Try to Please All and You Will Please None: How Segmenting Your List Can Increase Engagement and Charitable Giving

Be honest, have you ever used one of these strategies for communicating with your nonprofit community members?

• Emailed the same message to everyone on your list, every time.
• Rarely communicated so as not to “bother” anyone.
• Relied on just one or two channels to get your message out.

If so, you are not alone!

Most organizations we’ve worked with have struggled with at least one, if not more of these communication challenges.

And that’s because trying to please everyone using the exact same methods and strategies is impossible.?

That’s right, your donors, staff, board members, leadership, volunteers, and program participants all have different needs, interests and behaviours:

• Some people want to hear from you more.
• Others want to know less.
• Some donors read their email several times daily, while others don’t even have an email address.

This means sending the same letter to everyone could be wasting resources at best, and potentially hurting your relationships with them at worst.

So how can a nonprofit like yours “please everyone”?

Unfortunately, you can’t…but…

Here’s what we do know after working with hundreds of nonprofits over the years:

There are better ways to communicate with your supporters than by throwing spaghetti at a wall and to see what sticks.

Or worse, ghosting your audience until it’s time to ask for a gift.

If finding that sweet spot of communicating with your donors is difficult, let’s talk about one way you might relieve some of the stress in the system: Segmentation.

What is segmentation?

Segmenting means dividing your supporters into groups with similar characteristics.

For example, a school might segment their database into current parents, alumni, and parents of alumni. Each of those groups could be further segmented into decades or by individual class year.

By speaking to a smaller group of people within your community, you can send a message that speaks directly to them and connects over a shared experience or common interest.

Segmenting has huge benefits. It has been shown to increase click-thru rates on email campaigns by 15% according to?MailChimp! Hands down, it’s the best way to ensure each of your constituent groups get what they need at the right time.

So how do you segment a group of supporters?

That’s the million-dollar question! Truthfully, it will vary from organization to organization, and the possibilities are endless.

Here are some basics to consider:

• Giving history
• Event attendance
• Relationship to organization
• Demographic info
• Behavior
• Preferred communication method
• Interests

Let’s take a closer look at these categories.

Find the rest of the article here.