Incentivised fundraising – valuable string to your bow or no-through road?

Makes you think:



To some people, the idea of incentivising the donor with the chance of a cash prize may seem ‘tacky’ and a bit ‘low brow’. However, from the first church raffle onwards, incentive fundraising has a long and good track record. Now, as fundraisers seek new sources of funds as old ones become more competitive, its time for a new look at giving another incentive to donors. Here’s how some of the most productive schemes work:

Prize draws
Unlike lotteries and raffles, free-to-enter direct mail prize draws are not surrounded by regulation and red tape. The basic proposition is ‘send in your entry ticket, which is free of charge, and your name will go into the hat with a chance of winning a prize. While sending in your entry, would you consider a voluntary donation?’ This type of prize draw obviously succeeds or fails according to the level of overall response versus the proportion that sends a donation with their entry. When done by firms with expertise in this field, results are usually significantly better than conventional direct mail. Prizes can be cash or specific goods. Even quite modest cash prizes can work surprisingly well.

Lotteries
Lotteries involve selling tickets at a disclosed price per ticket. Lotteries are strictly regulated and require registration under one of the schemes set out in the Gambling Act 2006. Lotteries seem to work best either online or sold personally, such as by selling them door-to-door. A good formula is to sell a regular entry into a weekly or monthly lottery, paid for by direct debit or standing order. Hospices seem to do very well with their lottery schemes and there are several commercial companies who specialise in this field.

Raffles
Raffles are also regulated, largely by the local authority. There are strict rules governing the proportion of entry money that can go to costs of promoting the raffle and to raffle prizes. For this reason, many raffle operators seek donated prizes. Direct mailed books of raffle tickets, say 2 books of 5 tickets at a price of £1 per ticket have a good track record for gaining response and building up a ‘raffle-friendly’ list.

Some pundits will say that incentivised donors will only ever respond to continuing incentives, but at CSDM we have found this not to be the case. Used carefully and with the right audience, incentivised giving can be a very effective way of making a first transaction with a donor that can lead to long term, non-incentivised support.

Small changes – big difference – 5 small tips that can really boost direct mail appeal response

  1. Use Royal Mail’s Customer Barcode (CBC) service. A barcode underneath the address and showing through a window envelope makes the letter look more “official” and gets a higher attention rate.
  2. Give a closing date for the appeal. Time limits are why capital campaigns work so well.
  3. Get an appeal signatory who is a respected figure, such as a doctor, professor etc., (probably not a politician right now though!). Credible signatories make a worthwhile difference.
  4. Make the first sentence of your letter a very short one. It helps readers start reading.
  5. Use a ‘demotic’ style of writing – a familiar, easy tone, rather than a formal one.

None of these measures will cost you a penny more, but are guaranteed to improve results.

Content supplied by Chris Stoddard.

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Success With Email Marketing: Tips, Tricks And Techniques From The Experts

There are many things to address to create an effective marketing email. An example is how to acquire a sizable email listing. How can you use email marketing to its fullest advantage? Read on to find simple solutions to these quandaries, and more. By using these tricks, you will find yourself with an extremely effective and well thought out marketing campaign.

Always include any preexisting brand logos and colors in your email messages. Your subscribers know your site already and they associate certain colors, logos, and designs with it. Matching your emails to your website makes them seem more familiar and reduces the risk that a subscriber will accidentally delete them.

Include a confirmation page prior to finalizing an email subscription with a visitor. People will realize what they are signing up for and be less likely to receive emails they did not want. This may appear counter-productive, but this can ensure your business will avoid any misuse reports.

Place a prominent unsubscribe link in your email messages so customers can easily get off your list, if they don’t want your messages anymore. Even though sending emails is basically free, they can still take money out of your pocket. More importantly, if you’re seen as a spammer, it’ll hurt your reputation as a business. Customers may block your email address if they get annoyed.

Emails are very fast, personal methods of communicating with your customers. When creating an email message, you want it to be short. Nobody really wants to view an extremely long wordy message about something that is not interesting. Provide links to your web site so your customers can get the details there.

Make sure your emails contain your company logo and features your brand name prominently. Whatever distinctive design elements and styles your company already uses, such as logos, fonts, and color schemes, should be incorporated into the emails you send out, too. That way, you can take advantage of immediate familiarity on the part of your audience.

Do not send any more than a single email message a week. Remember that your readers probably get a lot of emails everyday. If you are sending too many emails, people will get annoyed and block these messages or unsubscribe from your list.

Anyone who is interested in bettering his or her email marketing strategy should compile an organic list. A commercial email list may not include many people who are actually good prospects for your business. Instead, give your customers a place to sign up for your listings, both on the Internet, and in your store.

Be sure that each person on your mailing list has granted you permission to send them emails. This reduces the chances of your emails being marked as spam.

It’s very important that you don’t underestimate just how important layout is when it comes to email marketing. It is tempting to use graphics, but spam filters can block logos, pictures, and animation more now than ever. Put anything that is vital in plain text to ensure that your customers see it. You can provide the audience with links to an external site to view your graphics.

Always get permission before contacting any customer via email. Most people disregard unwanted emails and often delete them unread. It may violate the policies of your ISP if you do mass emailings to people who have not asked to receive your emails.

You want to figure out a way to provide as many opportunities for people to subscribe for updates from your webpage without feeling pressured at the same time. Assure your customers that their information will never be compromised and that you are worthy of trust. Make certain to also inform them how they will benefit from signing up with you. Success in email marketing solely relies on the ability to acquire customer information.

Keep your messages short and to the point. Nobody will read more then a paragraph or two within your email marketing message. They may not have the time to waste, or may have no interest in what you are trying to communicate to them. Make your mail brief, and on topic, to assure that your email won’t be skipped next time they see it in their inbox.

Follow your competition by subscribing to their emails. If you join their email list, track them with ease. Seeing first-hand their email messages will allow you to make your email communication much better than theirs. Try to find needs that are going unfulfilled and capitalize on them. If your competitors offer incentives or promotions, be competitive with yours and offer something better.

You can follow up with past clients by sending a freebie through email. Include a statement as to how they can take advantage of this deal. Encourage them to act swiftly by including a message regarding the available number of free offers.

Email subscription forms should include information as to what your customers can expect from you. Inform your subscribers about the kinds of emails that will be sent, along with the frequency of the emails. This prevents new subscribers from experiencing shock over the content or quality of your emails.

Now that you can see the potential of email marketing, take the time to create a campaign that your customers will appreciate. Think about what you would like to see and market yourself. You will quickly notice an improvement in the response to your marketing emails.

The R.O.I from traditional marketing channels that are often used by business owners has diminished over time. These days the success rate of advertising through television, print media, radio and yellow pages is at an all time low. If you are still using just the traditional methods to advertise your business, you are definitely leaving a lot of money on the table.

Just how much money you may ask? Well, consider a recent study by the Direct Marketing Association concluded email marketing to generate a mind blowing 4200% R.O.I – that works out to almost generated for every spent!

Can you now see the potential of using email marketing for your business?.

Of course, you need a website to fully benefit from your email marketing campaigns. So get an affordable small business web design from a web design company and then setup your email marketing campaign for your business.

chris stoddard

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How To Use Trestle Tables To Make A Compelling Setting

Meeting coordinators nowadays are looking to up the ante when it comes to work productivity. People accountable for promoting the meeting in the first place realise that it’s not beneficial enough to merely go through the motions, sending important participants to a particular meeting or conference, frequently with no concrete return. Nowadays budget purse strings are stretched and event promoters realise that if they do not have a concrete solution to a particular issue, or at least get some fantastic reviews from the meeting or conference, it is practically squandered money.

Since the promoter puts a lot of pressure straight onto the event planner, the planner him or herself will begin to put pressure on the platform provider. As such, the provider needs to understand what drives the promoter in the first place. It is growing to be clear that the environment within which the conference happens must be favourable. Some individuals claim that this environment should provide “context.” In other words, components that once may have been regarded as a diversion are actually seen as an advantage. No longer is a window a distraction, but something that allows us to stay alert and more aware of what’s going on, to make sure that we are able to focus on the message that is being conveyed.

Any environment that is not supportive will score badly in the after meeting discussion de-brief. Think about what visible stimuli, as the venue operator, you might provide and move away from those four simple walls and the ceiling. With regards to seating, take into consideration if it might be far better to supply something much more comfortable and ergonomic such as quality banquet chairs rather than the basic, rigid conference chairs of history. Whenever you’re considering something for the participants to use or interact with as they take notes or interact with their laptops, think about solid trestle tables or banquet tables that could be covered with something or other a little more inspiring versus the standard white fabric.

No longer must we look at a standard meeting as being purely influenced by an agenda. We have to realise that, as humans, we react to different stimuli and more energetic settings. Therefore, it is necessary for any venue provider to become completely “at one” with what the promoter of the convention or event is attempting to achieve and also to work closely with the event planner to make certain that everyone is content. After all, all of us want recurring business as long as there is beneficial feedback, and at this point the pressure is certainly on a venue manager.

chris stoddard

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New charity review project launched

Reviews will focus on charity governance
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