|  The
Goal:
Raise
$50,000 via targeted email campaign, online donation
form, and a short video. (Campaign has raised
$76,625 to date.)
Our
Pitch / Idea:
Mark
Wood on our team listened closely to the needs
of the Brooklyn Autism Center, and devised a personalized
email campaign and donation system that would
help them raise funds for needy children. Using
a decade of knowledge in the email and direct
marketing industry, Mark made sure that strong,
compelling calls to action would motivate people
to donate generously. (To make a donation, please
visit here >>)
Brooklyn
Autism Center Academy Background:
The
Brooklyn Autism Center is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3)
school serving children with Autism Spectrum Disorders
(ASD) in Brooklyn, New York. Established in 2007,
their philosophy is grounded in a data-based scientific
study, Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), which
is the educational standard and best practice
for children with autism.
How
the Campaign Worked:
Step 1: Email Campaign
The
first step was to reach out to 2,455 friends,
family and past donors with a personalized email
campaign.
The
campaign was designed to use calming visual line
art, engaging photos and a strong call to action
(Donate Now).
The
email set up the problem:
Ten
years ago, 1 in 10,000 children were diagnosed
with autism.
Today, 1 in 110 children will be diagnosed with
autism.
The
system sent out a unique, personalized email message
to each recipient. Each message was tracked to
see who opened it (and how many times) and who
clicked on a link (and which link and how often).
Message
Open Statistics:
64%
of the people opened the message; a normal message
open rate is about 17%, indicating that the message
was relevant and well received.
Clicthrough
Tracking Statistics:
Nearly
17% of the recipients clicked through to the landing
page. To put this into perspective, a typical
clickthrough rate ranges between 0.5% and 1.5%
for many email campaigns.
Message
Forward Statistics:
Even
more impressive was the number of people that
forwarded the message along to friends. While
we don't track who the message was sent to, we're
able to track that a message sent to one person
was opened on multiple different computers.
Message
Opens By Date:
Most email campaigns are opened within a day or
two of the initial sending, and the reporting
demonstrated that most of the messages were opened
the first and second day.
Secondary
Calls to Action:
The
email also had secondary links for participants
to follow them on Twitter and Facebook. Facebook
was much more successful:
Step
2: Landing Page
Once
a person clicked through from the email
campaign, they landed on a personalized page (Welcome,
$first $last) that displayed a video, how
much money had been raised to date, and a link
to donate now:
The
video was designed to create an emotional connection
to the students, and the "Donated To Date"
system displayed the total amount of donations
to create a sense of excitement.
When
someone clicked on the "Donate Now"
Button, we used a Web 2.0 feature to instantly
display the donation form (instead of waiting
8-12 seconds for another page to load).
Step
3: Donation Page
The
donation page was designed to be quick, fast and
easy for people to make a donation.
We
limited the data fields to the "Need to know"
information instead of the "nice to know
information:"
We
created the ability for someone to select a set
amount to donate ($40, $100, $250, $500, $1000
or other amount), as well as the ability to donate
anonymously.
We
used an SSL certificate and PayPal to handle the
transaction processing, and re-assured donors
that all donations are fully tax-deductible.
And
as many charitable foundations (i.e. family foundations)
are only able to make payments by check, we included
the address as a way that donations could be sent
in via mail.
Return
on Investment (ROI):
The
base price for the campaign, including landing
page, email deployment and payment processing
gateway development was approximately $3,000.
With
more than $75,000 raised, the return on the marketing
investment was a staggering 26 times return (2,554%).
For
every $1 spent with Customer Paradigm on the campaign,
we helped generate $25.54 in donations to the
organization.
Client
Feedback:
"We
hired Customer Paradigm to assist us with
an email marketing campaign to help raise
funds for our school (which is a non-profit
organization dedicated to providing high quality
education to children with autism)."
"Among
the many vendors we were entertaining, we
chose Customer Paradigm because of their previous
experience with non-profits and they seemed
to offer all that we needed for the right
$ amount."
"Their
full serviced email marketing package suited
us best as non-marketing professionals and
they worked both closely and patiently with
us until we were extremely satisfied with
our end product. We would not have been able
to raise over $75,000 for the Brooklyn Autism
Center if it weren't for the dedicated team
at Customer Paradigm."
Summary:
A
well designed campaign, with strong calls to action
generated a 25:1 return on the marketing campaign
for the Brooklyn Autism Center, a 501(c)(3) non-profit
organization.
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