Best Use of Direct Marketing
2015 Nomination Form
Nominations should be in respect of activity completed during the organisation’s 2014 financial year.
This award will recognise the campaign that demonstrates the best use of direct marketing in fundraising for campaigns created in-house or in partnership with an agency.
A direct marketing campaign is defined as the use of multi-channel tools to communicate and raise funds from potential donors including Direct Mail, SMS, Inserts, DRTV, Telemarketing.
Criteria:
The judges will award marks for:
Innovation and creativity.
Effectiveness in terms of financial and non-financial results.
Nominator’s Details (every line in this section is compulsory):
Name:(must be a member of Fundraising Ireland)
Karen Reid
Job Title: Individual Giving Manager
Organisation: Barretstown
Address: Bareetstown Castle, Ballymore Eustace, Co Kildare
E-mail: karen.reid@barretstown.org
Telephone: 045 864 115
Nominee’s Details (only if different from the above):
Main Contact in the nominated organisation: Job Title: Organisation: Address: Email: Telephone: CHY:
Please complete the following sections in full:
Name of Campaign Nominated:
Barretstown Christmas Acquisition Tests
Objectives:
List the key objectives of the campaign and how it was carried out including the name of any agency that may have been used? (Max 250 words)
The key objectives were:
To recruit new cash donors for Barretstown
To test and evaluate a Premium version of a successful acquisition pack – the Ella Banker pack
To test and evaluate new creative to replace the Ella Banker pack that was used for the last two years but needed to be refreshed.
To replenish and grow the warm donor file
To improve on 2013 results
Three packs were tested for the campaign:
The Ella Banker pack which had achieved excellent results at Christmas 2012 and 2013
The Premium pack which was the Ella Banker pack with a Christmas stationary set included. The stationary set contained Christmas cards,
wrapping paper, address labels, gift tags and a high level of personalisation.
The New Seamus pack. This was a completely new pack.
Testing the Premium versus the Ella Banker pack allowed us to evaluate whether including a premium in the pack would lift response. Testing the New Seamus pack against the Ella Banker pack allowed us to test new creative against the previously best performing Christmas pack.
The campaign was created and executed with Ask Direct.
Forecasting:
How did you intend to measure success? Please list the key performance indicators for this campaign. (Max 250 words)
The key performance indicators for the overall campaign were:
Response Rate – the target was to beat the 2013 response rate of .72% for cold mail
Net Cost per donor recruited – the target was to reduce the net cost per donor recruited figure of €56.27
Net Cost – the target was to reduce the net cost of the campaign. At Christmas 2013 the net cost of the campaign was €76,000.
From the test we hoped to learn if:
Adding the premium to the Ella Banker pack lifted results
The new creative (New Seamus pack) could outperform the standard Ella Banker pack
Rationale:
Why was the direct marketing approach deemed to be the best approach? (Max 250
words)
Donors recruited by direct mail have a relatively low cost per acquisition and low levels of attrition compared with other recruitment channels like Face-to-Face. In comparison with other incomes streams, direct marketing continued to provide a relatively strong and predictable income stream for Barretstown during the recession.
Barretstown had a long history of successfully recruiting donors through direct marketing using door drop, cold direct mail and newspaper inserts. Cold direct mail was chosen because in the past it has provided the lowest cost per recruited donor. Barretstown have developed a strategic communications programme for their Direct Mail recruited donors. The programme maximises the number of subsequent donations donors make after they are recruited via four appeals annually, a donor newsletter, emails, and online campaign integration. Income from donors recruited via direct marketing makes up 14% of Barretstown’s annual income. Therefore it is important to replenish the database of direct mail donors regularly to allow for attrition and protect this invaluable source of income. To continue to grow income in the coming years, it is also essential to grow the warm donor file.
Segmentation:
To what extent, if any, did you segment the mailing into different groups and if so, why? If segmentation was used was it successful and why? (Max 250 words)
Cold lists were chosen based on their response rates to previous Barretstown campaigns. Three different packs were tested across the lists.
Segmentation worked because it allowed us to compare results for each of the three packs. We learned that including the premium did increase the response rate, decrease the cost per recruit and increase net income.
The New Seamus pack outperformed the banker back in each of the KPIs.
We now know that rolling out the New Seamus pack with a premium included will yield the best results for the 2015 Christmas campaign.
Reach:
How many people did this campaign reach?
49,779 cold records were mailed for the campaign. There were also over 7000 visits to the Barretstown.org website during December, featuring a campaign slider and News feature about Seamus and his family. The Barretstown Facebook and Twitter pages featured campaign specific header images of Seamus linking to the website. Barretstown’s Facebook has 29,200 likes and Twitter has 3,400 followers.
Creativity:
How did you ensure that your creative stood out? Please attach a soft copy of any
printed materials.(Max 250 words)
The nature of the Premium pack meant that it stood out. This influenced our decision to include a Premium in the test. A high level of personalisation was used throughout the Premium pack. This included a personalised ‘gift set’. The
addressee’s name appeared in a large window on the back of the envelope, enticing them to open the pack.
The gift set also included personalised address labels, and Christmas cards
contained in a personalised paper band. The design of the premium is playful, light and on message for Barretstown. It was designed to feel like a special gift for the new donor so excessive Barretstown branding was not used.
When developing the New Seamus pack we were conscious that the acquisition market at Christmas time is saturated so we developed the creative to stand out. The outer envelope is very striking with a strong and clear proposition. Inside the use of a ‘Santa-fied’ family Christmas card helped bring the story to life, containing a warm and heartfelt Christmas message from the featured family. It is also in tune with Barretstown’s fun ethos.
Innovation:
To what extent was the campaign innovative? (Max 250 words)
Testing the Premium pack was innovative because it is an underdeveloped and relatively new direct marketing strategy to the Irish market. So it was a bold move for Barretstown, but an informed decision made upon scrutinising the international market place.
For the New Seamus pack, we applied years of learnings from testing of previous direct mail campaigns in order to optimise results.
Integration:
Please explain how you integrated the various channels (e.g direct mail, DRTV, DR Radio, direct recruitment, telemarketing, and other channels) (Max 200 words)
A large number of donors will search for a charity online before responding to a direct mail appeal so Seamus’s story was featured on the Barretstown website, along with an ask to donate online.
Facebook and Twitter were also used to drive awareness and donations by featuring Seamus’ story with an ask to donate online, or text to donate.
Longevity:
Would you run a similar campaign again? Please explain why. (Max 100 words) Yes, given the success of the campaign, we would run a similar campaign again. We know that including a premium in the acquisition pack will improve response rates and recruit more donors.
We also know that the New Seamus pack outperformed the Ella Banker pack. This means that using the New Seamus pack with a premium enclosed will maximise return for Barretstown next Christmas.
Additionally, with such conclusive results and learnings from the 2014 test, this will allow further testing of the premium to further improve the effectiveness of Barretstown’s direct mail acquisition strategy.
Results:
What were the actual financial results and how did these compare to your original forecasts? (Please include net and gross income and ROI % figures) (Max 250
Ella Banker pack v. Seamus New pack test –
Banker: 1.67% response rate. Net cost per acquisition = €41.57 Seamus: 2.10% response rate. Net cost per acquisition = €26.65 Ella Banker pack v. Premium banker test –
Banker: 1.9% response rate. Net cost per acquisition = €43.16
Premium banker: 6.24% response rate. Net cost per acquisition = €5.05 Overall campaign results –
3.51% response rate. Net cost per acquisition = €14 Key performance indicators –
Response rate up from 0.72% in 2013 to 3.51% in 2014
Net Cost per donor recruited reduced from €56.27 in 2013 to €14 in 2014
Net Cost reduced from €76,000 in 2013 to €34,052 in 2014
The premium pack was phenomenally successful with the best response rate to a cold campaign in Barretstown’s history. The new pack out-performed the already tried, tested and successful Ella Banker pack. The campaign beat all it’s targets and provided key learnings for further testing and improvements.
Other Outcomes:
Please provide any other relevant information such as: the number of people directly helped by your initiative and the changes or outcomes they experienced. Did it help to create a stronger link between the donor and your organisation? E.g. did many offer to volunteer for your organisation etc?(Max 300 words)
The campaign recruited 1,749 new donors – increasing the size of the warm cash file by 25%. In 2013 the opt-out rate for further communications from new donors was 12.74% and in 2014 this was reduced to 5.64%, indicating their interest as new donors.
The newly recruited donors will be targeted with appeals in Spring, Autumn and Christmas 2015, and sent a donor newsletter in the Summer, which could result in a significant increase in revenue, which will help bring more children to Barretstown.
Authenticity Guarantee:
I confirm that to the best of my knowledge, the nomination is legal, decent, honest and truthful.*
* Entries must be submitted by a charity and not an agency, consultant or other commercial supplier.
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