Don Dea offers up Rules for Twitter as a Fundraising Tool

Don Dea is an accomplished entrepreneur, marketer and association pro. Among his many accomplishments, he is co-founder of Fusion Productions, current president of the ASAE Membership Section and a prolific writer with his own blog DigitalNow Community Group from LinkedIn. The following is taken from his post dated March 10, 2010.

Twitter fundraising has steadily been on the rise in the last two years. Twitter has been used to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for charities and charitable causes, and has been used to spread awareness about social issues. But it takes more than posting multiple tweets a day to get the job done. We talked to a few Twitter () fundraising pros about what they’ve found to be the best practices.

1. Cultivate a Strong Community First : First and foremost, always keep in mind that the power of Twitter is merely a reflection of the power of community. Twitter is not a fundraising machine; people are...

2. State Your Purpose and Your Request Clearly: When disseminating information, be sure to state your purpose clearly and concisely. Let people know why they should care about your cause, and be specific about how their contributions will benefit others. It seems like common sense, but there are times when we forget to highlight the “why” and “how” when making a statement or releasing a call to action....

3. Create Buzz and Excitement: Generating hype around your cause and event is imperative, which means it’s important to be singular and set your charity apart from the rest. Catchy taglines or hashtags and unique avatar ribbons are simple features that can be incorporated to brand your initiative....

4. Have a Strong Set Up Behind the Scenes: Twitter is a great a many things. It’s a tool for communication. It’s a platform for spreading your message. It’s an information source, and it’s a community builder. However, using Twitter and creating hype around your cause doesn’t guarantee any cold hard cash....

5. Have a Powerful Offline Component: While we can enjoy and value the exchanges we have via Twitter, at the end of the day, we’re humans and we feed the most off of human interaction. Whether it’s a tweetup, a festival, a rally, or a concert, having an offline component tied into your fundraising practice is vital....

6. Plan, Prepare, Execute, then Get Out of the Way: Like with any entity branded by social media, it’s important to remember that because Twitter is an integral part of your fundraising campaign, you do not have control over how your message is going to be spread. ...

7. Recognize Volunteers and Donors: Recognizing individuals for their contributions goes far, especially in the Twitterverse. Whether it’s a mention on a blog, a photo on a website, a thank you tweet, or a goody bag, your contributors should be acknowledged for their time and energy. Honors can be issued at offline events and make the entire fundraising experience that much more celebratory...

9. Keep Track of Developing Relationships: Seeing money come in is merely one of the many rewards bestowed upon non-profits, volunteers and donors. In addition to raising funds for important causes, a certain alchemy transpires when people come together to create social good, and from there more change-making can occur. Once again, the cornerstone is community...

10. Look for Ways to Improve for Next Time: Whether you meet your fundraising goals or you come up short, there is always room for improvement. Communicate with your supporters about what tactics worked with blazing colors and what actions bombed miserably. Be open to criticism and suggestions about ways the process could run more smoothly and effectively. Keep your humor and your wits about you.

Have brainstorming sessions. Research what other groups are doing to raise money using Twitter, but don’t try to replicate their campaigns. If you do so, your audience will see right through you.

Keep dreaming. Keep believing. Keep tweeting. And give yourself a pat on the back for doing your part for social good

By Don Dea Co-Founder, Fusion Productions

Last Chance to Participate

For the second year in a row, MGI is conducting a Membership Marketing Benchmarking Survey. The report will include a trend analysis of what has changed over the past year (since the 2009 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Survey) and highlight key data on what associations are doing in membership marketing - awareness, acquisition, engagement and renewal.

As we're about to close the questionnaire for our 2010 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Survey, I wanted to make sure that you had one last chance to participate. For each person who completes a questionnaire, you'll receive a free copy of the final report.

If you'd like to participate, please use the link below to open the survey.

https://www.snapsurveys.com/swh/surveylogin.asp?k=126590674222

It should only take about 10 minutes to complete.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Surprising Results from a Recent Study - Students and Young Professionals are Influenced by Direct Mail

Like all marketers, we are constantly evaluating which channel seems most appropriate in delivering our offer. Here at MGI, we’re finding that targeting specific niches using multiple channels with multiple touches dramatically increases response rates.

We’re also always hearing about the demise of direct mail. Well, if you take to heart the results of a 2008 study reported by Exact Target, you’ll realize that direct mail is still a strong channel through which you can deliver your message – even to younger audiences.

You’ll see that its not about using anyone channel in so much as it is about using the right channel.

Here is a summary of the results, as reported in Exact Target’s 2008 Channel Preference Survey of 1500 internet users age 15 to 65+ who were asked questions about their attitudes and usage of one-to-one communication channels. Given the age span, researchers were able to cluster responses by age and reported the results by 6 “Personas:”

1. Wired – young males ages 18 to 34, no children, college educated with a minimum annual income of $35,000. Spend an average of 8 hours/day on their computers with high internet and email usage. Use of text messaging, social networks and IM are above average. Big concurrent media users. View different channels by perceived level of urgency: SMS for financial alerts and travel changes; email for promotions, account updates, etc. They tend to use phone and email first when communicating for personal reasons. Avid on-line shoppers and influenced to shop through email. Ads and messaging through social networks are not appreciated. Favorable attitude toward direct mail.

Marketer Takeaway – use the right channel for the right communication.

2. Young Homemakers – young women between the ages of 18 and 34 who consider “homemaker” to be their primary occupation, with annual household income of at least $35,000. Primarily use email for personal communication (58%), but also use text messaging and IM to a much lesser extent. Some concurrent media usage. They do participate in social networks and don’t seem to welcome advertising through this channel. Over 72% have been influenced to purchase by direct mail.

Marketer Takeaway – personal communication and control is a big thing. “Build opt-in relationship with this group for email, or leverage their affinity to direct mail with relevant, helpful information…” (pg. 6)

3. Retired – exclusively retirees and includes both men and women, but skewed toward men (57%). 80% attended college and 41% received at least a Bachelor’s degree. Spend seven hours a day on average watching TV. Not big concurrent media users. Spend a “significant amount of time” (pg 6) reading newspapers and books. 2.5 times more likely to call than to write. Small percentage (3%) have adopted text messaging and IM as primary communication tools. 81% have purchased online. Direct mail has influenced 90% to make a purchase. 73% reported to being influenced by email to make a purchase.

Marketer Takeaway – stay with direct mail but now use email.

4. College Students – primarily 18 to 24 years of age (but 10% of the sample were older). Big concurrent media users, with heavy internet usage as well as spending “considerable time reading books, listening to music and watching movies” (pg. 7). Heavy social network users (64% reported that they regularly participate) and use IM and texting. College women are 9% more likely to purchase online than average. Direct mail and email have influenced 55% and 50% respectively to make a purchase. Permission is a big deal for this spam-savvy group.

Marketer Takeaway – keep personal and business promotions separate.

5. Teens – high-school students between 15 and 17 years of age. Big screen-based media users, usually accessing multiple channels concurrently (I can personally attest to this as I do have a 16 year-old). Big users of text messaging, IM and social networking sites. Interesting note that “female teens spending more time on email and males spending more time with IM” (pg 9). Surprisingly, “Teens see direct mail as the most appropriate channel for marketers to communicate with them. 58% say they have been influenced by Direct Mail to make a purchase” (pg. 10).

Marketer Takeaway – teens are more likely to be influenced to make a purchase by direct mail than any other method.

6. Established Pros – professionals employed full-time, age 35+, annual income greater than $75,000. “…moderate media consumers” (pg. 10). Online many times a day, typically more often at work than at home. Prefer the telephone when communicating with friends. Most frequently use email to communicate. When compared with other groups, use of digital media is low. Big online shoppers. 94% have made a purchase as the result of a direct marketing campaign. 90% have been influenced by direct mail.

Marketer Takeaway – “…it’s about email and direct mail…and that’s it” (pg. 11).

If you’d like a copy of this whitepaper, go to www.exacttarget.com.

Email Marketing Metrics

I am often asked if there are benchmarks for open, click and bounce rates, which we can use to evaluate the effectiveness of email as a channel to deliver our promotions and messages. I recently found a study published by Silverpop (www.silverpop.com) which presents a "...classic list of email marketing benchmarks..."

While I have not yet found anything relating directly to association marketing or membership marketing, I think that you'll find the following interesting and useful as a reference.

In a recent study published by Silverpop (International Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study, Silverpop, 2009), the acclaimed e-mail marketing company pulled a random sample of 7,000 email messages generated in July of 2009, which equated to approximately 50,000,000 emails delivered to 188 countries.

Here is a summary of those benchmarks.

1. Open Rate (Unique Opens)
	Average	Median
Overall	22.20%	19.40%
US	21.30%	18.30%
UK	22.50%	19.80%
Germany	24.90%	23.00%
2. Open Rate (Gross)
	Average	Median
Overall	42.10%	29.70%
US	41.20%	27.30%
UK	38.30%	29.70%
Germany	44.30%	35.70%
3. Click Through Rate (Unique)
	Average	Median
Overall	4.50%	2.40%
US	4.50%	2.30%
UK	4.80%	2.70%
Germany	5.00%	2.80%
4. Click-To-Open Rate
	Average	Median
Overall	18.50%	15.00%
US	19.10%	15.10%
UK	19.20%	16.20%
Germany	17.80%	13.80%
5. Bounce Rates
	Average	Median
Overall	5.50%	2.40%
US	4.10%	1.80%
UK	3.60%	1.30%
Germany	4.40%	1.70%

In regard to methodology, the authors write:

"This study examined messages generated in July 2009 by Silverpop's Engage client base. Researchers pulled a random sample set of 7,000 email messages, delivered to a minimum of 50 recipients in the United State, United Kingdom and Germany. Approximately 50 million emails were delivered across the messages to 188 countries."

"A broad set of email message types was included in the study, from promotional to content-based newsletters sent by companies in a variety of industries. Email campaigns and newsletters comprised the message content examined for the study."

"...researchers analyzed various metrics for bothe the Overall category (all 188 recipient countries, including the US, UK and Germany) and country by country for the US, UK and Germany. We did not perform individual country analysis for any of the 185 remaining countries."

As always, the best benchmark to measure YOUR current programs against are YOUR previous programs. However, we're often asked if there are industry standards that we can at least include in our evaluation of a campaign. In light of that reference, I hope that you find the above useful.

This was only a brief summary of the results. If you are curious, I recommend that you go to www.silverpop.com to learn more.

Do you know what your members "biggest need" is? It should be your biggest asset!

I am reading the 1/10 issue of ASAE's Associations Now and came upon an article (pg 24 if you are so inclined) entitled "Tune In to Your Members' Wavelength" by Tracy Krughoff, Director of Event Communications at the Biotechnology Industry Organization here in D.C. Occasionally, someone writes or says something in such a clear and simple way that it makes you stop, shake your head up and down, and say...

"Sweet."

That's what Tracy's article just gave me. "Sweet."

While the article focuses on an apparently very successful event, what Tracy pointed out really drives home what Tony Rossell, Kevin Whorton, Roger Harris, Dean West,...yes, and me, have talked about all during this recession.

Ready?

Here it is: Your members' biggest need must be your biggest asset.

"Sweet"

This is profound in its simplicity.

Dare I say it?..."Sweet."

Some of you are most likely saying "big deal, Erik. Nothing new here." But I beg to differ with you. I still see associations using the same 'value proposition' that they used 2...5...10 years ago. Same language. Same look. Same offering.

They have little to no idea what their members are going through and they are not trying to find out.

They blame the recession or the industry for the errosion of their membership or non-dues revenue.

But the simple fact is...life changes.

What worked then may not work now. Five years ago, a timely publication that offered unique insights into an industry might have been enough. Maybe it still is for your industry. But, given the recession, changes in communications and technology, and several other society-wide variables, most likely it isn't anymore.

So here it is. Ask yourself if your association's value proposition addresses your members' greatest need? If it does, cudos. If not, find out what your members need and get it for them.

Albert Einstein said it best...

It's the end of a decade, time to reflect on who I am, what I want, and what I want to be when I grow up. In my personal reflection, I found a wonderful quote that inspired me. I also found it relevant for association and membership marketers.

Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, "Try not to be a man of success, but a man of value." This axiom is vital for every association - membership, trade and everything between the two. No matter what your association's membership model may be, your success is tied to how valuable your members think you are to them.

We need to leave the build-it-and-they-will-come attitude behind us in this last decade. We now need to focus on the value that we promise and the value that we deliver to each individual member.

And boy is that hard! Every member has their own expectation and definition of value when it comes to their membership. That means we need to understand these expectations, prioritize them (some are more important than others), and do our best to deliver. And add on to this the fact that these expectations and definitions continually change based on any number of influencers that you have no contol over - economy, job, car trouble...you name it.

In looking at this, I'm reminded of the all-knowing Sales Funnel, where we establish specfic criteria to define niche-markets within a specific market. The wonderful thing about technology is that we can do this with our membership database and find those niche markets. We can then test tactics to engage our members and actually measure how well we are doing to satisfy those expectations. The ultimate measure of course is if they renew.

So, as we venture into the next decade, let's once and for all leave behind the idea that one-size-fits-all and embrace the variety and complexity of our members and work to not just satisfy a basic, group's need, but a group of select, individual's need.

Receives Direct Marketing Association of Washington Distinguished Achievement Award

The other night, Rick Whelan, President of MGI, received the DMAW Distinguished Achievement Award. Here is a link to the press release just in case you missed it:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/12/prweb3289724.htm

Many of you know Rick at some level, either as a client, vendor, strategist. I've been fortunate enough to know him as this plus friend and mentor. He is by far one of the fairest individuals I've ever had the good fortune to meet and work with. I hope you all have the luck to work with him, or someone like him, someday. It will be blessing.

And as is the holiday spirit, I'm happy to count my blessings and include Rick among them.

Congratulations Rick! You earned it.