How Marketing Automation Can Help Charities Deepen Engagement with Supporters to Raise More Money

Contents

In this blog, Joanne Warner our Director of International Business Development will explore how non-profits can use the power of marketing automation to build deeper relationships with supporters and ultimately raise more money. 

What is marketing automation?

Have you ever booked a flight and then got an email asking if you want to upgrade or book a seat or add hold luggage? That’s going to be marketing automation.

Have you ever got halfway through an online check out process and stopped only to receive an email from the same company a few hours later asking if there’s something they can help you with? That’s going to be marketing automation. 

Have you ever got an email from your favourite restaurant a week before your birthday offering a free drink to celebrate? That’s going to be marketing automation. 

These are all activities personalised to you and designed to give you a great experience. That’s marketing automation.

ocean conservancy automation flow

Why do we need marketing automation?

Automated emails have a 70.5% higher open rate and a 152% higher click-through rate than standard messages. (Epsilon)

44% of donors told Accenture in 2017 that they would be willing to donate up to 10% more for a personalised experience.

It’s no understatement to say it’s tough times for fundraisers. However, technology, specifically marketing automation can help you deepen your engagement with supporters and ultimately raise more money. 

With the right marketing automation technology you can: 

Plan your campaigns

Imagine knowing how many people you have in each list, having email templates set up, the ability to preview your email, run tests and schedule emails to go at a specific time or for a specific reason. And, more importantly, imagine having this planned in advance so it runs seamlessly. Your job becomes about ongoing optimisation and not slow and manual processes.

Segment your list

You can segment on criteria like user data, question responses, participation in advocacy actions or submitted fundraising pages. We know that people often support our cause in different ways. We need a way to prioritise their needs. The right technology puts the tools directly in your hands.

types of automation

Trigger email series

It’s your supporters birthday, or they’ve just given for the first time, or their credit card is about to expire. Imagine having the ability to get in touch with your supporters at the right time without needing to take any action.

Convert leads to donors

To raise more money your database needs to be continuously growing and you need to have plans of how to convert those people to financial support. We know it can feel overwhelming but marketing automation can help you define journeys and workflows.  

Engage with your supporters in a relevant way

It’s all about collecting the right data from your supporters in the right way. Do you know why they joined your list? What they are interested in hearing about from you? Consider, can you ask them to take further actions or complete surveys to help you gain insight and understanding? Your technology should help you get a better understanding of your supporters and their needs.  

reporting

Analyse and optimise your journeys

You need to know what’s working and what’s not. You’ll want to split test your content, test your subject lines, change your priorities. You may want to amend content for seasonal activities. Ensure you are constantly reviewing and powering up when something’s working and dialing down when it’s not. The right technology will give you the insight you need. 

Is your organisation ready for marketing automation?

How does your activity benchmark against best practice? Is there more you could be doing to build relationships and deepen engagement with your supporters? Take our marketing automation health check today to understand how your organisation measures up.TAKE THE MARKETING AUTOMATION HEALTHCHECK NOW

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