A Step-by-Step Demand Generation Strategy for Non-Profit Marketers

Traditional Demand Generation methods are driven by marketing and sales alignment – knowledge of the masses. The unfunnel methodology is more agile, and is driven by one donor.

Start with One

There are two key personas for any business online, be it for-profit or charity. In most cases, a charity will have three or more. Let’s dive into the minimum unique persons that you should be able to identify…

Persona #1: The Donor Persona – “Privacy Paula”

• Female, age 65 – post graduate, married w/ 2 grown children

• Annual HH Income = $125,000

INTERNET USAGE & COMMUNICATION:

• Over 50% smartphone owners; < 20% tablet

• Communication Preferences: Email, website, social media (Facebook)

• Purchase Behavior: Travel, flights, computer hardware, software, books

• EFFECTIVE TACTICS: Email blasts/newsletters/response, Facebook, organic SEO, Pinterest, website features

• Most likely to convert: 9:00 to 9:30am

“The internet is a functional tool, I don’t want to express myself online. I like emailing, checking the news, sport & weather but also online shopping. I’m really not interested in running my social life online and I am worried about data privacy and security. I am older and have been using the internet for a long time.”

This is a snapshot of your buyer persona – or in this case, donor persona. What she’s looking for…

1. The facts about the problem you need her to help solve.

2. The Why she should even care about this problem.

3. The How – So if she’s interested, how can she help? What ways can she support your charity or cause? Donate? Run? Fundraise?

4. The Difference her donation or other show of support can actually make.

5. The Updates – news about where her money is going, how it’s helping and what’s new with the charity thanks to her chipping in.

Persona #2: Audience Persona – “Social Sally”

• College-educated Female, age 45 – Married with 2 older children, one in Household

• Suburban, Annual HH Income: Over $100k

INTERNET USAGE & COMMUNICATION:

Over 50 percent of people like Social Sally are smartphone owners – all of them heavy users; less than 20 person own a tablet or kindle.

Communication Preferences: Email, website, social media, SMS/mobile, online communities

Purchase Behavior: Travel, gifts, software, books, telecommunications, banking, insurance

EFFECTIVE TACTICS:

• Email newsletters/response, SEO/SEM, social media, website features, blogging, web video

• Social Channels & Tactics:  Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, Google+, Twitter

I use the internet to gain knowledge, information and to educate myself about the world. I’m not a big user of social networks but I do want to hear from like-minded people especially to help me make purchase decisions. I’m very interested in the latest thing.

Persona #3:  Fundraising Persona – “Peer-to-Peer Pamela”

Party Host or Fundraising Activist of another type – High Involvement, High Engagement.

• College-educated Female, age 37 to 54
• Married, Children nearly grown or out of the Household
• Full-time and/or work-at-home (Franchising), $80-$100k annual income
• HR, Banking & Finance, Compliance, Healthcare, Business Admin
• Possible side income via Affiliate Networks, community leadership, etc. Interests:
• Conservative Politics, Christianity, Event Planning, Travel, Contests | Sweeps, local groups, apps Tactics to Drive Response:
• SEO/SEM, Facebook, YouTube, Email, PR, Squidoo, Online Shopping, Games, Exclusive Events

What Sally and Paula look for online is VERY different than your high-asset donor’s online behavior (i.e., Privacy Paula mentioned above) …

1. The updates
2. News and Education
3. Local Events
4. Other Shareable Content

• Social Media
• Online Video
• Visual Content (infographics, memes, etc.)
• Emails
• Blog Posts on Research / Org / Health / Events / etc.
• Microblogging …shares via email, social, and blogs to the Donor Persona!

Here’s where we send mail and maybe weekly or monthly email newsletter to … ALL of Them? And we link everything they see to…the website home page (AKA The Black Hole)?  STOP! Just… stop.

The Persona-Driven Website Experience

Your website should both utilize and constantly test the following elements, with optimization happening in rapid iterations as you move forward:

1. Custom web pages for each persona
2. Targeted landing pages for each 3. Optimize for Search 4. Simplicity in Accessibility 5. Make Content Easy to Find, and… 6. Easier to Share (social + email)
3. User Qualifying Landing Pages When in doubt, let the user score themselves.  Even more Ways to Generate Leads Coming…

• Social Media – Email Sign-Up Form on Pages – Social-specific email?
• Paid Search Email Capture
• Display Email Capture
• SEO – non brand keywords
• Blog / News / Content Hub

Gather Data and Benchmark Across Segments Donor Lifecycle Interest.

1. Donation vs. Event vs. P2P vs. eCommerce… Actions
2. Page views, product visits, lead score…
3. Recency
4. Frequency
5. Sign-Up
6. Page Exits
7. Geography – use social media + web analytics
8. Promote local monthly events, history, etc.

Convert Leads to Donors

Lead Gen + Nurture Content Opportunities

• Thank you / Welcome
• Annual Reports & Tax Documentation
• Fundraising Tips
• Infographics
• Hospital & Research FAQs
• Video Series
• Social Media Toolkit
• Google Hangout / Reddit AMA
• Blog Post Series
• Collateral / Whitepapers/eBooks
• Calls-to-Action
• Existing Content

Matching Content to the Donor Lifecycle

Early

• Whitepapers, newsletters, webinar, social media “kits”

Middle

• Special invitations, hospital reports, datasheets, hospital visit / tour

Later

• Allocation of funds, comparisons, testimonials, hospital visit / tour
• Focus on one Donor – your First donor

Conversion Analysis

Lead Nurturing – Strategy Development Goals

Goals

• Content + Segments
• KPIs

Audience

• Personas
• Qualified Leads

Timeline

• Prospecting Frequency
• Timing
• Conversions

Loyalty

• Donor Converts Friends/Family
• Support DYI and Peer to Peer Marketing tools

You’ve been un-Funnel-ed. Now share this with other smart people! 🙂