A guest post by Gabrielle Perham of DeepSync
Imagine you’re an avid monthly donor and volunteer at a local animal shelter. You open your email inbox to see you’ve received an email from the shelter entitled “Learn more about our organization!”
You open the email to a summary of the nonprofit’s background and a list of ways you can get involved. Don’t they know you’ve been part of their community for the past five years?
Unfortunately, this situation happens all too often. To resonate with people on an individual level, nonprofits have to dig deep and personalize their messaging.
That’s why it’s important to adopt a data-driven marketing approach. With data, you can cater to different groups within your broader audience and seamlessly increase engagement. Check out these data-driven communication tactics your nonprofit can leverage.
1. Segmentation
To speak to supporters as individuals, you have to first think of them as individuals. While you may not be able to write an entirely unique message for each donor, you can target your communications using segmentation.
Segmentation refers to the process of grouping your audience based on shared characteristics, and there are many different ways to do it. Getting Attention’s nonprofit marketing guide recommends creating groups based on:
- Level of support
- Location
- Age
- Engagement rate
For example, you may create a location-based segment so you can reach out to local supporters about events you’re hosting in the community. If you don’t have enough information to create these segments, consider enriching your database.
Deep Sync defines data enrichment as “the process of supplementing your first-party data with third-party data to confirm you have the most accurate, reliable, and comprehensive database possible.” By enriching your database, you can learn more about your supporters and add valuable information to your database that helps you better reach them, including:
- Demographics
- Contact information
- Income
- Net worth
- Lifestyle information
Let’s say you’d like to run an SMS marketing campaign but don’t have phone numbers for some of your donors. You can source this information through data enrichment, allowing you to easily get in contact with your supporters via text.
2. Marketing Audiences
Sometimes, the audience you’d like to reach isn’t reflected in your current supporter base. In this case, you can work with a data provider to create and reach a custom marketing audience. This way, you can expand your reach and unlock a new base of potential supporters who will align with your current campaign.
For example, imagine you run a political advocacy group that’s gearing up for an upcoming election. You want to encourage young people who can vote for the first time to support your cause, but your mailing list currently consists of adults over the age of 50.
To reach this group, you can use carefully compiled third-party student marketing data that grants you access to contact information for those in your target audience. Then, use this audience across online and offline channels to ensure your messaging reaches them.
3. Automation
While segmentation and custom marketing audiences can help you actively tailor the content of your messages, automation can play a supporting role in personalizing your communications. There are several ways you can use automation in this context, including to:
- Insert personalized elements for email campaigns. Use automation to quickly add a personal touch to your emails. Individualize each message with elements like donors’ names, donation amounts, and past activities.
- Trigger communications. Send automated communications such as thank-you emails, post-event follow-up, and event registration confirmation. That way, you can promptly communicate with donors before following up with more in-depth messages later on.
- Send reminders. Automate reminders for upcoming events, recurring donations, and membership renewals. These messages keep your donors in the know without disrupting your team’s workflow.
When you use automation, you save your team time and energy while still improving your communication with donors.
4. Surveys
You have plenty of tactics for gathering information about your donors. Now, go straight to the source! Send surveys to hear directly from your supporters. Surveys allow you to collect constituent data that you can use to shape your communications strategy.
You may ask your supporters questions about the following:
- Communication preferences. Ask donors how often they’d like to hear from you, through which channels, and about which areas of your organization. Communicating on their terms shows you’re committed to building one-on-one relationships with them.
- Events and programming. Learn about supporters’ experiences with your events and programming. For instance, get their thoughts on the items you offered at your latest auction or ideas to improve your volunteer program.
- Overall satisfaction. Lastly, ask your supporters about their overall satisfaction as members of your nonprofit’s community. Here, you can open the discussion for more open-ended feedback to glean insights into what you’re doing well and where you have room for improvement.
After collecting responses, store the results in your donor database for future reference.
To maintain a personalized, data-driven communications strategy, continuously fine-tune your approach. Constantly follow up with donors, employ A/B testing, and experiment with new tactics to improve your strategy and further individualize your messaging.
Gabrielle Perham, MBA
Gabrielle is the Director of Marketing & Sales Operations for Deep Sync. She joined the organization in 2017 and brings 20 years of experience in strategic marketing, branding, communications, sales enablement, and digital marketing. With a roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-it-done attitude and a big-picture mindset, Gaby loves solving marketing and business challenges. She earned both a B.S. in Marketing and an M.B.A. in Marketing Management from the University of Tampa. Gaby enjoys spending time with her fiercely outspoken daughter; hiking and kayaking; rocking out in the first row of a live show; and giving back to her local community.
