How many e-mails from a non-profit or religious organization asking for money could you handle in a month before you got upset?

View
Results

Published in Ideas for the Change Revolution, October 2008

Previous story: The Religious Aren’t Crazy – Apparently it’s the Atheists
Next story: Check out Phil Cooke's Speaking Schedule

By Mary Hutchinson (not verified) on September 25, 2008 - 1:30pm

Phil, like you I work with a lot of ministries. I started when first class postage was 13 cents and paper was cheap.

Ministries like Oral Roberts were the first ones to really embrace mail as a direct response tool, and it worked. It was easy and cost effective to mail 8 page letters and four color envelopes. The mail boxes were not crowded and results were amazing.

Today we live in a new world. Mail is costly, and gets more so every day.

No shock that email -being free-is a seductive means of communicating and getting gifts these days. It costs almost nothing, so the ROI is always positive. Or is it?

How much email actually costs you donors? What I mean is: how many times can you eblast someone in a month (or a week) making a pitch for money before you turn off what would have been a high value long term donor into the newest name on the lapsed donor file?We are actually taking a few files of our clients and studing the long term effect of aggressive eblasts vs. selective eblasts.I'll share when I have that data with anyone that wants it.

By Postscript (not verified) on September 25, 2008 - 2:15pm

I'll take the easy answer Phil -- It depends!! It depends if I'm a "Raving Fan" or not, it depends on what my relationship is with the ministry and it depends on whether I've opted in or not. Larry Johnston is fond of quoting Mae West, "Too much of a good thing is MARVELOUS!" But when it is the wrong thing it sucks.

I think a lot of ministries don't utilize enough granularity with opt-ins. With mail, and back in Mary's time ($0.13 - wow, you don't look that old!), a ministry got a name and they mailed it. And now, ministries tend to get an e-mail and mail it. Everything. Whenever. And frankly it helps numbers -- "We just emailed 100,000 people our direct mail in email format!" But it hacks off a lot of people who report you as SPAM, whether you are or not, and end up getting you blacklisted.

But ministries are afraid to ask if they can send donation emails to a donor or prospect. "What if they say no? Then we lose the opportunity to get them to give." How many people aren't opening your letters. How many do open them and then don't respond. The great thing with email lists is that you can send to people who tell you their preferences and not offend the ones who could care less about you.

You probably couldn't email a raving fan enough. But you can oversend to someone who only wanted your free booklet, to attend an event or share a prayer request. Find out who your constituents are and what they want and then help them find it. Do they want to donate? Great, give them as many opportunities as possible. Do they just want devotionals or information? Then send them what they ask for.

By Mary Hutchinson (not verified) on September 26, 2008 - 5:16am

Well PS, I did start in this "biz" when I was 12 :)

By island girl (not verified) on September 26, 2008 - 6:26am

Phil, you must not have given your email address to any of your clients (as a donor). If you did, you would have crafted the poll more in line with reality. Almost all are doing once a week as a bare minimum. Some do daily.

By walrus (not verified) on October 3, 2008 - 11:45am

I was on an email list for a ministry that focused on the prophetic. I and several other of my friends had our names removed because we were receiving up to 3 emails per day. Some were updates on prophetic ministry but the majority were to bring attention to conferences and book sales.

For some lonely people out there these 3 emails a day may be a blessing, but whoever came up with the idea to bomb their mailing list of clients in this manner needs a new job. It might be seen as justifiable due to the low cost of sending emails, but the overall cost in loss of supporters has to be a big problem.

By Don (not verified) on October 8, 2008 - 6:59pm

I had exactly the same experience, with probably the same prophetic ministry. I signed up expecting maybe an email once a week, but what I got was emails 3 times a day! And the content of each was more about promoting products. I wrote complaining about this, and they wrote back wanting more information, as if they didn't realize what was going on. I now only occasionally access their website to see if there is anything worth being aware of.

By spam (not verified) on October 8, 2008 - 11:26am

Isn't this called SPAM? Unsolicited e-mail asking for something is SPAM. Whether it's e-mailed or snail mailed.

Stop sending it.

By Daniel King (not verified) on October 8, 2008 - 11:42am

Phil,

All I know is that I enjoy getting your e-mails...they come just often enough that I look forward to reading them.

By Don (not verified) on October 8, 2008 - 7:00pm

Yes, I agree!

By Scott A. Shuford (not verified) on October 10, 2008 - 10:02am

As long as the email has news value as well, I don't care if I get 1 a week or 1 a month or something in between. Generally these are organizations I'm already supporting so it's not like I'm going to give again because of the email, though occassionaly that may happen.

To me, receiving the emails is not the issue, it's the reading part that governs my response. I quickly scan the email for something of interest to me, something I think is worth knowing. I may hold them for a week or two before I get time to filter back through. Hopefully their subject line gets my attention enough to make me want to read it.

My giving is pretty much pre-programmed as tithing to various org God has put on the heart of our family, but occassionally I will see something that spurs an impulse gift. I'm probably out of the norm in this, and would guess most people impulse give more often than I do.

At Your Service, Scott A. Shuford Founder/CEO 949-429-1000

www.frontgatemedia.com