Successful Online Engagement

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Successful Online Engagement

• Karen Matheson
• Case District VIII
• 2/23/2006

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What is Online Engagement?

• Online engagement is reaching out to constituents
  using the Internet
• The tools most commonly used in online
  communications include email messaging, internet
  forms, and websites

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Why Should I Care About Online Communications?

• Over 70 percent of Americans go online everyday
• Over the course of 2004, daily Internet use grew
  at a rapid rate from 52 percent to 70 percent of
  all Americans logging in daily to the Internet
• Despite age differences in percentage of people
  using the Internet, the growth of Internet usage
  is seen across all age groups
• Email use is the number one activity and time
  consumer for the vast majority of Internet users
• Pew Internet and American Life Project,
  September of 2005, found that on any given day,
  about 52 percent of American internet users are
  sending and receiving email, up from 45 percent
  in June of 2004.

• (L. Rainie and J. Horrigan, Pew Internet and
  American Life Project, 2005)

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Advantages of Online Communications

• Its a quick way to get in touch with your
  constituents
• Its a way to reach constituents that use the
  Internet as their primary mode of communications
• Its another way to fundraise
• Its a vehicle to mobilize constituents to
  influence state legislators
• You get immediate feedback about which
  constituents are opening emails, clicking on the
  links, and filling out forms

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Advantages of Online Fundraising

• Creates another way for constituents to donate to
  your organization
• Designing and sending online appeals cuts out
  direct mail costs of stamps and materials
• Online fundraising appeals can be used to draw
  attention to mail materials that potential donors
  are about to receive or have recently received
• Creates an area where people can always go to
  donate

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Engaging Constituents to Influence Legislators

• University of California Case study
• In 2004, facing the biggest budget cuts in its
  history, UC implemented a statewide advocacy
  campaign through email
• The UC Office of the President sent a message to
  UC alumni with an urgent call to action
• Legislators were impressed by the thousands of
  messages they received
• The campaign secured statewide meetings and
  hearings that contributed to a budget agreement
  between the University and the State of
  California
• In that same year, UC also deployed an action
  alert allowing constituents to express opposition
  to an amendment of a state bill that would have
  unfairly increased energy utility bills on
  campuses statewide
• This campaign generated 125,000 emails to
  legislators
• Within three days there was a withdrawal of the
  amendment
• From June 2004 to June 2005, more than 160,000
  emails and faxes were sent to California
  legislative targets on behalf of the University

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Timing is Everything

• Whether its a fundraising ask, a political
  action alert to an upcoming vote, or a news story
  affecting your college or university, timing
  matters
• Email messaging allows you to quickly communicate
  to your constituents on time sensitive issues

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Internet Users Age Group

• On average a larger percentage
• of younger people use the
• Internet
• (Source Pew Internet American Life
• Project, September 2005 Tracking
• Survey.)

• Donors from a large international aid
  organization surveyed their donors in the fall of
  2003 and found their Internet donors to be
  considerably younger than their mail donors
• When surveyed again in the fall of 2005, they
  found similar percentages for Internet donors

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Internet Tracking Technology

• Being able to track how constituents respond to
  Internet communications can improve the
  effectiveness with which you engage your
  constituents
• Internet tracking technology allows you to
• Track which constituents are opening your
  communications
• Track which constituents are clicking on the
  links provided in an email
• Track which constituents are taking action by
  filling out forms they reach via email link

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Measuring Success
How do we measure online communications success?

• By the number of people who opened emails sent to
  them?
• By the number of people who clicked on the links
  in an email?
• By the number of emails/faxes sent to state
  legislators?
• Did the messages sent have an effect on policy?
• Did the messages build a stronger relationship
  with state legislators?
• By the amount of money raised in an online
  fundraising campaign? Offline campaign?

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eNonprofit Benchmarks Study

• http//www.e-nonprofitbenchmarksstudy.com
• The eNonprofit Benchmarks Study, released
  February of 2006, provides a snapshot of key
  metrics and benchmarks for nonprofit e-mail
  communications, online fundraising and online
  advocacy. Data was gathered from the following
  three sources
• Data was primarily taken from an in-depth review
  of statistics from 15 nonprofit organizations --
  six environmental organizations, six civil/legal
  rights organizations, and three international aid
  organizations.
• Aggregate data was obtained from Convio,
  GetActive Software and Kintera -- three major
  providers of online communications tools for
  nonprofits.
• Additional data was collected via an online
  survey of the broader nonprofit community (to
  which 85 organizations responded). The survey
  included data from nine higher education
  institutions.
• The study helps organizations begin to understand
  how to look at and analyze their own online
  communications data. It provides context and
  comparisons for organizations doing their own
  ongoing reporting.

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Tracking E-Mail Messaging

• An organized tracking system is essential in
  order to analyze, evaluate, test, and improve the
  overall effectiveness of your online
  communications program.

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Key Points to Track
Open Rate
Click-Through Rate
Page Completion Rate
Message Received
Message Opened
Clicked on Link
Completed Action Page
Response Rate
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Open Rate Screen Shot
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Priority Statistics Open Rate

• Open Rate
• Definition Unique Individuals who Open the Email
  / Unique Recipients
• What Affects Open Rates?
• Subject Line
• Quality of List
• Timeliness
• Relationship with Sender

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Click-Through Rate Screen Shot
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Priority Statistics Click Through Rate

• Click Through Rate
• Definition Unique Individuals Clicking Link /
  Unique Recipients
• Common Types of Links
• Read More Full Story Available Elsewhere
• Call to Action
• Email action
• Phone action
• Tell-a-friend action
• Event RSVP
• Fundraising
• Survey
• Share your story
• Click through rates can be highly variable

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Page Completion Rate Screen Shot
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Priority Statistics Completion

• Completion Rate
• Definition Number of people taking action /
  Unique individuals visiting the page
• What affects completion rates?
• Content layout of the page itself
• Experience whether people have used that page
  before
• Context whether the email message properly
  prepared people for the action

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Priority Statistics Response Rate

• Response Rate
• Definition Number of people taking action /
  Individuals who received the email message
• What Affects Return Rates
• Topic
• Urgency
• Writing
• History
• Audience

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What Are Some Average Open Rates?

• eNonprofit Benchmarks Study open rates for all
  in-depth study partners ranged from 15 to 45,
  while the average open rate across all partners
  was 25
• Aggregate vendor data reported an average open
  rate of 19 across all of their clients (over
  1,000 organizations)
• The self-report nonprofit survey reported an
  average open rate of 34

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What Can I Expect From Click-Through Rates?

• Expect much lower click-through rates for
  fundraising emails
• Using segmentation methods improves click-through
  rates
• Day of the week impacts
• click-through rates

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Typical Response Rates

• Not surprisingly, you can expect significantly
  lower fundraising response rates
• Again, using segmentation can increase response
  rates
• Weekday did not have a
• significant impact on response
• rates

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Page Completion Rates

• Fundraising page completion rates tend to be
  lower than advocacy page completion rates
• Here again, we see the positive impact of
  segmentation

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Message Length/Grade Level

• How long is too long? How short is too short?
• In the Benchmarks study, messages under 250 words
  had on average a 2.5 percent lower response rate
• Except extremely short messages, the high
  performers varied in message length
• Does the grade level at which messages are
  written matter?
• No, every organization has a different
  constituency so writing level should be based on
  an organizations constituents

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Successful Online Advocacy

• The Benchmarks study found the following to
  positively impact the number of advocacy actions
  taken by constituents
• Multiple advocacy emails per month
• Larger list sizes
• Longer duration of online advocacy program
• Larger online communications budget

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Online Fundraising Gift Amounts
In the Benchmarks study, both the in-depth study
partner group and the aggregate vendor data had
an average gift size of almost 100 dollars.

• In the broader nonprofit survey, organizations
  with larger email lists raised significantly more
  money.

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Online Fundraising Gift Amounts

• Between 60 and 70 percent of online donation
  totals for environmental and rights groups came
  in gifts that were under 250 dollars.
• For environmental and rights groups, donations
  under 250 constituted almost 95 percent of the
  number of gifts they received overall.

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Benchmarks Best Practices

• Budget for Success
• For the in-depth study partners, we saw a clear
  relationship between the online communications
  budget and two key indicators of success the
  amount raised in online donations and the total
  number of advocacy actions taken.
• Length Your E-Mail List to Increase Online
  Advocacy and Fundraising Impact
• The study found that organizations with larger
  e-mail lists were better able to achieve online
  fundraising success, and saw significantly
  greater results in terms of online advocacy
  outcomes.
• Anticipate and Track List Churn
• When planning for e-mail list growth,
  organizations must anticipate list churn.
• With 28 percent of all e-mail subscribers
  becoming unreachable, on average, within a
  12-month period, it is critical to compensate for
  list churn and substantially grow an e-mail list.
  
• Improve Retention of List Subscribers
• Organizations with a greater percentage of
  subscribers retained on e-mail lists for longer
  than one year saw higher action participation
  rates and generated more citizen letters.
• Organizations should pursue list management
  strategies to increase the longevity of e-mail
  list subscribers by increasing retention rates
  and reducing churn.

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Benchmarks Best Practices

• Carefully Track Marketing and Recruitment Efforts
• Successful return on investment analysis
  absolutely depends on an organization
  establishing careful tracking mechanisms up
  front, before online marketing programs are
  launched.
• Test Optimizing Day of the Week for Advocacy
  Message Launch
• Act Quickly to Respond to Timely Events
• Some of the success that international aid
  organizations had with online fundraising in
  2004-2005 was due to the dramatic surge in online
  fundraising in support of Asian tsunami relief
  efforts. This was made possible, in part, by
  reacting quickly to this emergency, to make
  information about relief efforts and donation
  opportunities available via organizational Web
  sites and to e-mail subscribers.
• All organizations should have rapid response
  fundraising plans in place to move quickly in
  response to urgent events and give subscribers
  opportunities to donate online.
• Carefully Target and Segment E-Mail Messages
• To boost response rates, organizations should
  develop strategies to more carefully target and
  track e-mail messages.

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List Segmentation By Transactional History

• Segmenting by transactional history allows you to
  send messages to people based on their past
  performance
• Donors
• First time donors
• Repeat donors
• Core donors
• Non-donors
• Activists
• First time activists
• Core activists
• Donor Activists (constituents who have both given
  money and made actions)
• News Readers

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List Segmentation By Interest Area

• Segmenting by constituents interests allows you
  to tailor the content of your messages to
  different audiences likes and dislikes
• Athletics
• Music
• Theater
• Art
• Science Research
• Alumni/Special Events
• Greek Life

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Segmentation By Demographics

• Demographic information allows you to further
  segment your audience based on individual, family
  and lifestyle characteristics
• Age
• Gender
• Income
• Households with Children

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Where Do I Get A Hold of This Interest Area and
Demographic Information?

• Alumni Database
• Donor Database
• Individual Schools and Colleges
• Online/Offline Surveys
• Census Data
• Voter File Data

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Dont Be Afraid - Just Ask

• Online Surveys
• People like talking about themselves and are
  usually more than willing to take a quick survey
• Dont ask too many questions or people will get
  bored and leave the survey
• Dont ask questions to which you already know the
  answers
• Do ask questions about what types of
  communications constituents would like to receive
  from your institution
• Do ask questions about what motivates
  constituents to respond to fundraising or
  advocacy asks
• Do provide varied response choices on individual
  questions

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Online Survey Tools

• http//www.surveymonkey.com/
• http//info.zoomerang.com/
• http//www.surveylink.com/
• http//www.supersurvey.com/

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Questions?

• Contact Information
• Karen Matheson
• MR Strategic Services
• 615 2nd Avenue Suite 550
• Seattle, WA 98104
• [phone]
• kmatheson_at_mrss.com
• eNonprofit Benchmarks Study
• http//www.e-benchmarksstudy.com