Smartphones, direct mail, email, social media, and text messages—every time you turn around, there is a new way to talk with people. It’s dizzying.
How can your ministry connect with donors in a way that is not piling more work on you? The answer isn’t as difficult as you may think. It’s called the omni-channel approach.
Each unique form of communication allows donors to connect and engage with ministries at a whole new level. Combining them in a smart, cohesive, and efficient experience is key.
This omni-channel approach aims to provide a seamless donor experience across every channel your ministry uses, whether it’s in-person, through the mail, or digital.
Along with omni-channel communication, ministries need to adopt a journey-based approach. This approach encourages devout supporters to spearhead your mission as passive observers and active participants. Each digital touchpoint is an intricately designed interaction that enriches a donor’s perception and deepens their involvement in your mission.
Utilizing technology, you create paths that guide individuals from recognition to regular stewardship, from occasional involvement to unparalleled advocacy.
Use these five practical ways to adopt a multi-channel, journey-based engagement strategy with your ministry.
1. Audience Segmentation
Many ministries are tempted to blast communications to their entire network of donors. This type of contact doesn’t work in a digital-first age. And it can result in more harm than good. Before you send any communications, you should segment your audience.
To get started, base your audience segmentation on one or a combination of these criteria.
Demographics: Age, gender, location, income, etc
Psychographics: Beliefs, values, lifestyle, or interests
Behavior: Giving recency, frequency, type, or amount
Preferences: Preferred methods of communication
Engagement: Volunteer hours, event attendance, content interactions
Ministries that segment their audiences enjoy significant advantages, such as a better response rate, lower costs, and greater ministry trust.
2. Omni-Channel Integration
To provide a seamless experience for your donors, you must integrate all your communications, including email, social media, and website. Use these channels to promote events, share news, demonstrate mission impact, and fund ministry.
Omni-channel communication does not require much more work, staff, or infrastructure to adopt.
With an integrated omni-channel strategy you’ll understand your donors better, increase giving, build loyalty, and save money. It can also help you generate more leads, acquire new donors, increase donor retention, and improve donor relationships. The benefits of setting up an omni-channel strategy outweigh any additional costs.
3. Content Mapping
A content map is a detailed plan for your ministry to share content with your donors at every step of their journey. It allows you to deliver the right message at the right time.
To create a content map:
- Define the purpose and value of your content
- Identify your donor personas
- Consider the journey from awareness to conversion
- Determine how to use your current content
- Document the types of content for each step in the journey
- Build an editorial calendar
- Establish the goals and measurements for track success
Content mapping helps you plan, organize, and connect with your donors so they stay engaged with your ministry for years to come.
4. Automated Nurturing Campaigns
One of the best and most effective ways to share content is through automated nurturing campaigns. Well-crafted campaigns deliver targeted messages at key touchpoints in your journey design, keeping donors engaged and informed.
Automating these campaigns allows you to create a consistent supporter experience and easily assess what works and what doesn’t. Once you start running automated campaigns, you can focus on other timely or urgent communication.
Your ministry should create automated nurturing campaigns for:
- New email subscribers
- First-time donors
- Recurring donors
- Donation abandonment
- Birthday or anniversary
- Upsell series
- Peer-to-peer
- Re-engagement
- Credit card update
Most donor relationship management (DRM) systems or marketing platforms allow you to set up automated campaigns. Start with a single campaign and add more over time.
5. Data Analysis and Optimization
Use data analysis to understand which parts of your journey-based strategy are successful and which areas need reassessment. You will need to test content, email subject lines, images, and more to discover what resonates best with your donors.
Track engagement metrics such as website traffic, email opens and clicks, and social media reach, comments, and shares. Create a dashboard to collect all your pertinent metrics for easy access. Then analyze the performance and optimize strategies based on insights.
Review the data at least once a month to ensure continuous improvement.
A Successful Omni-Channel, Journey-Based Approach
With an omni-channel, journey-based strategy, you must understand your donors' needs and behaviors. You will also need to have the correct technology and human resources to support and track data across multiple channels.
An omni-channel strategy constantly evolves, so be prepared to make changes based on the donors' preferences. This means being open to new ideas, trying new approaches, and most of all, making large and small adjustments.
The omni-channel, journey-based approach offers ministries and donors a better way to engage—leaving everyone happy.