Once you understand how to target your new donor acquisition strategy your current donor base can provide key information that will assist you in finding more people like them that are most likely going to be interested in supporting the efforts of your organization in response to your marketing campaigns.
Different organizations hold a variety of information in their current and lapsed donor database and all of it can be used to help improve your acquisition marketing. The best demographics to focus on are ones that can be found in the market place and targeted in some fashion with a compelling offer. Some common traits would be geographic mapping, age groupings, total household income, recency of last donation and type of donor. (One time / annual / monthly)
There are several choices available to try and reach the prospects that you have found from your donor research, addressed or unaddressed direct mail, email, calling campaigns or even referral programs. There is rarely one single focus to maximize return, rather a combination of all of the opportunities in a balanced annual strategic plan. Once the delivery method is determined you need to decide what the call to action going to be? A broader view of the benefits the organizations provides, a more targeted piece on specific impacts by region or target segment interests, a gift premium for certain donation levels or types, a special timeframe offer tailored to a recent event.
Where Gilmore perhaps adds the most value for our Partners is in the seamless execution of the chosen strategy. We work collaboratively with each Customer to deliver top quality print or digital content while still meeting or exceeding deadlines. We review the project from start to completion to make sure we are achieving your marketing objectives and assign all tasks to the subject matter experts on our Operations team.
One last item that is often a challenge is to set realistic expectations on performance, base goals off previous campaigns actual performance. Wanting to improve performance through test and control strategies is a great plan but if you are not realistic setting your goals it can derail a new marketing strategy before it even has a chance to be successful.
Watch soon for the next posting; Donor Retention
Thank you
Scott Cherkewich, Director Marketing, Gilmore Doculink
