Online Cause Marketing Best Practices


Jane LeeMar 15, 2011

Canadian donors and giving channels. Source: www.convio.com

Online marketing and fund-raising should be an integral part of any charitable organization’s marketing efforts.  Nowadays, Canadians are more likely to donate online versus mailing in their donations according to a recent study by hjc, Strategic Communications Inc. and Convio.  To help give you some tips on where to start and how to improve in this channel, I’ve outlined some best practices for online cause marketing.

Be transparent

  • - Ensure that your organization’s vision, mission and financial structure are transparent and upfront.  Your organization’s goal should be easy to understand and meaningful to the target audience.
  • - Enable donors to see exactly where their money is going and what they are supporting.

Keep it simple and give a clear call to action.

  • - Be specific in what you’re asking for and why, and don’t complicate the donor’s decision with too many barriers.
  • - For example, instead of “We need your help to make a difference in a child’s education” consider “Donating $30 will provide 5 children with school supplies for 1 year.”

Encourage and facilitate advocacy.

  • - Encourage donors to be marketing mediums through advocacy programs.  Reach out to your top supporters and show them how to use peer-to-peer tools to increase fund-raising. And don’t forget, you already have a strong base of potential advocates to start with – your employees.
  • - Create the core messaging for fund-raising campaigns and efforts, but enable your donors to personalize the message for their own online networking and recruitment efforts.
  • - Use friendly competition and incentives to encourage fund-raising campaigns. Allow individuals and teams to track and see their real-time fund-raising efforts and how they compare with other teams.

Use rich and multi-media to showcase results.

  • - Use Google Maps, Google Earth, GPS, video and other rich media to bring the project to life for supporters, showing them where their money is going and what it’s supporting.
  • - Consider using an online visual tool to enable donors to track their contributions and understand how their individual contribution goes toward the greater goal.

Leverage social media to engage your audience.

  • - Leverage social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to engage audiences and spread awareness to their networks.
  • - Ensure that you have links on your organization’s website to your social media pages, and that those social media pages also link back to your main website.
  • - Create clear calls to action, engage your audience with discussions and questions, constantly post new content, moderate discussions, promote events and allow advocates to spread content to their networks.  And don’t forget to let your current supporters know that your organization has a social media presence and where they can find you.
  • - By regularly updating your social media pages you can help your visibility in search engines and it encourages people to keep coming back to check for updates.

Use SEO and SEM to increase awareness and visibility.

  • - Design your website to optimize Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Use titles, tags, keywords, descriptions, cross-linking and URL normalization to improve your site’s performance in SEO.
  • - Invest in Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to reach more potential supporters when they are in the mind-set of researching charitable organizations and donating online. Investigate Google Grants to see if your charitable organization is eligible to receive free AdWords advertising.
  • - Use social media to get more search engine visibility and avoid any mistakes which may incur penalties from Google.

Invest in your relationships.

  • - Invest in your relationships with supporters / donors and communicate with them on a regular basis.
  • - Keep email communications personal, timely, consistent and action-oriented. Don’t be afraid to experiment while tracking metrics to determine what is and isn’t working.
  • - Track, measure and test emails with your database to optimize results.
  • - Consider how your supporters will be accessing these emails and ensure that communications are designed with mobile devices in mind.

Integrate online and offline efforts.

  • - Integrate and support online marketing efforts with offline channels to spread the message to audiences in other channels, create multiple touch points and increase messaging frequency.
  • - Develop an Online Marketing Calendar that is part of the organization’s larger integrated marketing calendar to ensure that online and offline efforts complement and support one another.
  • - Consider running online fund-raising events in conjunction with or in lieu of other fund-raising events.  Online events can be launched quickly, with less overhead costs while leveraging peer-to-peer networks.

Set goals, metrics, measure and test.

  • - Set goals for the online marketing plan, track with appropriate metrics and continue to optimize the plan based on analysis and results.
  • - Standardize metrics for comparisons, test different tactics and measure to best leverage your email database.

2011 Predictions & What Marketers Need to Know


Jane LeeFeb 14, 2011
Computing Device Market Forecast

Source: DTTL, 2010

Deloitte recently produced their 2011 Predictions for Technology, Media & Telecommunications. I’ve combed through these predictions for you to highlight the ones that marketers need to know:

  1. Rise of Tablet Computers. Deloitte predicts that more than 25% of all tablet computers in 2011 will be bought by enterprises, and that figure is expected to rise in 2012 and beyond.  The retail, manufacturing and healthcare industries are presumed to become early adopters. This means that marketers need to pay attention to how their online communications come across in tablets (in addition to other mobile devices).
  2. Tipping Point for Non-PCs. Correlating with the first point on the rise of table computers, the era of the PC is coming to a close.  While traditional PCs (desktops, laptops, netbooks) will still be the main platform for 2011 and immediate years to come, the landscape is changing rapidly with the increase of tablets and smartphones.  Along with the increase in non-PCs has come the growth of the application industry which is only in its infancy. The industry is expected to grow 60% in 2011 to over $10 billion.
  3. Operating System Diversity. While the adoption of non-PCs is rising, no dominant operating system (OS) has yet to emerge, which means that there is no defacto standard.  In a fragmented OS world, it means that no one app developed for a single platform can address the entire market. Marketers will need to understand that developing customized apps or versions for each OS requires time and money (between $5,000 – $500,000, depending on complexity) so they will need to pick and choose the markets they want to target wisely.
  4. Social Networking Advertising Continues to Grow. While social network advertising revenues are still less than 1% of the global advertising spend, the potential for this channel is huge.  Deloitte predicts that 2011 will see over one billion unique social network members and a 40% year over year growth  in advertising revenues.  In addition to advertising revenues, other forms of revenue for social networks include serving as a payment platform for apps and e-commerce.  A blended e-commerce store model may be one where networks charge for online retail space and earn a commission on any sales.  What is certain is that marketers need to expand their use of social media to protect their image and reputation in online networks as people overwhelmingly trust peer recommendations (78%) over advertisements (14%).

Online Advertising Campaign Checklist


Jane LeeNov 15, 2010

Start producing top shelf online ads

Recently we had a client approach us to provide them with online advertising best practices to help guide and improve their creative process. As a result, we held a session to present and discuss online creative best practices. The feedback we received was that the session was valuable, informative and validated a lot of their thoughts.

At the end of the session we provided an online advertising checklist, best practices tip sheet and an online creative brief for their reference.  The online advertising checklist is presented below. Note that the checklist is particularly relevant to online display ads, but many of the points can be used as a general guideline for all online campaigns.

1. Conducted strategy and planning for online campaign.

Determined campaign goals, target audience and desired level of engagement.

Chose media channels to best meet the goals and reach the target audience.

Evaluated different types of online ads for the campaign and selected type of online ads with consideration to level of engagement desired.

2. Ensured online creative was adapted optimally for the channel when integrating creative across all media channels.

Integrated and enhanced the campaign message for the online channel, instead of simply duplicating ad from other channels.
Kept in mind that audiences digest advertising differently online than they do for print, TV, billboard.

Ensured best practices were considered when adapting ads for online.

3. Kicked off all campaigns with a solid online creative brief.

Reviewed the brief at the start of project with agency and internal stakeholders to ensure everyone started on the same page.

4. Highlighted the brand prominently throughout the ad.

Every frame of the ad contained the brand logo to help viewers ‘get the ad’ and promote the brand regardless of the frame they see.

5. Communicated primary ad message to audience within 1-2 seconds.

Ensured the ad supported the message at all times and throughout all frames, be it brand awareness or a call to action.

6. Kept it simple.

Used no more than 1-2 messages per ad.

7. Provided value to audiences.

Included something of value. Value is anything that is worthwhile to your audience – i.e. tools, entertainment, education, etc.
Did not annoy users with the ad and placement of it. Did not disrupt their online experience. Provided user interaction without being intrusive.

8. Tracked and analyzed success metrics for campaign.

Reviewed past metrics and results of online campaigns. Leveraged lessons from past ad campaigns and tests to optimize this campaign.

Implemented tracking metrics for this campaign.
Optimized ads/media where appropriate and feasible while campaign was still in execution.

If you think a session on online creative best practices would help your marketing team, we’d love to hear from you!

5 Ways for B2B Companies to Engage on Facebook


Jane LeeSep 15, 2010

I recently read a good article on how B2B companies can engage users on Facebook. Here are some of their top tips:

1. Original Content and Industry Content

The design principle “Keep it simple, stupid” also applies to content you’re already spending time to create. Have a newsletter, magazine, newsroom or blog? Repurpose that information on Facebook, making sure it’s relevant and interesting to this particular community. Take advantage of the Facebook status update’s 420-character limit, but keep your Twitter hat on and be concise.

Consider these types of posts reflections of your blog and Twitter editorial calendars, and find them in similar ways: Make sure your feed reader is full of relevant industry blogs and sites, and curate helpful Twitter lists and hashtag/keyword searches.

2. Questions

Sometimes, all you have to do is ask. There’s a reason many Social Media B2B blog posts end with a question – a call to action is a simple thing that often goes forgotten. Make it a habit to end status updates by asking your followers what think about a particular article, industry trend or new product.

On the lighter side, use questions as a conversation starter. Fun topics such as company or industry “Did you know…?” trivia or even a simple “Good morning! What did you do this weekend?” can go a long way to making your Facebook page a community destination instead of a promotional content dump. People enjoy talking about themselves and their experiences – let them do it on your page and learn from what they tell you.

If you’re asking your Facebook followers for feedback, remember it’s a two-way street. Be sure to check back often to reply to others’ questions and be part of the conversation yourself.

3. Photos and Videos

There are many applications such as TwitPic and TwitVid that facilitate the addition of photos and videos on Twitter updates. Facebook, however, gets a leg up on those tools’ shortened URLs by putting photos and videos straight into Facebook users’ news feeds. Photos and videos are welcome breaks from text-heavy status updates, and let businesses tell their stories with images and sound.

Take advantage of the provided status update space to give background on these types of media, and start dialogue by asking followers their thoughts, reactions and favorites.

4. Behind-the-scenes and VIP Info

People “Like” Facebook pages to have another way to track their favorites brands, products, people and places. Make your company’s Facebook updates stand out by offering up valuable information and interactions they won’t find anywhere else, such as behind-the-scenes photos, sneak-peek product announcements and Facebook-only contests.

Be careful with Facebook promotions, however. Facebook updated its promotions guidelines at the end of 2009 to better regulate contests held and promoted on its site. Here are a few things to keep in mind: You can’t make contest entrants perform any other action on Facebook other than “Liking” your page; be mindful how you frame Facebook and its images in the contest; and, as always, pay attention to local and national promotion rules. See the full guidelines straight from Facebook here, or check out this post on the Inside Facebook blog.

5. Tagging

Similar to Twitter’s “@ mention,” Facebook allows fan pages to tag other people and pages in status updates. This comes in handy when status updates touch on key partners and demographics such as trade media, associations and trade shows. For example, if you post an interview Trade Magazine Weekly did with your company’s CEO, include a short status update intro above the link that mentions the media outlet. This will show up on the outlet’s Facebook page Wall and will be visible to everyone who visits its page.

Read the full article.

The Two Most Important Rules of Email Marketing


Jane LeeJul 7, 2010

Recently I received an email newsletter for a company that I never subscribed to, and had already unsubscribed from. So what did I do? I marked the email as spam.

Instead of potentially soliciting clients, email marketing tactics that send emails to users that have not explicitly opted-in, and not cleaning up databases for unsubscribes almost guarantee the opposite effect of losing that potential customer and annoying them. Don’t be surprised if they express their frustration with your company to others as well. Moreover, when they start marking your emails as spam or complaining to their Internet Service Providers, you end up hurting your brand and ability to market online in the future.

Here’s an article that talks more on the issue of email marketing – the status quo isn’t working.

B2B Online Marketing Best Practices


Jane LeeJun 21, 2010

While many B2C (business-to-consumer) companies have recognized the value of investing in online marketing strategy, I’ve often found that many B2B (business-to-business) companies are slower to adapt unless pushed by competition. With this in mind we’ve put together some key online marketing best practices to help B2Bs understand steps they can take to help their businesses grow.

1. Know your audience
• Invest in gaining a better understanding of your customers’ needs and behaviours.
• Develop personas to embed your target audience as people within your organization and use them as a filter for new initiatives, products and services.

2. Create and offer real value
• Offer value added marketing and communications that will help clients run their businesses more effectively – through content, widgets, tools, exclusive access, etc.
• Develop approaches and methods to better understand what your customers really need. Create and take advantage of opportunities to ask them what they want through online and offline channels.

3. Make your website user and member friendly
• Design your website to be user friendly with easy access to resources, services and client log-in pages.
• Content is one of your key values – make it easy to navigate and access with intuitive menus, search functions and offer help through direct contact if users cannot find what they need.
• Ensure that eCommerce shopping and check-out processes are simple and quick.

4. Be mobile friendly
• More users, especially professional, are accessing information increasingly on their mobile devices so provide online content that is easily accessible to them and consider how mobile commerce affects your users.

5. Ensure transparency and authenticity
• Ensure that your organization’s vision and goals are transparent and upfront.
• The recession weeded out weak competitors and in 2010 consumers will continue to scrutinize the transparency of companies, the authenticity of brands and their claims.

6. Engage your audience
• Engage your customers in dialogues to know what they want and like. Consider using surveys, email and social media sites like LinkedIn to engage audiences in channels where they frequent and to spread awareness to their networks.
• Consider adding a social bookmarking tool to your website like AddThis to make it easy for users to share content with others. In addition, it provides analytics on the bookmarking and sharing activities.

7. Search – SEO and SEM
• Design your website with SEO (search engine optimization) in mind and use SEM (search engine marketing) to ensure prominence on Google and other search engines.
• Use social media to get more search engine visibility, optimize key phrases on your website, and avoid any mistakes which may incur penalties from Google.

8. Invest in your relationships and communicate with supporters on a regular basis
• Keep email communications personal, timely, consistent and action-oriented. Don’t be afraid to experiment with A/B testing while tracking metrics to determine what is and isn’t working.
• Consider how your customers will be accessing these emails and ensure that the communications are designed with mobiles and handheld devices in mind.

9. Set goals, metrics, measure and test
• Set goals for the online marketing plan, track with appropriate metrics and continue to optimize the plan based on analysis and results.
• Standardize metrics for comparisons, test different tactics and measure to best leverage your email database

2010 Marketing Trends


Jane LeeDec 9, 2009

2009 was a trying time for many marketers but with the changing seasons, things are starting to look up. With the year coming to an end, we’re looking toward the new year and have compiled a list of Marketing Trends for 2010.

1. Consumer expectations are growing and they want more value.
Consumers got more for less in 2009 and will continue to expect the same in 2010. Smart marketers will develop approaches and methods to identify and capitalize on unmet expectations.

2. Brand differentiation is brand value.
A brand’s ability to differentiate themselves from generic competitors as the recession recedes will continue to provide value in true ROI terms – sales and profitability.

3. Transparency and authenticity will continue to be critical for brands.
The recession weeded out weak competitors and in 2010 consumers will continue to scrutinize the transparency of companies, the authenticity of brands and their claims.

4. Consumers continue to shape brands online.
Online conversations and communities are alive and growing. Consumer reviews and comments can extend trust /distrust to brands if the communities are authentic. These conversations are happening everyday – with or without the brand’s involvement.

5. Consumer engagement has become table stakes.
For the past few years, companies have been told that best practices included engaging consumers in two-way dialogues. For 2010, consumer engagement has now become table stakes.

6. More companies will join in social media conversations.
Online brand dialogues outside of company controlled outlets will continue to increase. According to a recent study by Deloitte (Tribalization of Business) 94% of businesses will continue or increase their investment in online communities and social media. Look for more companies to use Facebook Connect, become members of LinkedIn and to send tweets on Twitter.

7. Whether or not 2010 is the year of the Mobile, wireless communications are becoming more important.
There were numerous discussions on how 2009 was supposed to be the year of Mobile for commerce and advertising, and then more discussions on whether that came true or not. Regardless, mobile is a channel that should not be ignored by marketers as consumers have already texted in their vote.

8. ROI will remain top of mind.
With signals that the economy has come out of the recession, previously slashed marketing budgets may receive more funding, but not without justification. Executives will keep their eyes on the bottom line and scrutiny will remain on ROI and the tracking and analysis of results.

How to Establish a Social Media Strategy


Jane LeeJul 8, 2009

Has your company embraced social media with Twitter, Facebook or YouTube profiles yet? Even if your marketing department hasn’t engaged audiences in social media channels, chances are your company’s name and brand are already out there in some form of user generated content by employees, customers, critics and/or fans. By now most marketers should understand that companies cannot exert full control over their brands, but what you can do is create a social media strategy to maximize opportunities and minimize risk to your brand.

Establish a Social Media Strategy

With all of the attention being paid to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, it is tempting to open profiles on all of the popular social networks, however it is important to think through a social media strategy first. It is also critical to keep in mind that you do not control the message. This is not a one-way form of communication and if an organization is not comfortable or equipped to deal with the possibility that people will manipulate and challenge their information and media, you need to think twice before jumping to social media channels.

1.  Research and think through your audience, objectives, tactics, tools and metrics. Who do you want to reach and why? How do you plan to engage them? How will you measure success?

2.  Investigate how your target audience is currently using social media channels. Are they being used for entertainment value, communicating with friends and families, researching employment opportunities, etc.? Is this the right channel to engage them? What are the best social networks to reach them on?

3.  Once you’ve determined your objectives for engaging in social media, figure out whether or not the branded messaging your company wants to communicate has any value to participants. Understand that with social media, organizations need to give value to participants before expecting anything in return.

4.  Create a social media map. Inventory the current social media groups/pages that your company is affiliated with and determine where the gaps are and who would be best to maintain responsibility for these groups. It is important to keep in mind that there is an organic, unrestricted nature to these groups, and mandating participation to reluctant parties will result in poor experiences.

5.  Allocate sufficient resources to manage and maintain a presence in these social media channels. There is no use in asking participants to follow you on Twitter or join a Facebook group if you cannot offer fresh content, respond to questions and engage in a dialogue with participants. Commit resources and time to be successful or you may end up harming the brand and risk alienating participants who have signed up to engage in a relationship with you.

6.  Track and measure the results of using social media. If you do not have the capabilities internally, look to an agency partner that can offer their expertise. Ensure the metrics roll up to objectives that are relevant to the social media channel.

7.  Create a social media policy for your company. It is prudent to outline a social media plan and policy to ensure that employees understands what is acceptable conduct and content to share when they are representing an affiliation with your brand.

Email Marketing Best Practices


Jane LeeJan 13, 2009

Offer relevant and value-based emails

Email marketing works but as consumers are inundated with messages and opting in for less emails, your email must be relevant and offer something of value – otherwise it is perceived as spam.

Landing pages are critical

Marketers often focus on the email, but don’t pay enough attention to the landing pages they link to. Don’t create another barrier to get the audience to where you want them – direct them to the desired page with relevant content.

Create mobile friendly emails

Focus on ‘Preview Pane’ optimization and mobile friendly emails.

Employ loyalty and advocacy email marketing programs

Leverage CRM methodologies and dynamic content to build on email communications with your opt-in audience to encourage brand loyalty and advocacy.

Set goals, metrics, test and measure again

Standardize metrics for comparisons, test different tactics and measure again to best leverage your email database.

Marketing in a Recession – What should Marketers be doing?


Jane LeeDec 11, 2008

Maintain and grow share of mind

Studies have shown that maintaining “share of mind” during an economic downturn directly relates to current and future sales, and costs less than rebuilding it after a period of marketing inactivity. Companies that invested more in marketing in a down market realize increases in their ROI versus companies that maintained or cut marketing spend.

Stop and Listen to your customers

Your customers are feeling the effects of the recession and as such their needs may have changed.  Stop and listen to your customers to determine what your brand, product(s) or service(s) can do to support customers living through the economic slowdown.

Know your customers

Knowing your customers is more important than ever.  Invest in gaining a better understanding of your customers’ desires, behaviours, etc. Devise, test, execute and track micro-targeting strategies. Once your understand your customers, develop personas to embed your customers as people within your organization.

Focus on building existing customer relationships

Shift the focus away from new acquisitions to targeting your highest value customers and advocacy groups.  Build stronger relationships with your most valuable customers to increase brand affinity, loyalty and word of mouth recommendations.

Offer increased value

Increase your brand affinity and visibility by offering value added marketing to consumers.  Use free content, widgets, tools, exclusive access, etc. to offer more value to consumers in their marketing interactions with the brand.

Leverage and integrate content across multiple channels and multiple audiences

For greater efficiency and synergy, it is critical to ensure that all marketing departments and channels are leveraging one another’s efforts and content.  For example, a promotion to high value customers may also be adapted as an employee incentive program.

Quality over Quantity

Panic leads to looking for lowest cost alternatives and suppliers, but don’t sacrifice quality for quantity – you get what you pay for.

Keep communicating with your consumers

Consumers who have opted in to receive communications with you have established a valuable relationship with the brand. Despite budgeting constraints, continue to communicate with them on a regular basis, or they may move on.

Employ a low cost and trusted form of advertising – your customers

An often overlooked low cost and trusted form of advertising is word of mouth from your customers.  Expand your marketing team to include customer advocates / influencers and support their role with the right knowledge, tools and incentives.

Stay authentic to your brand

During times of uncertainty, a stable and authentic brand can be more appealing to customers.  Customers will have higher expectations on those brands and products that are consistent, especially in times of change.

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