Einstein Was Only Half Right

Albert Einstein was credited with defining insanity as, "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Well, in the modern world, I'd say that Mr. Einstein is only half right. We live in a world that is changing so fast that if we do the same thing over and over again and expect the same results, we might be considered just as crazy. This is especially true with fundraising and marketing in general. The same old same old doesn't work like it used to. There is another law at work in our modern world that is becoming more and more relevant. That is the Law of Diminishing Utility or the Law of Diminishing Returns. When we approach fundraising with the same old approach, we will find that we will eventually run out of margin. Please don't misinterpret this-- I am not suggesting that direct mail is going away anytime soon. My conviction is that we need to rethink how we do direct mail. We need to make direct mail more integrated to stay relevant with a growing audience of people that don't write physical checks anymore. We need to integrate mail with mobile, web, and social media. We need to innovate and optimize the way we approach fundraising. Think I'm crazy? That's what they said about Einstein.

Hey Social Media, Show Me The Money!

First, let me apologize to all of my social media guru friends and colleagues. What I'm about to share may greatly distress you, disturb you, and just plain insult you. Too bad. This is something that has been pent up for way too long and it is time to let it out. If you are really upset, take it out in the comments.

I attend and speak at a lot of conferences related to fundraising and marketing. And it doesn't matter where I go, or what the focus of the conference is-- inevitably one of the keynote sessions is going to be talking about "how social media is going to transform your organization." But the case studies they offer up are all about some obscure campaign that's earth shattering success is measured by the number of "Likes" on Facebook. Are you kidding me? As if you can take those magical "Likes" and cash them in for something real and tangible like a meal for some poor child in Africa, or a cure for cancer, or to support a missionary in China. Show me the money!

Okay, so my beef isn't necessarily with social media. It is in the way we use and measure social media. Maybe it's just because I'm a direct response guy, but I want to be able to show how social media moves the needle when it comes to the three key building blocks to fundraising success: new names, new donors, and more donors. The rest is just fluff. Let me share with you a new recipe I've been cooking up with social media.


Eggs, Milk, Flour, Sugar, Butter



Each of these elements have tremendous utility on their own. However, if you combine each of these elements in the right measure, under the right conditions, you get something completely different-- you get a cake!

Same is true with our different communication channels. We sometimes get so myopic, so siloed in our thinking about what we are going to say on each channel that we miss the greater opportunity to combine the channels to get something that is way better than just the sum of the parts. So, we decided to test it out.


'What if We Could Get 100% Response Rate on a Direct Mail Piece?'

That's the question we asked ourselves. Now, we know that for all practical purposes expecting a 100% response rate is tomfoolery, right? I can see the old-school DM guys having some fun with this. But if we made our direct mail dynamic...if the mail wasn't an end in itself, but a beginning...if we could find a way to make a direct mail piece go viral...then, maybe we could talk about a new concept-- the Effective Response Rate. The effective response rate is the total number of responses--from any channel-- that all originated from a single piece of mail.

Well, I'm sure you can guess what happened...I mean, I wouldn't write a blog post about an experiment that completely flopped would I? [Hmmm...that is an interesting question, I actually think I would if I thought that there was a key learning that could be taken from it.] The campaign that we launched combined highly personalized direct mail, with an online interactive game and social media, and our effective response rate for the direct mail piece was 213%. Boom!

How did we do it?

First, we started by thinking about our ideal target audience. Our plan was to create a campaign that they would want to engage in. Did we have specific business objectives? Absolutely. But instead of making those objectives the focal point of our message, we created an environment where the target could experience our value proposition instead of us shouting about it.

Then, we made it fun. We created a competitive environment where people were incentivized to engage with the campaign every day, and most importantly, recruit others.

Finally, we made it easy for people to recruit others by integrating social media. By providing a team incentive, and an individual incentive we were able to drive the right behaviors that helped us accomplish our business goals.

In the end, we were able to experience the exponential benefit of tightly integrating the channels to accomplish far more than each could accomplish on their own.



Want to See the Actual Case Study?

I'm being somewhat vague intentionally. See, I would love to have the opportunity to talk with you about exactly how we were able to generate an effective 213% response rate for our direct mail campaign-- but you have to meet me half way. Shoot me a direct message on Twitter at @DigitalDonor, and I'll set up a time to walk you through the case study. I'll also probably ask you some questions about your specific business or campaign objectives so be prepared to share that. Together, we can think through how you too can combine all the channels to bake a sweet treat for the CEO.

Fresh, Joy, Love, Tasty

Have you ever noticed that most companies today don't market their products, they market your values. I was at Panda Express for lunch today. There, hanging in the in the middle of the restaurant, were four not-too-subtle banners. Each bore the image of one of PE's finest entrees along with a single-word:

"Fresh"

"Joy"

"Love"

"Tasty"

"Fresh" and "Tasty" I get, but "Joy" and "Love?" Since when do we go to a fast food restaurant to get our fill of these? I prefer the Orange Chicken.

A Proven Formula to Optimize and Revolutionize Your Email Program

When it comes to optimizing email campaigns, best practices are not enough – you need a rigorous methodology. This workshop will teach you how to focus your thinking on what really works when it comes to increasing response and enhancing revenue. After completing this course you will be able to:

1. Discern the email marketing messaging sequence


2. Learn about how others are finding success during these times


3. Apply the email messaging effectiveness formula as illustrated through actual case studies

Download the Presentation: Discover the Proven Formula for Optimizing Email Campaigns

This presentation was delivered on Thursday, April 28, 2011 at the Christian Leadership Alliance Conference in Dallas, TX

Other Resources of Interest

Also, I’ve included some links to some additional resources that were referenced in the presentation:

1. Free Email Optimization Webinar - If you missed the presentation at CLA, or if you would like to see it again, we are hosting a free live webinar on Wednesday, July 20th at 12:00 PM CDT. Space is limited, so please sign up today.
   


2. Convio 2010 “Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index Study”– Lots of great metrics and insights in this report. This will help you know how you “stack up” with other nonprofits across key metrics.
   
   
3. MarketingExperiments - This organization is the applied research arm of MECLABS. These are the folks that invented the Email Effectiveness Index that was discussed in the presentation.
   
   
4. Convio’s “The Next Generation of American Giving”– This is a study on the contrasting charitable habits of Generation Y, Generation X, Baby Boomers, and Matures. Lot's of great takeaways in here.

The Most Important 85 Characters in Your Email

Want to know a secret? People aren't looking for a reason to open your email, they are looking for a reason to hit DELETE. So, how do you get them to open?

Best practices would say to focus on subject line optimization. Which is a great place to start. But you can Google the best way to write a good subject line and find plenty of help on that.

I want to share with you what I'm experimenting with-- the first 85 characters in the email body which just so happens to show up in most inboxes and desktop notifications.

You can tell that most marketers are totally ignoring this. Their first 85 characters goes something like this, "Make sure you add myEmail@MyDomain.com to your whitelist...." or, "If you are having trouble viewing this email, click here...."

According to best practices, these are spot on-- but here is where it might make sense to challenge these best practices by testing something else.

What if you can use those 85 characters to extend your subject line, or better yet, make a compelling value proposition statement that encourages folks to open?

Check out some of these:



Which ones would you want to/need to open?

I have a bad habit of using myself as a focus group of one, but I have to admit, I usually scan my inbox and often look at nothing but the first 85 characters of the email to see if it is worth my time to go any further. I do this with personal emails, work emails, and emails I've subscribed to receive.

I'd love to hear your feedback based on experimenting with this concept. Post a comment, or send me a message on Twitter (@DigitalDonor) with your results.

You Could Be The Next Star!

I just received an email announcing that Simon Cowell, that sinister former American Idol judge that everyone loves to hate, is launching a new singing competition show called The X Factor (don't ask me how I got on that mailing list). This time, would-be pop stars of any age will compete for a $5 Million contract with Sony.


So, same old game, bigger pay day.

Is there still that much pent-up demand to be instantly famous? Maybe that's why our economy sucks so bad-- the millennials that should be gearing up to build the next tomorrow are too busy hanging out in audition holding rooms trying to look good in distressed designer jeans, spiky hair, doing their best Justin Bieber impersonation (wow, I sound old when I talk like that).

I'm SOOOOO over American Idol, but I have to admit the paradigm is brilliant:

• Invite customers to create the product. This is the crux of the show-- you invite people to present their proposal for for a new product idea. In the case of Idol, that proposal is in the form of an audition.
  
  
• Select a panel of experts to vet the product ideas. This is the early stages of Idol when the judges decide who advances and who gets sent home. It doesn't hurt when the judges have quirky personas themselves.
  
  
• Recycle the leftovers, and sometimes the rejects become the main thing. Idol does this brilliantly. They take the best of the worst auditions and turns them into compelling content. Remember William Hung? "She bangs, she bangs...oh, baby, and she moves, she moves!"
  
  
• Let the customers design and shape the final product. Once the contestants have been narrowed down, the viewers at home get to decide who will be the next star. This is customer-driven innovation at its finest!
  
  
• Create a pent-up demand for the product before it is even released. By voting for their favorites, and helping to create the new star of American Idol, the people at home become vested in the product they've helped to shape and line up at the record store (or I guess iTunes), to purchase the album the minute it is released. Apple does this too-- iPhone 7 is coming in 2014-- are you ready?

So, although I think Simon's next show is going to lay an egg like Duets, and his other post-Idol start-ups, I do think there is life to the American Idol paradigm. Think about how you can engage your customers and donors in helping to shape your next program, project, or ministry. Follow the American Idol model and "who knows-- you could be the next big star!"

This, Not This...

The past two weeks in North Texas have been among the coldest, like ever. The first week of February our offices were closed 4 out of 5 days due to ice and snow. The next week wasn't much better. Another storm rolled through shutting down schools and businesses again.

So what does that have to do with anything related to marketing? Well, actually quite a bit.

During that cold snap, I received two emails that I think represent the best and worst in terms of relevant messaging. So I figured I'd attempt to channel one of my heroes, Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, CEO of MECLABS, and do a heads up comparison of these two emails using his legendary "This, Not This" bit.

Below is a copy of the first email I received that came from The Creative Circle which is a local talent placement agency.



Now, granted the message envelope isn't that great. The subject line is "Talent Update" which is the same subject line for every email I receive from them. But because my email system displays the first two lines of the email through a desktop notification, I was drawn immediately to the highly relevant comment about the weather:

"Brrrrrrrrrrr! Did you make it to work today?"

Actually, no, I didn't-- our offices were closed. I read on:

"If you didn't, I bet the work is just piling up, and that is where the Creative Circle comes in..."

Brilliant. The value proposition is established and tied to a very relevant need I have.

He's right. Work is piling up. Maybe I do need to reevaluate my department's staff plan.

From there the email goes on a little bit of a rabbit trail. True, the Super Bowl was in town. Yes, I get the connection to needing a [marketing] "champion". But perhaps that could have been saved for a completely different email. Maybe after the Super Bowl?

Anyway, aside from that the email did a great job of using external relevance-- things that are happening in the world around us-- to create a message that resonated very strongly with me.

Now, for the "Not This" example.

A couple of days later I was still home, our offices were still closed, and it was still the coldest it has ever been since I've lived in North Texas. But now the news channels were reporting that this wasn't just a North Texas cold snap, the winter storms were hitting the entire country!

It was at that point I received the following email:



Okay, so right off the bat this thing is whack. In the message envelope, the sender is "Cool-Off." What? I know that this is the name of your company—but dude—seriously? Do you think anyone is looking to cool off?

This same ridiculousness is repeated in the subject line, "Limited Time Offer from Cool-Off.com.”

Because I do this stuff for a living, I just had to open the message and find out what they would say next, but if I didn't I would have trashed this thing instantly. When I did open it, it just kept getting better (and by better I mean worse—much worse). There was a big hero shot with a pool and palm trees, and a big momma-gamma misting fan. Ha!

But then I spotted the headline:

"Summer is Right Around the Corner..."

Um, what?

Then the first sentence (which was one giant hyperlink): "Beat the Heat" and Save (25-30% OFF) on all Patio Misters..."

Is this a joke?

Then I scanned the "In This Issue" (apparently this is a newsletter) and there were three "Quick Links:"

• Register Now - For what exactly? What a silly thing to have at the top of your "Quick Links." Register Now for more bad emails, or to access your site, or for more irrelevant offers???
  
  
• News - Sorry, not interested in any news. I get that from Fox.
  
  
• More About Us - Well I guess it is all about you, huh? Obviously sales are down being it's FRIGGIN FREEZING everywhere in the country and you guys want to try to get a boost. Well, I'm sorry 'friend.' If you want to do business with me in the future, you may want to think about me, my needs, my problems, and then begin a relevant conversation with me that makes sense. I'm not stupid. I'm not going to buy a mister hose just because it is on sale. You need to think before you hit the send button next time.

Alright, enough with the rant. The key takeaways here are simply this:

1. Every time you send an email you are initiating a mental conversation with the recipients of that message. Make sure you don’t start a conversation that makes you look stupid, insensitive, or out-of-touch. No one wants to do business with people like this.

2. Relevancy is the key to good email communication—in fact, it is the key to good communication in general. Howard Gossage, an old ad mogul once said, “The real fact of the matter is that nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. Sometimes it’s an ad.”

3. Beware of sending the wrong message to the wrong person at the wrong time. Social media changes the game in a lot of ways, and bad marketing can take on a life of its own. I wrote another post about that called, The Wrong Message to the Wrong Person at the Wrong Time.