Maximize Donor Engagement With Multichannel Integration

Conversely, 5 percent of WWF’s online revenue comes from telemarketing, and many people on telemarketing calls said, “I’ll give online.” Since the organization has had success integrating offline channels (such as direct mail and DRTV) with online channels, it decided to integrate and test its telemarketing and e-mail communications.

In the first test, WWF’s telemarketing agents gave out a specific, easy-to-remember URL at the end of each call. The campaign lasted six weeks and generated $340,000 offline, but just $765 — less than 0.23 percent of the campaign revenue — came in online. WWF concluded that it needed to make it easier for potential donors to give online.

In the second test, WWF followed up the call with an e-mail that included a link to a donation form tied to the campaign, and an end-of-campaign e-mail as well. The campaign, which was still ongoing at the time of the presentation, generated $204,000 offline to date. The during-campaign e-mail had an 18.4 percent open rate, 1 percent clickthrough rate and resulted in four gifts online totaling $150. The end-of-campaign e-mail had a 12.6 percent open rate, 0.9 percent clickthrough rate and generated an additional 60 gifts totaling $4,000.

“Indirectly, the e-mail may have reminded them to fulfill their pledge offline,” Sotelo said.

Going forward, WWF plans to test e-mail delivery timing, the content within the message and more to further enhance the integrated campaign. Sotelo shared some of WWF’s conclusions moving ahead.

• Conduct further analysis of telemarketing donors to determine their proclivity to donate online.
• Broaden test to include a “pre-e-mail” or concurrent e-mail to make the piece more proactive and less reactive.
• Continue to analyze follow-up behavior and responses to the next direct-mail, telemarketing and e-mail offers to judge impact.