Multiple online donation pages are your friend - really!
Are you using multiple donor pages for online giving? Well, you should. How else are you going to track where your gifts are coming from so that you know which of your online campaigns are working.
Your online donation system needs to allow you to create multiple donation pages if it does not I would recommend finding one that does. Each donation page should have a unique name and URL. That way you can use different pages for different campaigns. For example, you might have three online campaigns: Internal E-blast, Acquisition E-blast, and Social Media i.e. Facebook, and Twitter.
Internal E-blast- This is an e-blast that goes to your current donors. Ideally, this E-blast would mimic the style and words of your direct mail appeals. Now the rules are a bit different for how much text and graphics to use but the feel ought to be the same since this e-blast is typically, sent in conjunction with mailed pieces.
Acquisition E-blast- This is an e-blast that is usually sent by a separate company. These are very similar to direct mail acquisitions. The email could mimic your base acquisition piece since you know it works. There are a number of companies that can assist you with this type of e-blast. I have found the cost moderately reasonable for the number of people that you can reach.
Social Media - Each platform is a bit different, but the idea is the same that you should use a dedicated donation page. Let's look at Facebook. There are three places you should be using donor pages on Facebook.
1. You can create a “donate” or “learn more” tab for your main page.
2. You can create a series of post designed to ask people to support your charity or cause.
3. Or you could purchase ads since you certainly want to see how well they are doing a separate donation page is a must. These ads should be timely and based on your very best post. Facebook Analytics can tell you which post got an above average number of likes or shares.
Twitter- On this platform, you have two places you can use donor pages.
1. You should create a series of tweets that all use the same donation page URL. A short video is ideal for this type of appeal. Also, don’t forget to be donor-centric even in 140 characters.
2. You can also purchase promoted tweets (or ads). You will want to track which donations came from the ads. Again, I would recommend basing the paid tweets on your most retweeted or shared tweets.
Knowing which page your donations came from can help you focus your efforts. If you never get donations from Social Media, maybe you won't put as much effort into that particular avenue. You will definitely, want to know which of your online donations came from your acquisition appeal and renewal appeal. On the acquisition side, you will also want to know to which list/e-blast each donor is responding. All of this will help you figure out where to put your efforts and what your ROI is for each online/eblast appeal.
Please let me know how you use multiple donor pages.{jcomments on}
