Leveraging Analytics for Mobile Marketing and Search Advertising

Curious about how you can use analytics to maximize ROI of your mobile outreach? Avinash Kaushik (@Avinash), Digital Marketing Evangelist for Google, led a great webinar earlier this week, discussing how you can engage with mobile audiences and take a mobile-specific approach to tracking your results.

Here’s a few key takeaways nonprofits can use, along with a link he provided that will create a custom mobile report within your own Google Analytics setup.

Mobile Outreach Strategies: Online and Off
QR codes (image) allow you to build deep relationships with consumers in contexts where you previously had much more limited opportunity for engagement.


Individuals shopping for strawberries in the supermarket can also become fans of your facebook page or engage in other Calls to Action (CTA) with a QR code.

Nonprofit Takeaway: Be creative about opportunities for leveraging mobile. When canvassing a neighborhood or street corner, people are likely to throw out the paper you hand them. If you can get them to download your app, your organization just got a whole lot stickier in their mind. When someone is bored and waiting at a bus stop and sees your billboard with a QR code, chances are significant they’ll click on the link. Where else can you reach mobile users? The possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

When people do a search for snow conditions on their phone, Skull Candy has a paid ad that points directly to their iPhone app. By taking advantage of the analytics SDKs, you can track whether people follow through to actually download your app, allowing for calculations of advertising conversion rates (and ROI). Once they download your app you’ve gained critical real estate on their mobile screen, enhancing opportunities for building brand loyalty and other CTAs.

Nonprofit Takeaway: Brainstorm about what potential donors and advocates might be searching for, and design apps that provide a benefit to your constituents while simultaneously supporting your mission.
As people peruse TVs in their local electronics store, LG includes a QR code where you can learn more information about the product. In addition to providing a sense of validation by displaying customer reviews, prospective customers can also save the link on their phone and deliberate further on purchasing your goods later if they decide they need to do more research before purchasing.

Nonprofit Takeaway: Next time you organize a big event, be sure to incorporate prominent QR codes that link to your donation landing page in your collateral. If you’ve set up a text to give campaign, QR codes can prepopulate people’s phones with the text number and message that will send a donation to your organization.


Mobile Targetted Search Ads
Search ads can be targeted to mobile consumers and include CTAs that take advantage of mobile devices. When searching for a locksmith, one company uses their phone number as the primary CTA, rather than their website. When people are locked out of their house and need a locksmith, they don’t want a website: they want the phone number of someone who can get them back in their home. Mobile users clicking on the link have that phone number automatically loaded into their phone dialing app, allowing for one click ease for a sale.


Nonprofit Takeaway: If your nonprofit provides services to the public, include your phone number. Even better, you’ll be able to track the length of the phone call (a frequently useful metric for ROI). Adwords (and other ad providers) can direct people to a temporary phone number and then forward them to your phone number, allowing for tracking call length for each ad variation. You can then compare ads to determine which leads to the longest phone calls (if using that metric for calculating ROI).

Other ads are more easily adapted to take advantage of another mobile-enhanced experience: maps. When people are in the market for a road bike, a search can lead them to geographically targeted ad for a bike shop near them. Even better, the ad can contain the address on a map, allowing for the phone to take advantage of GPS and immediately plot out directions to the bike shop.


Nonprofit Takeaway: If you provide services from a physical location, make it easy for people who need your assistance to find you.

Tracking How Your Website Performs for Mobile Users

Once visitors click on the ad, how well is your website designed to change mobile users from prospects to completed sales? Too often companies send visitors to their non-mobile optimized homepage. Do it right — create customized landing pages for your campaign!

Make your site easily usable by mobile visitors and, just as with desktop design, show a clear CTA, and you’ll find bounce rates drop dramatically while conversion rate hits the roof.

Nonprofit Takeaway: Create mobile optimized donation forms, and follow mobile usability best practices.


Determining ROI for Mobile Users
If your ad contains multiple CTAs, adwords tracks each CTA (and conversion rate) independently. As you test multiple versions of ads, compare CTAs and weight each ad based on the value of each action.

Tracking mobile users against all site visitors can be useful. Google Analytics includes a built in advanced segment for mobile users. If you find that certain devices are showing higher ROI, you can create additional segmentation based on user device, OS or resolution (i.e. tablet vs. phone). Custom reports can be developed to show performance between browsers across three critical areas: acquisition, behavior, and outcome.


Avinash provided a link to automatically add the mobile performance report into your existing Google Analytics account. By looking among the tabs you can quickly review mobile user performance at a glance.
Nonprofit Takeaway: The nonprofits we support have seen a dramatic increase in mobile visitors, and they’ve responded by working with us to develop great mobile sites. In the next couple of years the number of mobile website visits will surpass desktop usage, and it’s important to be ahead of the curve. Your supporters are increasingly looking to engage with you using their mobile devices – are you prepared for them?

Leveraging Analytics for Mobile Marketing and Search Advertising
By: Rob Pierson, Beaconfire Wire
Full Article here.  

American Cancer Society CAN Ad

Something so simple... yet so powerful.

Watch this 30 second ad for the American Cancer Society's CAN (Cancer Action Network).

Payoff for CSR Initiatives

This is a great infographic making the case for Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives.  I couldn't agree more.  Do you want to work for a company who participates in charitable activities?  Does your company offer volunteer opportunities?  Workplace giving?  If more companies made more of an effort to get behind a cause they believe in, the nonprofit would obviously benefit, but would the company too?  What about it's employees?  Reputation?  Sales?  Seems like a win-win for me... yet it's still hard to get the corporate world involved sometimes.  How do we get them more involved?

8 Tips for Promoting Volunteer Success

Volunteers are the lifeblood of most non-profits, associations and clubs. But many organizations – especially small-staff or volunteer-led groups – struggle to effectively recruit, train and manage their volunteer base.

While I’m no volunteer management expert, I have been on both sides of the volunteer equation: as both a staffer and volunteer at a number of non-profits. And from what I’ve seen and read, it seems that in order for volunteers to have an enjoyable and productive experience and for organizations to reap the full benefits of their labor, it requires some basic volunteer management planning. Here are my thoughts:

To successfully match volunteers with tasks or projects, organizations need to:

1. Set clear objectives:
o Exactly how will volunteers help?
o What are the specific goals for the volunteer in terms of: activities/tasks/projects
2. Create job descriptions for different volunteer roles
3. Identify a basic recruitment process and contact person for responding to volunteer applicants

To be effective in their roles, volunteers need to:

1. Be screened and matched to the appropriate opportunities (e.g., if they are professionals, do they want to use these skills as a volunteer or do they want something totally different; do they prefer face-to-face work or are they more suited to helping out online?)
2. Receive an orientation to both the organization as a whole and to the commitment they are making (e.g., if they are a Board member – what exactly does this entail?)
3. Be trained on the specific project/task. Your well-intentioned volunteer may not have canvassed or staffed an information booth before. A little training can go a long way to ensuring success and volunteer retention.)
4. Have an identified supervisor or mentor (e.g., staff, committee chair, out-going chair, etc.) – Be sure it’s clear – literally: “who do you get in touch with?”
5. Receive ongoing encouragement and recognition. You really can’t say thank you enough!

Charting Your Volunteer’s Journey
If your organization has never formalized your volunteer recruitment and orientation process, the eight suggestions above might seem a little daunting. But just as you want to match the right volunteer with the most appropriate tasks, you might also find that those of you tasked with organizing your recruitment process might have pertinent skills to offer. For example, if one of you is process-oriented, you could create a basic flow-chart diagram that will illustrate your volunteer’s journey from the first phone call or email, through the orientation and training process. Sometimes creating a diagram helps to identify logical steps that need to be taken and how these might intersect one-another.

Want More Tips and Ideas?
For more tips and ideas about making the volunteer experience more effective, check out the October Non-profit Blog Carnival – being hosted by the Wild Apricot blog on October 27th.

Article by Lori Halley, Wild Apricot blog
Read full article here

The Impact of $20

When was the last time $20 was the most impactful amount of money you had ever heard of?

For me, it was last week.

My mother wanted to create t-shirts for friends and family to wear as they cheer on my brother and me during the Philadelphia Susan G. Komen 3-Day. She was determined to demonstrate her technological prowess to me and found an on-line tool/company that allowed her to design her very own custom image and they offered speedy service, to boot. And as if that wasn’t enough, the email that popped into my mother’s inbox changed my respect for the impact of $20 forever.

Hi Doreen,
I noticed that you designed t-shirts for an upcoming charitable effort. We think it's terrific that you are participating in such a worthy cause! CustomInk would love to help you reach your fundraising goal by making a donation to your team.


Please reply to this email with either a:
• link/URL to your individual or team sponsorship page
• mailing address where I can send a check and to whom I should make the check payable
I look forward to hearing from you soon. And thanks for choosing us to make your special t-shirts!


Warm regards,
Laney, Charity Outreach Coordinator
CustomInk.com


And with Laney’s simple email and their $20 donation to my brother’s fundraising account, the impact effect took hold…

As a reminder: Having worked in event fundraising since 2004, I thought I had seen and heard it all, but this was truly an example that you never know where your next donation may be coming from, so don’t be afraid to talk about your efforts and talk about them some more. Don’t be shy about sharing your story. Don’t be afraid ‘put it out there’ every chance you get. Someone, somewhere just might surprise you. CustomInk did.

As a bar-setter: Almost immediately, my expectations surrounding excellent customer service were catapulted to a whole new level. CustomInk demonstrated that a company can provide an excellent service, run a successful business and still have a heart and make a personal impact in people’s lives. Their donation went above and beyond excellent customer service and garnered tremendous respect from me and my family.

As an investment: This company didn’t have to make a huge donation to my Mom’s efforts. All it took was $20 to turn me into a true CustomInk advocate! I have not stopped talking about CustomInk and their unexpected generosity since Laney sent her email. And I assure you that I will be telling everyone I know to get their next custom print purchase from CustomInk. How about that for incredible return on your investment?

As a catalyst: Due to this organization’s $20 donation, my brother was inspired to have his own company make a donation and we have both decided to ‘keep going’ with our fundraising efforts and schedule a ‘after event party’ to share stories and raise even more money! How many other organizations and people that I have spoken to will feel just as inspired to make a difference? The number is only growing…

And that is why $20 is the most impactful amount of money I have ever heard of.

-Posted by Michelle Fleitas, Event360

Props to CustomInk.com for reaching out and being a class act.  I hope more companies will follow their lead and get involved with causes close to their hearts.  I can't get over what great customer service this is and how much good "press" they will receive just from a simple $20 donation.  I can guarantee you that the amount of business they will bring in as a result of this generous act will far outweigh the amount of their donation.

Handle Complaints Swiftly

Handle complaints swiftly or face more of them

Roger Dooley of Neuromarketing blog has a great post on the contagious nature of complaints. Negative impressions have a way of spreading, says Roger, even when they aren’t valid.
He tells this story of an experiment by Martin Lindstrom, author of Brandwashed:

We set up a table in the middle of the restaurant, and four actors were hired to pretend to be friends sharing the conviviality of a meal. They all ordered the soup, since it was the only starter on the menu, thus allowing an element of control. After breaking some bread and taking his first mouthful, one of the actors called for the waiter and proceeded to deliver a three-minute rant about the scalding temperature of the soup. As the soup continued to be served to the other tables, the complaints began rolling in. By the end of the dinner, 26% of the guests had made similar complaints. Each bowl had come from the same pot, so either they had extremely sensitive tongues or they had all been influenced by the initial complaint.

Negativity spreads fast.  Take the “nocebo” effect as another example from Roger—subjects given placebo pills with no side effects will report nausea if they’re told they might have that side effect.

In other words, if people expect something to be bad, they will experience it as bad.

As Roger says, watch out for contagious negativity: “Fix the problem. Apologize. Anything you can do to mute the complaining quickly will prevent contagious dissatisfaction from spreading.”

That’s good advice.  React swiftly and graciously to criticism on social media, in your office and around town.

-Katya Andresen, Katya's Nonprofit Marketing Blog

How Do We Get People to Use GoodSearch?

GoodSearch 

Following the trend of people wanting to incorporate “doing good” into their everyday lives, more than 13 million people are helping feed the homeless, save the environment, cure cancer and help more than 100,000 nonprofits and schools just by searching the Internet and shopping online. Six years ago, brother/sister team Ken and JJ Ramberg wanted to figure out a way to turn everyday actions into a way to support the causes trying to make this world a better place. So, they partnered with Yahoo and launchedGoodSearch.com a Yahoo-powered search engine which donates about a penny a search to your favorite cause, and then GoodShop.com a shopping portal which donates a percentage of your purchase at more than 2,500 stores (including Amazon, Expedia, Staples, Williams Sonoma and others) to your favorite cause. And, just this week we launched GoodDining, where people can earn up to 6% for their favorite cause by dining at 10,000 restaurants nationwide. As a result, more than $8 million has been directed to the charities and schools designated by its users.

4-star UNICEF has used the money earned from GoodSearch and GoodShop to provide clean drinking water to more than 200,000 children; the 2-star National Inclusion Project which helps children with disabilities has used the $16,000+ its supporters have raised to send nearly 250 children to summer camp; and supporters of the 3-star ASPCA have earned more than $40,000 to help animals in need. New charities can join at GoodSearch.

And, with a recent site update, both users and organizations can track their earnings right on the GoodSearch website. Users can also now can review individual charity profile pages to select charities to support based on their descriptions, number of supporters and activity levels.

As the holiday season approaches and people prepare to do the majority of the year’s shopping, organizations are focused on getting the word out to their supporters to not forget to either click through from GoodShop to their favorite store, or download the GoodSearch toolbar, to ensure that every gift they buy also results in a donation to their cause!

This guest post was written by Scott Garell, CEO, GoodSearch.

So I don't know about you, but I probably average about 10 Internet searches a day.  Which means I could be raising 10 cents a day and $36 dollars a year... just by using GoodSearch instead of yahoo.com or google.com.  And if all of my co-workers and I changed nothing other than our Internet search provider we could raise roughly $7,300 each year for the cause of our choice.  So why don't we use it everyday?  Have you ever used it?  What can we do to get more individuals to use this great fundraising tool?