Hello Indiana, Welcome to this email course on improving the effectiveness of your online donation pages.
A quick introduction.
My name is Paul Boag. I won't bore you with a long introduction. But, I have spent three decades helping charities like Doctors Without Borders, International Rescue Committee, and UNICEF. I help improve their websites and raise more money online.
If your conversion rate is low, you are not alone.
If you are reading this you are probably unhappy with the performance of your donation pages. If so, know you are not alone.
Research suggests that online donation pages often have a conversion rate as low as 16%. That means only 16% of the people who have already said I want to donate, actually follow through. That is shocking.
So why are people giving up when faced with a donation page?
The problems with our donation pages.
Well, based on my experience there are typically five factors at play.
First, most donation pages are too complicated. They have too many options in their forms, scary legal statements, and confusing calls to action.
Second, they do a poor job at outlining the benefits of donating and connecting with the donor's emotions and values.
Third, they fail to build trust and address the concerns that may be holding donors back from completing their donation.
Forth, they lack personalization that connects the "ask" with the campaign or issue that brought donors to the page in the first place.
Finally, human psychology can get in the way. They may want to give, but loss aversion can stop them at the last minute.
Many of these problems exist because charities assume that their work is done if users have reached the donation page. But, this is far from the truth. Just because people show an interest in donating doesn't mean they don't need a final push.
In this course we look at how to do exactly that by addressing each of these areas and more.
Why our donation pages have issues.
However, we will also address some of the reasons some of these problems exist in the first place. Issues such as:
Technical limitations.
Legal and compliance requirements.
A lack of testing, monitoring and iteration.
What we will cover.
Over the next several lessons, we will explore practical strategies and actionable steps. Steps that will improve the performance of your donation pages using:
User experience design.
Digital marketing and fundraising.
Neurobehavioral science.
Conversion optimization.
You will get one actionable email every week starting tomorrow. That should give you time to digest my advice without overwhelming you. I know how busy you are.
Please ask questions.
However, I realize that some of the strategies I share may feel daunting and you will probably have questions. When that happens, please, please, email me by replying to any of my emails and I will do my best to help.
That isn't some "pretend-friendly insincere offer." I genuinely want to help because who wouldn't want to support charities raise money for good causes!
And before you start worrying that I might charge you for my help, let me assure you that this email course is 100% free. That includes answering your questions. It would be lovely to work with you one day. But, I understand you may have budget limits. So, my main goal here is to just provide as much value as I can through this free email course.
Next time.
Okay, so that is it for this time. In the next email, I want to start by addressing some barriers you face in improving your donation pages. Until we address them, we won't make much progress.
So, keep an eye out for my email. And in the meantime, drop me a reply and say hello! 🙂
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