Lead Generation

Why are leads worth investing in?

Investing in leads allows you to grow the reach of your non-profit, mainly via email, and engaging these people who are interested in your cause. Over time these leads become connected to your cause and will be motivated  to donate.

Is now a good time for this during a pandemic?

Now is a great time to run a lead campaign.

1) Many businesses have cut their marketing budgets, which means cost per lead has dropped (i.e. the slashing of your upfront costs).

2) There are more people unemployed at this time, and they are spending more time online. This might seem counterintuitive but most leads do not donate right away. They want to become personally connected with your cause, which takes nurturing and time. Overtime, they will hopefully find employment and then become donors.

What do I do with the leads after?

Nurture and cultivate them. Do not ask for donations right away. Build a drip campaign introducing them to your organization, what you do, your locations, stories, success stories, etc., and only then ask for a donation. After soliciting for the first time, continue with news updates, events, testimonials, etc. to continue building the relationship.

What costs are involved?

For each organization, this will vary and many times most of the pieces are already in place it is just a matter of putting all together. Here are some items to consider:

• Offer – asking someone to just signup with a mailing list will not work, offer these potential leads something that is relatable to your cause but not necessarily directly involved.
• Message – What is the messaging you want to convey to the new leads.
• Imagery – What imagery will you use to convey the message.
• PPC Ad sets – This is where most of your upfront costs will go. Build multiple and split test!
• Landing page – this might not be needed as some PPC platforms have forms within the ads. 
• Email platform which has a drip campaign setup.

Any other protips?

Nurture the leads!!! I cannot stress this enough! The end goal is donations, but you can tell if leads are qualified well before they donate. Monitor bounces, unsubscribes, open rates of your drip campaign, just to get an idea of the quality of your leads to assess their propensity to give. 

Draw it out! Do not have the A – Z Campaign in your’s or someone else’s head. Map it out on paper or use Microsoft Word flows to illustrate the process.

Set measurable targets and ‘Red Lines” at each stage, so that you know if your cultivation is going well or not just in case you need to hit the kill switch.