With so many media choices now available, the best way to take control and build an integrated marketing campaign can be to align them to the RACE (reach, act, convert and engage) model.
Reach
Your website will probably be at the heart of every marketing campaign you do – it’s where potential supporters can check you out, interact and, most importantly, donate! This first stage considers how you can reach the new audiences you want to target and get them to your site.
There are lots digital tools and techniques to help you.
Investing time in SEO (Search engine optimisation) helps you get found against key search terms relevant to your campaign and what prospective donors are keying into the Google search bar. This can be supplemented with Google Ads pay-per-click supported by a Google Ad Grant.
More traditional media can also be used at this stage of course, with off-the-page advertising and unaddressed mail through the letterbox being popular and affordable ways to build reach and drive traffic to your website.
Google Campaign URL builder in conjunction with Google Analytics can help you to keep track of the performance of both online and offline tools. If you’ve not discovered this valuable tool yet you can check it out here.
Act & Convert
The key here is conversion rate optimisation (CRO). You’ve worked hard to get visitors to your site, so make sure you are maximising their experience and starting to build that relationship.
Create great landing pages for your campaigns and provide a range of ways to move forward. Many might not be ready to donate just yet, so give them ways to find out more about what you do: videos, case studies and links to social content can be important ways to build the vital credibility and trust. You can’t develop the relationship towards giving if you don’t build data, so give visitors great reasons to join your newsletter, pick up the phone or request further details about the campaign. GDPR supports permission-based marketing, so see the rules as applying best practice and a route to building a quality, sustainable donor base.
Engage
Don’t acquire a new donor unless you’ve mapped out a retention and development strategy!
Content marketing is vital to keeping donors engaged – give them the tools to participate, learn, contribute and share. Supporting a charity should be a rewarding experience for both parties! If it is, donors will support you for longer and make a greater overall contribution.
E-newsletters, promotional emails, social and mobile can all work well and in conjunction with more traditional direct marketing, to build and maintain engagement.
Keep building that trust and credibility, so the balance of goodwill remains in your favour. Great customer service and support is vital to building and developing a loyal supporter base. And yes! I did say ‘customer’!