Four Fundraising Faux Pas

In this issue

• ON STRATEGY: FOUR FUNDRAISING FAUX PAS
• UPCOMING AMA CONFERENCE IN NOVEMBER
• GMAIL, SCHME-MAIL, WHAT'S ALL THE HYPE?
• SCORECARDS FROM STAMATS
• BY THE NUMBERS: MORE BLACK STUDENTS ENROLLING IN ENGINEERING

GENERATING SUCCESSFUL INTERACTIVE MEDIA STRATEGIES CONFERENCE

Still time to register…

When: November 3-5
Where: Boston, MA
Cost: $399 (plus $150 for optional preconference)
Register at www.stamats.com

ON STRATEGY: FOUR FUNDRAISING FAUX PAUXS

Timothy Burgess, writing in the March/April issue of FundRaising Success magazine, cites four campaign "failures" that must be avoided if your fundraising efforts are to be successful:

First, failure to identify your brand promise. In a nutshell, your brand promise is the single most important element of your fundraising program because it explains to donors how you are meeting their needs. If your donors do not know what their gifts are accomplishing, they will not support you.

Second, failure to achieve message consistency. Many fundraising professionals work in organizations where multiple departments or divisions create and communicate different messages. Such a silo approach to communication only serves to dilute messages, confuse donors, and reduce effectiveness.

Third, failure to impassion prospects. On the one hand, a fundraising appeal must be logical. But an appeal is never totally logical. It must also touch the prospect emotionally. People give because they identify emotionally with a cause.

Fourth, failure to understand fundraising metrics. The key metric, says Burgess, is what he calls The Donor Loyalty Factor™. Says Burgess, while campaign effectiveness can be measured in many ways, he pays special attention to the percentage of current donors who keep giving into the next year. His goal: 55 to 65 percent. Higher donor loyalty is the engine that will drive net revenue to higher levels.

UPCOMING AMA CONFERENCE IN NOVEMBER

We hope you will join us at the upcoming AMA conference in San Diego on November 14th through 17th at Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina. During the conference we will be presenting two extensive tutorials (on Sunday and Wednesday afternoons) on developing an integrated marketing plan. Stamats will also be exhibiting and serve as an event sponsor for the Welcome Reception on Sunday night.

If you would like to arrange an appointment with a Stamats consultant while in San Diego, please send an e-mail to suzanne.schloss@stamats.com. She'll be back in touch.

For complete details on the conference, please visit http://ecommerce.ama.org/evsystem/symposium.htm.

GMAIL, SCHME-MAIL, WHAT'S ALL THE HYPE?
by Karen Hildebrand, Direct Marketing Manager

I've been rather apathetic to all the hype about Gmail. I figure, "We [legitimate e-mail marketers] have made great strides in taking e-mail from infancy to a well-adjusted child as we've implemented all the right guidelines and regulations while still generating attractive results. We can handle this, too." But lately I've realized this isn't just going to be something "to handle." Rather, Gmail could change the entire landscape of e-mail marketing. It will be like e-mail hitting puberty—our well-adjusted child becoming rebellious and difficult to deal with.

If you aren't familiar with the finer details of Gmail, here are a few of the key features and facts:

• Gmail is an e-mail service offered through Google
• It will offer users one gigabyte of storage
• Industry estimates say that at least 25 million Americans will sign up for Gmail within the first six months after its release, potentially becoming the largest e-mail service in the world within its first year
• It will have the most advanced filtering tools we've seen yet
• It will not transmit HTML-formatted e-mails
• It will not display annoying pop-up or untargeted banner ads

So, how will all this affect higher ed marketing? As a result, Google hasn't identified a target release date for Gmail because it is still being tested, the specifics could still change. But let's take a look at its current status and how these features might affect your e-mail marketing activities.

First, the transition of personal e-mail accounts to Gmail will affect [increase] bounce rates. This will affect senders' deliverability ratings and blacklist status. And once you're blacklisted by an ISP, it can be very difficult—sometimes impossible—to clear your domain name even though you are sending totally legitimate e-mail messages.

The quality and value of HTML messages are also at great risk. Google claims that HTML is a primary source for sending viruses, so while you will still be able to send HTML messages, the recipient will have to "turn on" the images each time the message is opened. And feedback by beta users states that Gmail significantly distorts all the well-constructed HTML design and formatting. Oh, and there's no outbound HTML transmissions, so you might rethink your forward-to-a friend requests.

Also, the right margin of the screen will be reserved for Gmail's sponsored text ads. As noted, these will not be random pop up or banner ads. Rather, Gmail will sell text ads/links that will display alongside every text e-mail message based on their relevancy to the content of each e-mail. This will allow the potential for one of your competitor's sponsored test ads to pop up along side your messages if they purchase certain key words.

So as any parent of a pre-pubescent teen might advise: don't get too comfortable with what you've already done. Even though Gmail hasn't hit the market yet, you need to be aware and be open to looking at things from a different perspective. Put together a plan to ease the transition when they finally announce its release. Re-think the value of text-based e-mail. Identify key words that are critical to your institution's brand, audiences, and marketing strategies. Consider ways to make it easy for prospects to change their e-mail address through your Web site or ongoing e-mail communication. Develop a "change of e-mail address" reminder plan that's ready to launch shortly before Gmail's release to help alleviate high bounce rates. Look into e-mail change of address (ECOA) services to capture additional address changes.

Fortunately, you still have a lot of options. Regardless of Gmail, e-mail will remain an excellent communication tool for college admissions as long as you use your time and resources to stay ahead of the curve because that's right where your prospective students will be.

If you would like to discuss this article or any e-mail marketing needs you may have, please drop me a line at karen.hildebrand@stamats.com.

SCORECARDS FROM STAMATS

Assessing a current position or performance is an important first step in improving any practice. To help our clients and friends make such an initial assessment, Stamats has developed three very important scorecards. Many of you are familiar with our groundbreaking Integrated Marketing Scorecard™. This scorecard has been joined by two others:

• Search Solutions Scorecard™
• TeensTALK Scorecard™

Like our first scorecard for determining how effective you and your institution are at integrated marketing, the other scorecards are designed to assess how well you understand the teen market and to evaluate your overall search strategy. Of course, these scorecards should not stand in place of a more comprehensive audit.

You can check out the scorecards at www.stamats.com/scorecard.

If you are interested in a more comprehensive audit or want assistance with a specific project or plan, please contact Suzanne Schloss - suzanne.schloss@stamats.com.

BY THE NUMBERS: MORE BLACK STUDENTS ENROLLING IN ENGINEERING

Over the past 30 years, the percentage of black college graduates majoring in engineering has increased from less than two percent to more than 12 percent. Furthermore, of all ethnic groups, African-Americans are the only group with a sustained increase in engineering majors.

The study, reviewed in the April 20, 2004 issue of USAToday, compared transcript data of 22,000 to 30,000 students from each of three high school graduating classes: 1972, 1982, and 1992.