WHAT IS THE KEY TO MULTICHANNEL FUNDRAISING SUCCESS?
Think: teamwork makes the dream work. It’s not only true for all your staff, board, volunteers and supporters, it’s also true of your marketing channels–especially email, text and social media. Why put all the pressure on one communication medium to serve the needs of your entire organization? Much like achieving your mission with the right support, it all works better together.
Our comprehensive, step-by-step multichannel fundraising guide provides critical ways to get your email, text and social media messaging on the same team and work together for
your cause. We’ll begin with indispensable components of any successful multichannel campaign. Then we’ll explore email marketing strategies to get your messages opened, read and clicked on. We’ll then provide essential ways to approach follow-through for both mobile and social media to help you create a cohesive campaign that increases your mission. Learn how your communication channels can collaborate to further the message of your cause and keep donors coming back!
READY TO GET STARTED? LET'S GO!
4 STEPS TO KICK OFF YOUR MULTICHANNEL FUNDRAISING PLAN.
Multichannel marketing is when you promote your fundraising campaign (or any communications!) across various platforms such as direct mail, email, text messaging and social media in order to expand your reach and more effectively rally donors around your cause. Here are 4 essential steps to get you started and ensure you reach the right people at the right time.
1. IDENTIFY MAJOR GOALS
Begin by identifying any financial goals for your campaign, but don’t stop there! Rather than
focusing solely on raising more money for your nonprofit, you can also build goals around
impact, engagement, donor retention and recurring giving. Impact goals could include;
number of hot meals passed out, number of homes fixed, or number of dogs given new
homes. Engagement goals could include; reaching a specific number or increasing overall
number of social media followers, comments, reactions, or newsletter subscribers.
2. LEARN MORE ABOUT YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
Is one of your goals to increase your reach into a younger, more tech savvy demographic? Looking to reconnect with and re-engage past donors? Whoever your intended audience is, take the time to research things like their consumer habits, preferred method of engagement (hint: for most it’s mobile!), how they consume content, and types of content
that impact that demographic. The more get to know your audience, the easier it will be to connect and inspire involvement in your cause.
3. PUT IT ON THE BOOKS!
Don’t leave your strategy up to chance. Kind of like a nagging appointment you keep “forgetting” to schedule, it can be easy to put things off. Instead, get it on the calendar. Treat your emails, mobile messaging and social media content as you would any important event on your organization's agenda. Make sure all key team members have the same communications calendar well ahead of time. Not only will this create accountability for your campaign, but will give you a clear way of tracking results from your channels, individually and collectively.
4. ESTABLISH WAYS OF TRACKING AND ANALYZING RESULTS
With so many ways of communicating with potential donors (and even more combinations of message and medium), it’s important for nonprofits to track and analyze touchpoints that lead to donations. This will help identify patterns of success and inform future fundraising.
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4 FACTORS TO SYNCHING UP MULTICHANNEL MESSAGING
According to Nonprofits Source, it can take up to 18-20 touchpoints to reach a donor for the first time. This means you need not be afraid to really ramp up your engagement efforts in order to bring new donors into the fold. The question is: who really wants to get the same email message 18-20 times? Deploying a cohesive multichannel campaign can more effectively do the touchpoint legwork on your behalf with far less risk of donor fatigue. It’s unlikely that every donor will see every message you send. So multiple touch points with the same content helps ensure it’s getting seen. While you’ll want to stay away from the ‘copy-paste’’ mentality every single time, you can still repurpose the same content and give it a new spin. Here are the most effective ways to keep your content working towards the same goal.
1. BRANDING AND IDENTITY
Branding may sound like it’s just for big businesses, and may not be on the top of your priorities when faced with achieving your mission. However, it’s crucial to the perception and long-term success of your nonprofit. If you aren’t already paying close attention to your organization’s branding, then now’s the time to start. Ask yourself: what’s unique about my nonprofit and the community it serves, what are our values, how do we want to be perceived? The goal is for your voice, style and outreach to all be in accord. A great example of cohesive identity would be to use the same branded keywords, shortcode and hashtags that speak to your cause across your campaign channels.
2. DESIGN ELEMENTS
Your nonprofit likely already has a logo (you’ll need one!). Be sure to extend the concept design elements of your logo into your website, emails, social media and links you send via mobile. Colors, fonts, shading, formatting, even the filter you use on your Instagram pics to make the image pop, all speak to your brand. When it all feels connected, your brand
becomes more easily recognizable and memorable to your audience.
3. STORYTELLING AND LANGUAGE
This comes down to determining the “voice” of your organization. A nonprofit focused on raising money for rare diseases may speak to its audience in a different way than one focused on dog rescue or college scholarships for underserved communities or services for the elderly. Your languaging and storytelling might lean more poignant or more playful. Mixing it up from time to time can be great, but be sure there’s an overall consistency.
4. IMPACT
Every channel should be sharing the good work your nonprofit is doing in the world. Either
through video, image, infographic or storytelling, continually remind your audience of what
you can and do achieve together with the right support.
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