Have you ever questioned if a strategy, campaign, or communication worked? You’re not alone.
The good news is that there are signs all around you to guide you in making informed, data-driven decisions to improve donor engagement.
One cannot improve what one does not measure. In the realm of digital discipleship and giving, performance metrics serve as lighthouses, guiding us toward understanding the efficacy of our strategies.
Gauging engagement is no longer a task of merely counting open and click rates, likes, and shares. It involves tracking complex journeys using diverse metrics, illuminating the path that most effectively transforms curiosity into conviction and followers into fervent supporters.
Tracking these metrics is not as difficult as you may think. Follow these five easy-to-implement principles to stay connected and engaged with your donors.
1. Define Key Engagement Metrics
Identify and define the relevant donor engagement metrics you need to experience growth and success for your mission. Look beyond vanity metrics such as likes and shares to comprehensively measure the effectiveness of digital discipleship and giving strategies.
Clarify metrics based on donors, fundraising, and channels. Some key metrics to consider include
Donor Key Metrics:
- Donor retention rate
- Donor lifetime value
- Donor churn
Fundraising Key Metrics:
- Average gift size
- Gift frequency
- Conversion rate
Channel-Specific Key Metrics:
- Organic traffic (website)
- Page views (website)
- Open rate (email)
- Click rate (email)
- Engagement rate (social media)
- Growth rate (social media)
- Conversion rate (website, email, social media)
Your DRM, website, email marketing, and social media marketing platforms will collect this information. Create a dashboard so you can view this data at a glance and then make informed decisions.
2. Implement Journey Mapping
A journey map tracks the path from curiosity to conviction, turning followers into supporters into donors.
It helps you understand, evaluate, and optimize touchpoints at every stage to ensure that people have a wonderful experience with your ministry.
The journey map will teach you about your donors and how to best engage with them. It will also keep your team focused on donor engagement and help you predict future fundraising.
There are five stages to a journey map:
- Awareness: What are you doing to increase awareness of your mission?
- Consideration: Share information about your ministry
- Conversion: Have a potential or current donor take an action
- Retention: Find ways to nurture relationships
- Advocacy: Donors become ambassadors and spread the word about your ministry
To create a successful journey map, put yourself in the donor’s shoes and create content around their interests and behaviors. Use multi-channels to communicate and engage them at each stage.
3. Utilize Technology for Expressing Thanks
Many ministries forget this all-important step. They start and end a campaign but don’t follow through and close the loop, leaving donors to wonder if their gift was appreciated.
Every interaction and every gift must be a cause for thanksgiving. Technology gives us the tools to express our thanks on a previously unseen scale, reaping dividends in loyalty and advocacy
You can send personalized video messages, automated thank-you emails, or implement interactive platforms that allow for meaningful interactions with donors and followers.
Saying thank you is not only polite, but it:
- Strengthens relationships
- Increases donor retention
- Encourages donors to give more
- Inspires other
Add a story that connects the donor with your mission in your thank you message. This goes a long way to reassure donors that their gift has an impact.
4. Integrate Gratitude Metrics
You need to track gratitude metrics to ensure your appreciation messages are effective. These metrics tell you the engagement level of your donors. Some donors will engage with your ministry each month, while others do so once a year. Looking at gratitude metrics will also show you which donors are at risk of not engaging.
For gratitude metrics, track donor retention, lifetime value, churn, engagement frequency, and donors who increase their giving.
Include these gratitude metrics in your journey map. For optimal appreciation performance, track your progress. This will allow you to acknowledge and celebrate every interaction and contribution, fostering loyalty and advocacy among supporters.
5. Analyze Data and Adjust Strategies
It isn’t enough to collect data. The purpose of data collection is to guide you in your decision-making. A church or faith-based ministry that makes data-driven decisions is far more successful.
At least once a month, compile your engagement data and gratitude indicators to review. Compare what you’ve discovered with your goals and objectives. Then decide whether to proceed as before or make changes. Refine your strategies and don’t be afraid to run tests to help you collect more data.
By analyzing your data, you will gain insights into what resonates with the audience. It also:
- Increases efficiency
- Improves impact
- Mitigates risks
- Provides a competitive advantage
Storytelling with Data
Data is more than numbers and graphs, it’s a technique to tell a story. The story it tells is up to you. Start with metrics that align with your ministry goals and create a journey map. Collect and analyze engagement and gratitude data to help tell your story.
When you review and refine your strategies to improve engagement, you’ll read a story of success and a mission accomplished.