72 $48.18 $43.74 $54.65 $70.35 28.74%

Current Year Revenue per Donors $44.97 $69.44 $65.24 $72.74 $94.40 29.78%

Current Year Gifts per Donor 1.37 1.44 1.49 1.33 1.34 0.81%

First Year Donor Renewal

Previous Year Donors 4,609 10,968 7,279 4,869 5,528 13.53%

Previous Year Revenue $260,665 $493,217 $505,453 $317,652 $402,106 26.59%

Current Year Donors 1,512 3,449 1,751 1,548 1,342 -13.31%

Current Year Gifts 3,273 7,374 3,951 3,299 2,908 -11.85%

Current Year Revenue $131,438 $283,970 $242,690 $140,649 $143,484 2.02%

Donor Retention Rate 32.81% 31.45% 24.06% 31.79% 24.28% -23.64%

Current Year Average Gift $40.16 $38.51 $61.43 $42.63 $49.34 15.73%

Current Year Revenue per Donor $86.93 $82.33 $138.60 $90.86 $106.92 17.68%

Current Year Gifts per Donor 2.16 2.14 2.26 2.13 2.17 1.68%

• Number of new donors in 2010 had a big impact on 2011 and will continue to have a big impact for years …

New Donors –What you want to know “How Many Do You Have?”

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What you want to know “When will my new donors break even?”

Cost per new donor Total cost of acquisition/ # of new donors

LTV analysis

Tracking costs and rev. by list over a period of time

New Donors –

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Mailing ListAcq Cost Per

DonorCost at 12

MonthsValue at 12

Months12 Month Value

minus Cost

List A $14.00 $35.00 $33.00 -$2.00List B $14.00 $37.00 $55.00 $18.00List C $18.00 $40.00 $67.00 $27.00

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• What you want to know “Are my new donors giving again after their first year in the program?”

• Things to measure: First Year Retention/Renewal Rate:

- Total # of new donors previous year giving a gift this year/ Total # of all new donors previous year

Value: Average Gift, Rev. Per Donor, Gifts Per Donor

First Year Renewal Donors –Just a Date? Or are you in a Relationship?

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First Year Renewal Donors –Just a Date? Or are you in a Relationship?

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Strategies for FYR donors

Welcome & Acknowledgments

Second gift series

Pre-lapsing program at 9 -12 months

• What you want to know “How healthy are the stats for my core, loyal donors?”

• Things to measure: Multi-Year Retention/Renewal Rate:

- Total # of MYR donors previous year giving a gift this year/ Total # of all MYR donors previous year

Value : Avg Gift, Rev Per Donor, Gifts Per Donor

Multi-Year Renewal Donors –Some Very Good Friends …

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Strategies for MYR donors

Monthly Giving Opportunities

Mid-Level Programs & Packages

Loyalty & Retention Mailings/Messages

Major & Planned Giving Leads

Multi-Year Renewal Donors –Some Very Good Friends …

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• What you want to know “How many are reactivating?”

• Reactivated donors more valuable than new donors, have much higher renewal rates

• Things to measure: Reactivation Rate (1 year vs. 2 year vs. 3+ year lapsed)

- Total # of lapsed donors previous year giving a gift this year/ Total # of all lapsed donors previous year

Value: Average Gift, Rev Per Donor, Gifts Per Donor

Lapsed Donors –Old Friends … with Benefits

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Strategies for Lapsed donors

Inception Package Mailings

Tailored Messaging & Treatments

Premium Packages

Anniversary Style Packages

Lapsed Modeling

Lapsed Donors –Old Friends … with Benefits

Key Metrics used forDM Appeals & Email Appeals

• Average GiftCampaign Gross Revenue/ Total # of Gifts

• Cost Per Dollar RaisedTotal Campaign Cost/ Gross Revenue

• Cost Per PieceTotal Campaign Costs/ Total # of Pieces Mailed

• Response RateTotal # of Gifts/ Total # of Pieces Mailed

• Net RevenueTotal Campaign Gross Rev. minus Total Campaign Cost

• ROITotal Gross Rev/ Total Campaign Cost

Basic Metrics – DM Appeals

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Online Metrics• Everything digital can be measured• Too much information – you must give it context• How can this help create a strategy?

WebsiteEmail

Email Metrics“How do I get metrics, and what should I measure?”

• Keep data on EVERY email in one place• Aggregate by type of email (newsletter, appeal, etc.)• Segment out groups (donors, prospects, etc.) to track response

separately and compare

What to Measure:

• Open Rate – Does anyone care? • Click-Through Rate – Does anyone read it?• Conversions – Does anyone donate?• Unsubscribe – Does anyone want it to stop?

Email MetricsOpen rate (# Clicks/ # Opens)

“How many people opened your email?”

What a good open rate means:- Subject line was effective- Sender was recognizable- Sent at a ideal time of day

(morning on weekdays)

Industry Average is 18%

Email MetricsClick-Through Rate (# Clicks/ # Opens)

“How many people clicked on the links?”

What a good CTR means:- Messaging drove action- Links were well placed- Compelling images were linked

Industry Average is 1.69%

Email MetricsResponse Rate (# Donations/ # Sent)

“How many people donated from the email?”

What a good response rate means:- Messaging drove donations- Donors were ready to give (cultivated)- You made some money!

Industry Average is 0.23%

Email MetricsUnsubscribe Rate (# Unsubscribes / # Sent)

“How many people don’t want my emails?”

What a high unsubscribe rate means:- Too many emails going to same group- Subject line and messaging were mismatched- The person is a donor, and the message asked for a gift without acknowledging previous giving

Industry Average is 0.04%

Email MetricsExample Tracking Table

  Online Donors DM Donors Prospects Total

Delivery        # Emails Sent 2,062 1,585 12,464 16,613

# Delivered Successfully 2,056 1,580 12,410 16,547

Delivery Rate 99.71% 99.68% 99.57% 99.60%

Email Activity        

# Emails Opened 321 112 701 1,242

Open Rate 15.61% 7.09% 5.65% 7.51%

# Emails Clicked 32 8 22 67

# Total Clicks 53 10 35 103

Click-To-Open 9.97% 7.14% 3.14% 5.39%

Click-Through Rate 1.56% 0.51% 0.18% 0.40%

Non-Fundraising        

# Unsubscribe 13 10 23 48

Unsubscribe Rate 0.63% 0.63% 0.19% 0.29%

Fundraising        

# Donations 16 3 1 30

$ Donated $640 $250 $50 $3,455

Average Donation $40.00 $83.33 $50.00 $115.17

Overall Response Rate 0.78% 0.19% 0.01% 0.18%

Email Metrics“How can this data help me strategize?”

Find costs vs income: • Revenue per 1,000 emails (1,000 / Sum of Donations)• Cost per 1,000 emails (1,000 x Cost)• ROI (Spent / Donations)

Email Metrics“How can this data help me strategize?”

Track these metrics over time

July August September October November December0.00%

0.50%

1.00%

1.50%

2.00%

2.50%

Appeal Click-Through-Rates

Recipe Mailing Click-Though-Rates

Click-Though-Rate of Different Email Types

Fundamentals of Web Site Analytics

Website Metrics“How do I get metrics, and what should I measure?”

• Install and use Google Analytics. Do it now!• Use origin code tracking or custom segments from referring sites

to measure traffic from specific sources (like emails)

What to Measure:

• Pageviews & Unique Views – Is my site being seen?• Referring Sites – How do they get there?• Time-on-Site – How long do they stay?• Top Content – What part of my site is most interesting?• Bounce Rate – How many people click then leave?

Website MetricsPageviews (How many times the site loaded)

Unique Visitors (How many individual visitors)

“How many people are coming to my site?”

What pageviews vs. unique visitors means:- Are there lots of people visiting your site multiple times? - Are there traffic spikes?

Industry Average is anywhere from 6,000 to 20,000

Website MetricsReferring Sites (Number of people from a source)

“How did people find my site?”

What referring links mean:- Is there a pattern in traffic sources that can be used to find new online partners?- Are there spikes in referrals (from press, etc.)?- Set a goal to have more traffic from a source (a partner, a social network, etc.)

Direct traffic (to your url) is usually first, then Google

Website MetricsTime-on-Site (Average time spent on site)

“How long did people stay?”

Look at what pages are keeping people reading!

What time-on-site means:- Longer time means deeper engagement?- Only a few seconds means irrelevant or unappealing content.

Website MetricsPages-per-Visit (# Pageviews / # Visitors)

“How deep do visitors go?”

What pages-per-visit means:- More pages means deeper engagement- One page isn’t bad – but it’s not ideal

Average is 2.03 pages per visit

Website MetricsBounce Rate (People who visit page / People who leave after 1 second)“Do I have quality traffic?”

What bounce rate means:- High bounce rate means your traffic sources

are not delivering good leads- Paid traffic from ads may have higher

bounce rate- New visitors are more likely to bounce

60% is average, anything over 90% is a problem!

Website MetricsCombinations of Metrics

“How can I see where people viewing a page came from and if they are new visitors?”

- Referring sites on top content, and unique views

“How can I see if traffic from Facebook stays on my site?”- Bounce rate Time on Site of visits from referring site of

Facebook

“How can I see how many people complete my donation form?”- Unique visits on donation form divided by donations in a

certain time period.

Advanced Website Analytics and Search Engine Analysis

Advanced Website MetricsHeatmapping

• High traffic areas

• Important placements on site

Advanced Website MetricsSearch Engine Optimization

“Where does my site come up on Google?”

Google/Bing/Yahoo Pagerank:

Backlines, keywords, and magic = Where your site is listed for each search term.

Alexa Rank:

Rank of popularity across all internet sites. Lower is more popular in terms of visitors.

Advanced Web MetricsSearch Engine Marketing“How is my Google Grant doing?”

Cost-per-Click (CPC):How much it costs to display your ad for that search termGoogle Grants are capped at $1.00 CPC

Impressions:How many people see your text ad

Average Ad Position:Where on the search page the ad appears. Higher is more visible, but only the highest bid gets that spot.

Remember Google Grant only lets you bid up to $1!

Multi-Channel Analysis

• Some key things about donors/constituents:

Move across many programs and channels Have different habits, ways of communicating,

levels of commitment Receive information (intentional and

unintentional) about mission and brand at all

touch points Will be significantly impacted by how your

organization communicates with them along

the way

Multi-Channel DonorsYour BFF!!

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Multi-Channel DonorsYour BFF!!

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• Talk to them where you find them

• Multi-channel donors are HIGH VALUE donors, much higher retention rates than single channel donors

Year XXAll Donors Giving DM

Gifts OnlyGiving Web Gifts

OnlyGiving to 2 or

More Channels(Any Gifts to DM, Web, Tele,

WM)

Annual Revenue/Donor $102.00 $54.00 $181.00 $190.00

First Year Renewal Rate 22.35% 29.26% 5.63% 76.88% First Year Revenue/Donor $85.00 $58.00 $188.00 $134.00

Multi-Year Renewal Rate 58.83% 53.30% 36.95% 64.55%

Multi-Year Revenue/Donor $154.00 $89.00 $377.00 $185.00

Recapture Rate – 1 Year Lapsed 17.59% 15.31% 5.55% 25.10%

1 Year Lapsed Revenue/Donor $89.00 $57.00 $210.00 $124.00

Multi-Channel DonorsYour BFF!!

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Strategies for Multi-Channel donors

Integrated Media Plan: communicate in many channels

Have a multi-touch plan for major appeals

Conversion series for online to offline

Update website often

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Online

2 emails in welcome series

Telemarketing

1 automated call to welcome donors

Direct Mail

3 appeals for conversion series – #1 photo of kids, #2 certificate, #3 tote bag

Case Study #1:St. Labre New Donor Series

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Case Study #1:St. Labre New Donor Series

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• Results:– First-Year renewal rates jumped from

27% to about 35%– Overall response rates to direct mail

series very high, effort 1 at 8%, effort 2 at 7%, effort 3 at 12%

Case Study #2:St. Labre Water Emergency

Online

1 email – integrated message with DM

Direct Mail

1 appeal – includes blueprints for new water system needed

Telemarketing

Coordinated campaign to donors, lasted several weeks

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Case Study #2:St. Labre Water Emergency

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Online

1 email – integrated message with DM

Direct Mail

1 appeal – includes blueprints for new water system needed

Telemarketing

Coordinated campaign to donors, lasted several weeks

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Case Study #2:St. Labre Water Emergency Email

Case Study #2:St. Labre Water Emergency Email

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• Results:

Email – raised over $20,000 in gross revenue

Direct Mail – over $1 million in gross revenue mailed universe of about 400,000

Case Study #2:St. Labre Water Emergency

You can do this type of multi-channel campaign forMANY reasons: matching gift, budget short falls, year-end appeals, specific need appeals, mid-level offers

Case Study # 3: Multi-Channel Donor Response

Case Study # 3: Multi-Channel Donor Response

Any Questions?

These slides will be on Slideshare at http://www.slideshare.net/SankyNet

Bryan TerpstraVice President, FundraisingLW Robbinsbterpstra@lwra.com

Paul HabigExecutive Vice PresidentSankyNetphabig@sankynet.com@paulhabig