Convio has just released its latest Integrated Multi-Channel Marketing Study and it’s well worth a careful read.

Using online survey data from 123 nonprofits, backed by 15 in-depth interviews, the Survey explores key success factors for organizations of all types and sizes that are already engaged in integrated, multi-channel marketing. The Study employs an interesting and helpful filter that focuses on the practices of Novice, Junior, Intermediate and Advanced practitioners.

Even better the Survey’s respondents had to meet the following criteria:

• The nonprofit for which the respondent works had to have raised more than $1 million per year via direct response channels;
• The respondent had to be a manager/supervisor or above;
• The respondent had to be the primary decision maker or involved in the decision making process.

The result: as highly disciplined and thorough a look at this important subject as I’ve ever seen. I urge you to download and study this report carefully.

From the issue of organizational silos, to inter-departmental communications and planning, to metrics and best practices, I guarantee you’ll find something in the Convio study that’ll surprise you, reinforce what you’re doing, and certainly challenge you to do more.

Here are some of the study’s findings I personally found of interest:

• There is a reasonable amount of integrated marketing already happening. Frankly, I was pleasantly surprised.

• Integrated, multi-channel marketing isn’t just something nice to do. Folks are increasingly aware that increased competition in the nonprofit sector mandates competence in this area because donors will flee from those who don’t get their act together.

• The degree of sophistication and the size of the nonprofit don’t correlate. More than 50% of the organizations raising more than $20 million a year online and offline fall into the Junior category and another 21% are Novices. Yet 56% of organizations raising $10 million a year or less are Advanced.

• Online marketing’s contribution to the fundraising mix may be a leading indicator of the organization’s effectiveness when it comes to integrated marketing sophistication. 48% of the Novices raise less than 5% of their direct response funds online, while 63% of the Advanced respondents are raising more than 15%.

• The real barriers to integration are: 1) lack of commitment on the part of an organization’s leaders to integration, and 2) low investment in the mechanics – business processes, measurement and software — needed to make it happen. No surprises here, but by all means send this report upstairs to the front office!

• Fewer than half the organizations surveyed measure lifetime value by channel and fewer than half track the migration of donors from one channel to another.

• As in virtually all fundraising, integrated or not, so much more needs to be done when it comes to understanding retention. Advanced organizations are doing pretty well (with the exception of tracking the effects of social media on retention). And while Novice, Junior and Intermediate sophisticates are tracking direct mail retention, they need to start focusing on the other channels as well.

The study’s author Vinay Bhagat, the Founder and Chief Strategy Office of Convio, and his team deserve a raise for this great piece of work!

What  do you think?

Roger