Integrated Direct Response: Basics From the On and Offline Sides of the Marketing Aisle

Speakers: Andrew Magnuson, American Heart Association Sherry Minton, American Heart Association

Do you work in digital fundraising and have no idea what your offline direct response colleagues mean when they talk about nickel packages and lot splits? Are you a direct mail guru who can’t figure out why your digital counterpart is obsessing over canonical tags and concatenation? Join us for this integrated direct marketing session and find out what really happens on the other side of the aisle. The leads of the on and offline direct response fundraising programs for the American Heart Association will take us through what they’ve learned about the similarities and differences of fundraising in their respective channels. We’ll examine whether the goals, planning cycles, metrics, donor life cycles, creative approaches, etc. are all that different, or is it, as the saying goes, “the more things change the more they remain the same"?

1. Integrated Direct Response Basics
February 20, 2015 | 11am –12pm Eastern
Speakers:
Andrew Magnuson & Sherry Minton
Thank you to our session sponsor:

2. SPEAKERS
Andrew Magnuson, Director –Digital Fundraising, American Heart Association
Sherry Minton, Director –Direct Response, American Heart Association

3. Let us know what you’re
thinking!
•Ask questions at
any timeby
typing them into
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4. Agenda
•Have a better understanding of the goals, roles, and motivations guiding each
“side of the “house”.
•Be able to identify the gaps in your own integrated direct response program
•Understand the next steps needed in order to better integrate
•Have greater empathy for the roles, strengths, and challenges of your cross-
channel counterpart.
At the end of this discussion, you will:

5. So, What’s the Problem?
Years of misunderstanding, organizational misalignment, and mistrust have made
it hard for offline and online marketers to play well together. Why?
“Online Gal just wants to try shiny
new things.”
“It doesn’t raise thatmuch money in
the scheme of things”
“Online is focused on style over
substance”
“Lack of sophistication”
“Doesn’t understand what donors
really want.”
“It’s needs to be all about hard ROI”
“Offline Guy is more focused on typeface
than interesting engagement.”
“Unwilling to try new things.”
“Thinks I’m trying to steal their cheese.”
“Doesn’t understand importance of
engagement and cultivation.”
“Offline Guys is just focused on ROI”
“Doesn’t understand what donors really
want”
“It can’t just be about hard ROI”

6. A horse of a different color…
Shared Goals
•Focuson metrics, measurable results.
•Challengedto acquire, retain, and upgrade
donors.
•Require a clear,compelling value proposition
•Attempts to drive behavior towards a call-to-
action
•Iterationis king: needto constantly test and
optimize
Shared Challenges
•Limited resources
•Complicated data environment
•Segregatedinfrastructure
•Requirements to justify costs vs. results
•Competition for donors’attention and dollars
…Is still pretty much a horse.
6

7. Role in this world
Cost
Efficacy of $’s Raised
SEO/SEM
Online
Banners
Retarge
ting
Email
Appeal
DM
Appeal
Telema
rketing
Major
Giving
Officer
Prospecting
DM
Acquisi
tion
Conversion
Print
Banners

8. Can We Be Friends?
8
Organization are usually not aligned to best enable the partnership of Offline and
Online. However, the biggest hurdles are usually self-imposed. What does it take
to “Play Nice?”
•Respect the role (and value) the other plays in your shared universe
•Be open to learning from one another (and attend each other’s meetings!)
•Have a shared goal
•Respect each other’s strengths (and learn to exploit them)
•Respect each other’s unique challenges
•Understand YOUR shared key metric for both Online and Offline fundraising

9. What it means to “Integrate”
•There is no single playbook for integration
•Find the overlaps in audience focus on unified
donor experience
•Find the gaps in audience get out of the way
•Coordinating segmentation is hard. We have to do it
anyway.
Highly Unified Mission & Audience Highly Complex Mission & Audience
Clarity of Value Proposition
Shared design + campaign
assets
Emphasis on timing
Define Donor Experience
Identify donor overlap
Testing/Research
Multiple Donor Types
Suppression Segmentation
Threshold/Upgrade Marketing
Triage Resources
Shared Priorities

10. What Success Looks Like
The outcomes of a successful integration strategy should differ between
organizations. However, they all have these in common:
•Unity around “Core Value Proposition”
•Consistent donor experience across all channels
•Cross-channel metrics that inform success
The experience in one channel informs and influences the donor experience in another
channel.
Example: Honor/Memorial Giving
•We know their “orientation” starting data point & “persona” creation
•Immediate online follow-up/thank you
•Offline receipt, with longer thank-you (further explains donor impact)
•Online stewardship, surveys, and insight to donor impact
•“Close the sale” with offline direct response

11. Example: Project HOPE
•Focused first on developing “Core Value
Proposition” 105x leverage offer.
•Became central theme of:
•Direct Mail Appeals
•Offline Newsletter
•Online Newsletter
•Email appeals
•Homepage banner
•General Giving form
•Results:
•DM up 30%
•Online up 50%
•Homepage bounce rates down 25%
•Donation form conversion rates up 15%
Offer development was “channel
agnostic” and focused on core
marketing principles that apply to all
channels:
•Instantly intuitive
•Donor-centric
•Provides line-of-sight to gift impact

12. Next Steps
1.Define your shared goal (conversion rate, retention rate, etc)
2.Articulate the very bestdonor experience you can imagine, and map these “touch
points” across all channels
3.Develop shared assets along the conversion funnel
4.Figure out the segmentation or data gaps
5.Measure results intra-channel andcross-channel
6.Identify population segments based on behavior
7.Adjust tactical mix based on shared performance and cost metrics
This all sounds great. But where should we start?

13. Continue the discussion!
•The vision of the IMAB is to
promote a discussion of
the various successes and
failures related to
integrated marketing:
understandings, trends,
benefits and adoptions of
integrated marketing
activities within the
nonprofit community.
•Visit us at imabgroup.net
today!