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E-mail Testing: Variable Ask Amounts
It's a standard part of direct mail fundraising: build an 'ask string' based on the donor's highest previous contribution. While all donors in a given segment may get the same letter, laser technology makes it possible to ask a $25 donor to give "$25, $35 or even $50" and to ask the $100 donor to give "$100, $150 or even $200". This is rarely done in e-mail fundraising for several reasons. The first reason is the unavailability of data. Too many nonprofits are using separate files for online solicitation and direct mail solicitation, with too-infrequent updates between the two. As a result, too many nonprofits have only e-mail addresses of their supporters, without the necessary transaction history to do proper personalization, or even segmentation. If this is your problem, you should move data coordination to the top of your project list. Another reason is the lack of e-mail and web page technology that allows variable asks within an e-mail. Your e-mail program should allow you to personalize each e-mail with an ask amount just as easily as you can insert the supporter's name following 'Dear' at the top. Yet another technology challenge is following the variable ask through to the donation page. This requires that the ask amounts in the donation page be variable, and triggered by a code embedded in the link in each email. While you're at it, test 'pre-populating' the entire donation page with the name and address of the supporter from the same database you drew their e-mail. Think of the Amazon.com one-click purchasing program. The last and most common reason for not testing variable asks in your e-mail campaign -- there's never enough time for you to conceive of the right tests, write the copy, segment the files, and execute it. If this is your excuse, it's time to contact NPA at 540-428-3640 or mailto:Rick@npadvisors.com to help you manage your e-mail campaign. We will study your previous results, plan your testing strategy, massage the data, write the copy, and send the e-mails for you. November 2003 | |
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