Last week, The Agitator posted on online loyalty building and asked readers what they are trying along these lines. Here are two helpful replies we’d like to share.

First, from Lisa Sargent at Sargent Communications:

Tom,
I covered this to a lesser extent when I wrote about trigger emails in my April e-newsletter. Two of the ideas I mentioned are here, plus four others:

1. Gift reminder: If donor Jane sponsors a cat-dog-acre of rain forest for her nieces and nephews, send her a reminder next year and make it easy for her to repeat the gift. (I’d check timing: these are often last-minute, so maybe send your message a week earlier. And somewhere in this sequence, why not test asking donor if they’d like to add more special dates, so your nonprofit can automatically send them a reminder? May 5th is Johnny’s birthday, August 22nd is Fido’s, etc.)

2. Progress reports: Giving your donors the opportunity to sponsor practically anything just begs for updates! Tell me about my sponsor dog: is he making friends? Getting new training? And how about my sponsor child? Does she read her new book night and day? Is it summer where she lives? Is my acre of rain forest now linked to 200 others, and prime neighborhood for dart frogs? Even general info is relevant: changing seasons, annual migrations, aerial photos etc.

3. Tips targeted to self-interests: If Greta gives to support breast cancer, chances are pretty good that she knows someone who has it, or she has it herself. Is there something new about breast exams that would help? A breakthrough on who should get BRCA genetic testing? More: pet care hints, dog training tips, recipe-of-the-week for diabetics, monthly action tips for ‘greening’ your house and yard, etc.

4. "Invented" event acknowledgments: the anniversary of an online gift is an obvious one. Why not give the animals in your sponsor program birthdays when they arrive, then send a thank you to the donor on their sponsor pet’s birthday? How about a sponsor child’s first day of school? (Option #2: Buy Chase’s Calendar of Events and check out "holidays" there.)

5. Share your stories: who doesn’t want hope in this crummy economy? Email your donors and offer them an opt-in to a Monday Miracle story, True Tales from the Rescue Case Files, Field Report Archives, Video Link of the Week, etc. But don’t turn it into a pitch-fest: share the story, add relevant donate/about/share/vid links and stick to it. (And why not create cliffhangers? Don’t always finish the story: make them two-part tales.)

6. Wild cards: Surveys, yes. Or how about a fun quiz? "Test your knowledge about XYZ…" Audio links: listen to the whale song… kids in your sponsor child’s village at play… morning feeding time at the zoo…

The litmus test for any idea, to coin Seth Godin, is to ask if you can make it: anticipated, timely and relevant. Do this, and do it consistently, and you’ll draw donors into the experience and deepen loyalty.

Thanks for covering this issue: I’m three months into personal research on the emails and e-newsletters of nonprofits, and I can tell you that one of the reasons folks say email is dying is because most people don’t give it the attention it deserves, just because it’s "cheap." And don’t get me started on email address capture.

All best,
Lisa

And from Barb Perell at Avalon Consulting:

Tom,
We’d like to wrangle more data to make our engagement communications more individualized, but in the meantime, we’ve put an engagement strategy to dovetail with the fundraising efforts for one our clients and it’s worked pretty well. Here are some of things they’ve done:

• E-cards to be forwarded to friends and family
• A birthday card for the organization that people signed with notes to the org’s president
• A follow up thank you and update to a hot issue we’d fundraised on the week before. There was no ask included, but people gave $ again anyway.
• Polls, surveys and house party kits
• A thank you video for donors from the organization’s president

I’ll be interested to see what other folks are doing!

Barb Perell

Lisa and Barb, you deserve a raise!

Tom