There’s no denying the impact the digital age has on the non-profit and advocacy space. There is power in traditional tactics like block walking, phone calls, direct mail, and in-person events, but we all know the crucial role that digital channels play in making these activities possible and keeping your cause going strong.
Digital teams may have started with simple email lists, scrubbing phone numbers from voter registries and interns posting on social media, but these basic tactics have quickly evolved into a more strategic, multi-channel discipline. Every organization is vying for the limited attention supporters have to spare. You want to meet your supporters on the channels that matter to them, and even more importantly, you want to speak to them on a personal level that unlocks what motivates them to take action.
How do you cut through all that noise? It’s about knowing your audience, owning your audience, and delivering on what they care about most. And how can you do that? By tapping into the power of your subscriber data.
How you collect and use your data makes all the difference when it comes to nurturing, engaging, and retaining your supporters. Generic batch-and-blast emails and text messages do not break fundraising or attendance records, but tailored and targeted outreach campaigns do. By being thoughtful about what data you collect, then using it to inform those outreach strategies is the difference between a winning year or needing to shrink budgets the next.
Let’s Talk About Data
Data comes in through a myriad of sources, whether it’s the CRM at the heart of your tech stack or supporting tools like petition software or text messaging platform. Having the data is important, but knowing how to tap into that data is where the magic happens.
Using your data in outreach strategies comes in two parts: 1) having a platform that makes that data actionable, and 2) being able to share that data across platforms.
Let’s dive into the first one: making data actionable.
Addressing your supporters by their name is great, but that’s table stakes by now. You need to utilize additional data to deliver targeted, motivating messages. Think information like location, interests, affiliations, donation history, or voter registration status to name a few. Now think about the various tools you have between email, mobile, fundraising and events- how do they enable you to act on your data?
At Mobile Commons, we believe that collecting and using supporter data should be easy, so we created a built-in mobile CRM that not only stores granular data on your subscribers, but lets you segment audiences on every piece you collect. We even have a dedicated audience development tool, Second Street, to boost extend your list growth and database enrichment efforts even further. Knowing that you’re equipped with plenty of data, let’s see how you should use it.
- Have a zip code? We enable you to create legislative click-to-call campaigns that automatically routes calls to the subscriber’s congressperson to flood their phone lines to demand change. You can also use address data to target supporters based on the politicians that run their states and districts using our built-in political filters. Send more compelling and motivating messages by incorporating each supporter’s state and local political climate to drive urgency and action.
- Want to know someone’s voter registration status? Set up a custom field and then ask in a text message as you help them prepare to make a voting plan. Their response will be stored against their profile so you can not only see who is or isn’t registered, but also use that to target your GOTV outreach.
Tapping into data makes your mobile strategy go further. It helps supporters have a more direct path to take action, and helps you understand your audience so you can build relationships, rather than just blast out messages hoping they’ll stick.
Now let’s look at the second component of using your data: sharing between systems.
While we have the tried-and-true method of list exports and uploads to share data between systems, there are also ways to automate this process with relatively little lift. Enter integrations: they sync data between your CRM and text messaging platform or email and petition tool, so you know what your supporters are up to and how you can target the right people to take action.
It’s likely your supporters engage with your organization through more than one channel, and they expect a multi-channel experience to boot. You don’t want to ask them for the same information on multiple occasions; thus, syncing data between systems not only makes for a better subscriber experience, but also provides your organization with a more complete view of your audience to better inform outreach strategies.
Data syncs can go from the more fundamental, like sharing names, birthdays, or email addresses, to the more advanced where custom fields are synced, like affiliations or donation data. Both provide a clearer picture of your audience, but of course, the more data you can tap into, the better. Here are a couple examples to get your data sync to yield results:
Giving Tuesday just wrapped up and your team is gearing up for the year-end push. Use donation data to target your next ask, such as by asking previous donors to match or exceed their last amount or motivating other supporters to give for the first time.
Or maybe you need to grow your volunteer network. Segment your audience into two groups: those who have volunteered in the past are encouraged to share a tell-a-friend message, while those who have expressed interest in volunteering but haven’t yet been able to are assisted by making it easy for them to find an event in their local area.
Clearly, we’re passionate about data, and to further our commitment to making your data actionable we’ve launched our most advanced integration yet, bringing together the power of Mobile Commons and EveryAction. EveryAction now joins our family of integrations that help you put your data to work, including ActBlue, Action Network, Nation Builder and Salsa, as well as a whole list of bots through our partnership with Frakture.
Mobile Commons + EveryAction
We’re helping your organization maximize the power of your CRM and text messaging platform in one fell swoop with our new two-way sync between Mobile Commons and EveryAction. You can now sync profile data like name, address, email, and opt-in status, as well as advanced fields including donation data and EveryAction’s custom “activist codes.”
What does this mean for your mobile campaigns? Bringing these two platforms together means more ways to optimize list growth, personalize supporter outreach, and create winning fundraising campaigns.
Let’s start at the top: optimizing list growth.
One of the fundamental pillars of a strong list growth strategy is a multi-channel approach. With twice-daily syncs of mobile opt-in and opt-out data, our EveryAction integration means you can automate components of this important step.
Start with the basics: encourage supporters to subscribe to your mobile program on your website, through a petition, or on a donation form. The opt-in data then flows into EveryAction’s CRM and syncs back to Mobile Commons so you know exactly who has recently subscribed (or unsubscribed). Mobile Commons can also pass back opt-in and opt-out data to EveryAction, enabling you to use that data for engagement strategies outside of mobile.
Here are a few ideas to utilize this synchronized opt-in and opt-out data for list growth and to nurture your newly acquired subscribers:
- Utilize EveryAction forms to collect mobile opt-ins, which will sync to Mobile Commons twice a day. Then to act on that data, set up a Smart Campaign in Mobile Commons to automatically trigger a welcome flow onboarding new subscribers to your mobile program and improving their engagement and retention rates. No need to manually enroll new subscribers into your welcome flow, the messages will be triggered automatically, making your program more timely and relevant, while saving your digital team from additional work.
- Within EveryAction you can identify email subscribers that haven’t opted-in to mobile yet, then create nurture campaigns to educate subscribers as to the value of your mobile program and watch those opt-ins start flowing.
- By using EveryAction’s forms for mobile opt-ins, easily track who has joined through EveryAction to measure attribution sources and gain insight into what works best and where to fine-tune your list growth strategy.
Now that you’ve got your list growth engine humming and you’ve set up strong nurture campaigns, it’s time to get newly engaged subscribers to mobilize. A few tips to get started:
- The key to strong messaging is knowing what motivates your supporters. Tap into EveryAction’s activist codes to better understand subscriber’s affiliations, interests, and activities, then work your messaging magic to spur action. For example, supporters whose activist codes identify them as a previous rally attendee could be a great audience to grow your volunteer base.
- Location data can be a great way to target messaging, but we don’t mean tracking your subscriber’s every move. We mean simply utilizing their address or zip code to help them find their nearest polling location, attend a protest, or donate to support individuals in neighboring states that are repealing vital civil liberties.
- Create a quiz, poll, or survey to learn more about your new mobile subscribers. Ask questions like which causes are most important to them, how they feel about specific political issues, or even what types of news or events they would like to hear about from your organization. Their responses are then stored against their profile to provide a more complete view of your audience so you can engage with them on a more personal level going forward.
At this point you have built and nurtured a strong relationship with your supporters, now it’s time to translate those relationships into a strong fundraising strategy. The Mobile Commons + EveryAction integration is a prime opportunity for your organization to optimize donor engagement and fundraising tactics.
- Tap into the donor status from EveryAction to inform your mobile fundraising strategy. If a supporter has donated in the past, approach them with gratitude, share the impact they’ve made to the cause, and encourage repeat donations. If they haven’t donated yet, get them on a nurture and education journey that will motivate them towards their first contribution.
- With the EveryAction integration, you’ll have access to a snapshot of donation data that can segment audiences to better tailor your fundraising asks. Use data like highest prior donation, donation amount, and the date of donation to fine-tune messaging and encourage a repeat donation.
- Remember to institute a process for checks and balances. By utilizing the last donation date, you can quickly identify who should get a break from your next donation campaign. You can even create smart lists that sync automatically to exclude those who recently donated within a set period of time to avoid asking too frequently, which can lead to unsubscribes.
You’re now equipped with a basic framework to put your data to work, taking you from the initial steps of list growth all the way to hitting your fundraising targets. Now you need to get your software talking to each other to make it all possible.
Ready to bring the power of Mobile Commons and EveryAction together? If you’re already a Mobile Commons customer, reach out to your dedicated mobile strategist who will answer your questions and get you started with this new integration.
If you’re new to Mobile Commons, reach out to our mobile team here and we’ll help you explore all the possibilities an advanced text messaging program can open for your organization. Not ready to chat just yet? Download our Mobile Commons + EveryAction datasheet to learn more about this powerful integration.