In a recent poll conducted by a London based research consultancy, thousands of UK citizens were quizzed on their experience when interacting with charities online.

While the overall results were more of a confirmation of common sense, it did highlight the need for fundraising and marketing teams to segment their communication strategies.

It disclosed some interesting facts about how digitally savvy the ‘Baby Boomer’ generation are (those born between 1946 and 1965) and how effective Facebook is at reaching this audience, a fact which some younger marketing executives in the NFP sector might find surprising.

Win/Win Scenarios

The fact is that a more mature audience is twice as likely to become recurring financial donors, while Millennials are far more inclined to support ad-hock fundraising events. With all this considered, it becomes increasingly apparent that segmented marketing creates win/win scenarios for donors and fundraising teams.

By tailoring social media campaigns based on age orientated audiences, marketing teams will benefit from improved performance, yielding more exceptional outcomes from reduced media spend. At the same time, potential supporters are seeing what’s important, relevant and inspiring to them.

Tailored Digital Donor Journeys

This customised strategy doesn’t need to end there. Contemporary websites can and should be continuing this personalised experience too. Often referred to as ‘Digital Experience Platforms’ rather than traditional ‘Content Management Systems’ such as WordPress, modern websites can personalise content, media and overall experience based on infinite variables.

For example, if a visitor clicks through to your website after engaging with your age segmented Facebook campaign, then the site can continue this experience, presenting content and media that we know is important to them.

Once you have collected data from this visitor, through an event sign-up form, for example, then this personalised experience can continue with increased intimacy and improved outcomes.

40% of UK Donors Feel Disconnected

Research recently conducted by Accenture found that only 40% of UK donors felt that their charities provide a personalised experience that they were happy with. The case for personalising communications and digital experiences is therefore genuine and needs addressing.

Advanced website platforms provide marketing teams with the ability to automate personalised communication sequences. For example, if your audience focused Facebook campaign yields new support sign-ups, then an ‘onboarding’ communication sequence can be configured to run automatically, increasing supporter sentiment while at the same time reducing marketing administration.

Personalised Onboarding

Multiple versions of this digital ‘onboarding’ strategy can be created meaning that marketing teams can customise experiences based on an infinite range of variables, including donor type (corporate or private), age, gender, location or legacy connections.

With online donations now the majority source of revenue generation for UK NFP’s, it’s never been more important for charities to get their digital fundraising strategy in shape.