Some quick thoughts of the recent Rapidata findings that report August 2011 to be the highest month for Direct Debit (DD)
cancelations.
Mark blogged about it brilliantly here.
It’s been very clear to us all for the last couple of years that
the source of new regular givers is rapidly changing. A client whose strategy I know very well, 5
years ago recruited over 60% of it’s new monthly givers from the traditional sources of
DRTV, direct mail, door drop and inserts.
That same client is now recruiting over 65% of its new monthly givers from dialogue
based sources like Street, Door to Door and Cold Telemarketing.
We all know that these new dialogue sources of monthly giver
deliver higher attrition rates than the more traditional sources of monthly giver.
So, it follows that as the proportion of donors from these
sources increases, then the proportion of cancellations has to increase as
well.
I’m not denying the impact of the global financial situation
on giving at all. It’s clear that there is a growing concern amongst the public
that their disposable income is shrinking. But we need to be careful not to
blame the economic situation when the biggest driver of increasing cancellations might be channel.
So what to do?
Whatever you do don’t stop recruiting from these higher
attrition channels. Of course refine your list selection for the phone and make
sure you are managing the key performance indicators in your face to face recruitment
(age, value and location).
But put a LOT of focus into understanding how you can reduce
the attrition rates of these dialogue recruited donors.
It’s a line I maybe trot out a little too often – but you
really need to match the passion of the initial acquisition moment in your
subsequent communications with these donors or they will tune out quickly and
lapse.
They just will. So, here
come the sweeping generalisations...
They are not long copy, print based, detail people.
Or at least they are not at the very beginning of their
relationship with you.
They are visual, high impact, short copy, demonstrate the
need to me now type of people. Think
video, infographic, real life stories, SMS and welcome call. Think mobile stewardship.
Like I say, probably drenched in generalisation. But these
donors are different and we need to think differently, quickly to keep them.
Hi Paul
ReplyDeleteThanks very much for the mention. I agree that stopping recruitment is crazy. It's short-term gain for some long-term pain.
But I am worried about the attrition results being reported. And after looking at the numbers, I'm not so sure it's down to a ratio change.
But in any case, as you point out, the issue is not what's happening but why? And what should we do to tackle it.
We've found at Bluefrog that the amount of effort that a donor will put into reading post recruitment communications (and their subsequent actions) reflects the nature of the content you are delivering.
If you concentrate on showing a donor what their gift has achieved (as opposed to showing them what the charity in general is achieving), people love it. They actually appear to relish the detail.
It doesn't necessarily matter what media you use as long as you concentrate on delivering what donors want.
Where digital media wins is that it is fast, rich and inexpensive (and appropriate for many of our street, door and phone recruits).
But, as with mail, without the right content it will still be destined to fail.
Great post.
Hi Mark
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the time to comment ;)
I don't think the issue is ratio of source alone, but I wanted to make the point that it needs to be considered. As few in the more general sector press seem to be talking about it.
I totally agree on content. We need to be giving people stuff that they want, will value and will remember. If we are dull, we will be dropped.
Thanks again for your comment.