Executive SummaryMarketing Automation for Nonprofits: Starting Off RightWisdom from leading nonprofit marketing automation pioneers.

Don’t look now, but we’re in the midst of a technology tipping point.

Nonprofit supporters are looking for more and more personalized ways to support the missions they love. And nonprofits are realizing that it’s time to take the plunge to deliver deeper relationships through sophisticated constituent relationship management systems, access to big data, robust dashboards, relevant and inspirational content, and the latest and greatest that marketing technology has to offer.

In fact, when it comes to email marketing, digital fundraising, advocacy and acquisition, it’s no surprise that marketing automation technology is at the top of many nonprofit’s wish lists. But where do you start?

Heller Digital’s forthcoming paper is designed to give you helpful tips how to take on marketing automa-tion and learn from nonprofit pioneers who have already blazed the trail. We conducted interviews with leading organizations and gathered insights on how to approach a new marketing automation effort, what to look out for, and how to make the most of this technology (without tearing your hair out).

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Let’s start at the beginning: What exactly is Marketing Automation?At the highest level, marketing automation is the ability to automate email marketing communications based on behavioral triggers and supported through functionality like lead scoring and journey building.

Reading that definition, “marketing automation” may seem more familiar than not, as savvy organizations have been running email “welcome series” for years. You may have a welcome series of your own: a constituent or supporter signs up for email, gets an auto-generated message (hopefully customized) and then the system launches anywhere from a three to five message series of emails designed to introduce the constituent to the organization, inspire them to engage, and ultimately encourage them to donate.

The principles are similar, but by tapping into the full potential of marketing automation, you stand to unlock many more gains for your organization and constituents. So how is it different and what additional benefit should you be seeking from your marketing automation efforts?

Moving beyond the welcome series While nonprofits have been sending welcome series to constituents for years, the sophistication possible for automated marketing campaigns has been somewhat hampered by available and affordable technology.

Marketing automation takes this experience one step further. Today, here’s how you can expect marketing automation to make the process more efficient, and more effective:

• Automation (of course!) While many organizations can schedule email to send at certain times using their existing technology, the “triggering events” that support scheduling are often a single action - like signing up for an email list. Marketing automation tools now allow the organization to customize the constituent experience based on multiple triggers leveraging their behavior and data. For example, how does that welcome series change for someone who clicked to take action versus the user who doesn’t? What if they donate right away? This type of automation CAN free up resources, but the organizations we talked to warn: don’t expect a quick set-up, the flick of a switch, and then spectacular results. It takes more to make marketing automation work for you.

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• With greater ability to target emails comes greater ability to target your content. By using marketing automation you can create an experience that’s even more relevant to your constituent, based on data, and optimized for hitting goals. This is one of the most powerful benefits of marketing automation technology - but again, a good tool alone doesn’t make this possible. One organization we spoke with had to take a hard look at what was happening with their constituent and donor data overall before they could get effective marketing automation off the ground.

• Lead tracking and scoring. In addition to the possibility of making your content more personalized, you can also deepen your un-derstanding, segmentation, and reporting on audiences. Through “lead scoring” you can start to learn what specific tactics and messages work for specific audiences, and continually optimize your strategy. Case in point—as one organization introduced lead scoring into their program, they came to realize that most of their high-quality conversions were coming from audiences lower down the ladder of engagement than they previously assumed.

New technology can’t be where you startIt’s quite tempting to survey your current technology, realize it doesn’t offer marketing automation and then begin the process of chucking it out the window in order to replace it with a shiny new tool with all the bells and whistles. Far too many organizations start that way - and the problem is that technology alone just isn’t going to solve your acquisi-tion, fundraising, or engagement issues.

In fact, at the heart of marketing automation strategy is determining how you will treat an individual based on their digital behavior ahead of time. And doing that requires three key elements:

1. The strategy, plan and a journey map to support your goals

2. Good clean integrated data to provide you with a complete picture of your donors and constituents

3. Technology to support the execution of that plan

The good news is—you’re not alone in facing this challenge, and the nonprofits who have launched marketing automation programs have helpful insights to share. Here’s a preview of the tips and strategies that your fellow nonprofit pioneers will be sharing in our upcoming paper, Marketing Automation for Nonprofits: Starting Off Right.

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How pioneering nonprofits are making it workTo help organizations get a better understanding of what to expect when considering any new marketing

automation effort, Heller Digital asked online marketing and fundraising pioneers like DonorsChoose.org,

Sierra Club, Greenbelt Alliance and others to share the possibilities and pitfalls they have encountered

so far.

In our upcoming paper you’ll get their insights on some of the following questions:

• What does success look like for a new marketing automation program? What is the right kind of goal to set? We alluded to this above, but most of our experts agreed that your main goal should NOT be to save time. As you’ll see in the paper, while there were time savings for pre-existing welcome series, the real gain is often being able to spend MORE time on previously-impossible, but much more effective conversion of target audiences into activists and donors.

• How should I decide which tools to use? Which features are critical and which aren’t? You’ll see a range of suggestions here, but one surprising theme was the importance of asking yourself questions about how you’ll set up your program, not just your possible vendor. Depending on your CRM, will you segment there? Or in the marketing automation tool? What reporting will you need and how will it connect to your CRM? Having at least a loose plan of attack proved an invaluable tool to guiding those all-important solution selection demos.

• What are the major challenges that nonprofits face when getting this off the ground? While learning and accessing the right technology was obviously key, we were intrigued to see that frequently team communication and delegation was just as critical to success. In the full paper, our interviewees share helpful change management tips for leading your team to this new frontier of nonprofit communications effectively.

• Once I start my marketing automation effort, what comes next? You’ve probably guessed by now that launching your first marketing automation effort is just the beginning of an ongoing program. Our interviewees caution that while you should plan to staff time to sustain your success, keeping your upcoming automated campaigns simple and pacing your expansion can save you headaches down the road.

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Don’t wait to get startedIf you would like to talk about marketing automation options, and get out the most up-to-date information about what is available, please contact Heller’s Digital team at the address below.

We’ll also make sure you are first in line to receive the full paper when released in the fall.

Contact Heller’s Digital Team at: TeamHeller.com/contact-us/

Heller Digital works with nonprofit organizations to develop sophisticated online fundraising, marketing and acquisition campaigns. As part of Heller Consulting, our digital agency is not only staffed with expert digital direct response fundraisers and marketers, but also with seasoned technology strategists - all poised to help your organization develop strategy, select technology and run campaigns to help you grow your audiences, deliver outstanding creative and raise more money online. Find out more about our team and what we can do for you at the address above.

We understand how communication, fundraising and mission management software is used on a daily basis. Let us help your organization make the most of your technology investment. Find out more about our team and what we can do for you at:

510-841-4222 x153WWW.TEAMHELLER.COM