Charity Videos Get Viewed
Yesterday I wrote about the march of online video into the media repertoire of mainstream America. Basically, everybody watches them, and an impressive and growing percentage of us originate our own video content and post it on the web … even if it’s just marking a friend’s wedding or our dog’s best trick.
Ace fundraiser Willis Turner commented on the post with skepticism:
“As usual, lots of interesting information about engagement but not a word about money. Or about how posting videos of people dancing at your sister’s wedding relates to fundraising.
The ‘norm’ of online communication keeps getting more sophisticated (and more expensive, in terms of time if nothing else), yet very few are bragging about how much cash is coming in.
Sure you can capture all kinds of cool data, but in terms of actual revenue, online is more like advertising than direct marketing. Sooner or later, as the novelty begins to fade, people are bound to start wondering, ‘what’s the real ROI?'”
Every gut instinct I have says that powerful nonprofit/charity videos will pack an irresistible punch. Surely that’s been emphatically demonstrated by traditional TV fundraising as executed by folks like Russ Reid (see examples here). No reason to expect that video delivered/viewed online would be any less successful … and indeed perhaps more successful, given that direct response is literally a click away.
And speaking of online video response clicks, here’s a study from Videology with two particularly interesting findings for fundraisers:
1. Online viewers age 65+ are the most likely to both click through to online videos and then view them to completion (is it just watching the latest grandchild’s birthday party?).
2. Charity videos — out of 16 categories — are the most likely to be clicked to, and the most likely to be viewed to completion.
To paraphrase Mary Cahalane’s comment on my post … online video might not be your personal ‘cup of tea’, but fundraisers owe it to their nonprofits and clients to get with it!
Tom
P.S. Anyone care to share an online video fundraising success story?
2 responses to “Charity Videos Get Viewed”
Behavioral Science Q & A
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We may not have data on how much money an organization is making bc people are watching their videos. But we do know that points of engagement and two-way interactions improve donor retention, loyalty, and lifetime value. So if you are producing content that is compelling to your supporters, getting it in front of them, and know some are watching it, then you’re going to reap the rewards on the revenue side. And if people are posting their own videos, that’s gold when it comes to showing commitment. All to say, we have to change the way we measure and what we measure when determining “ROI.” Even if the viewer isn’t clicking a DONATE button right them and there, there’s plenty of evidence to support video being a profitable fundraising tactic.
We send video to our clients supporters via links in SMS messages. We see 10% click from SMS to YouTube at the beginning of the relationship. Which we are happy with. We think this will grow as a year ago we were seeing c.5%. The increase is due to more smartphones, better data packages, more wifi in public places and the basic fact that people are becoming more accustomed to viewing video on their mobiles.
When selecting video for mobile we think, short, fun and able to get the point across without sound.