Nonprofits Upbeat on 2019 Fundraising Growth

The most recent survey of nonprofits and donors by the Nonprofit Research Collaborative (NRC), a coalition of professional fundraising associations, finds that 60% of respondents expect to raise more money this year than they did in 2018! That’s encouraging news for fundraisers as they head into their key year-end giving campaigns. Many fundraisers feared the new tax law would undercut giving, but the survey found that only a 17% minority reported a negative impact from tax changes, and only 16% of donors said they would change the amount or method of their gift this year because of tax changes. It is true that since nonprofits rely heavily on year-end giving, certain continuing tax trends prove challenging, such as bundling or bunching, in which donors provide multiyear support but give a large donation in just one tax year and then skip contributions in the following year or years. Still, only 30% of nonprofit respondents reported that some donors were bundling. Based on various reports of reduced giving, many nonprofits also were concerned about fundraising growth, yet the NRC online survey of individual donors in March of this year found 56% said they gave the same amount in 2018 as in 2017, 33% gave more, and only 11% gave less. As a result, 63% of fundraisers said their charities did raise more money in 2018 than the previous year. Overall, 73% said they met their 2018 fundraising goals. It’s no wonder most fundraisers (60%) are confident they will raiser even more in 2019. Not all charities participated equally in 2018 growth, of course. Charities with budgets of $3 million to $49 million reported the most fundraising increases in 2018 over 2017 levels. And environmental and animal charities in particular were most likely to meet 2018 fundraising goals. Melissa Brown, author of the report and manager of the NRC, stresses that the upbeat forecast for fundraising needs to be undergirded by targeted, relevant, engaging direct mail and e-mail contacts. Overall, the survey supports both the need for a multi-channel fundraising strategy of frequent contacts. On average, after the first gift, organizations send about 3 more appeals by mail, an average of 4 appeals by e-mail, and invitations to events, including stewardship/recognition activities. For a link to the full survey, see our website blog post at https://www.acculist.com/most-nonprofits-upbeat-on-2019-fundraising-growth/

B2B Gifting Survey Finds Keys to Gift ROI

We recently ran across some interesting data from a study by Knack, a Seattle gifting company, that should help both corporate gift suppliers to craft the most appealing packages and business gift buyers to maximize their gift effectiveness. The good news from the Knack "Business Gift Satisfaction Survey" is that corporate gifting works well when it is done well: 57% of respondents said that "gifts can impact their opinion of a business partner both positively and negatively." In fact, over 80% of C-suite executives surveyed said they believe that business gifts generate measurable positive ROI in addition to intangible benefits. Since there's a huge investment involved annually, with the market for non-cash business gifts estimated at $125 billion, getting the most positives and fewest negatives is clearly vital. Return-on-investment for a business gift to high-value targets, such as C-suite executives, is highest if the gift tells a story and facilitates a deeper personal connection, per the survey. Quality is more important than the quantity spent to achieve that personal connection; the survey finds that the right amount to spend per gift is between $50 to $150. What defines quality? The best impression comes from good presentation/packaging and the kind of personalization that logo items and gift cards lack, per gift recipients. A memorable gift will seem selected just for the recipient; will include a personal message and will have "value attributes," such as a handmade/artisan item or a gift supporting an appropriate cause, such as ecological sustainability or made-in-U.S.A. For a checklist of fail-safe business gifting tips, see our website blog at http://www.acculistusa.com/b2b-gifting-survey-finds-personal-memorable-score-roi/

Measuring ROI Is Top Multichannel Challenge

As highlighted recently in a MediaPost Real-Time Daily post, quantifying and optimizing ROI across channels is a top challenge for today's marketing execs.  Gone are the days when direct marketers could afford siloed channel strategies. Citing a new global survey conducted by the programmatic marketing and analytics firm DataXu, the Real-Time Daily article notes that U.S. senior marketers now say the single greatest challenge in their jobs is developing an accurate way to quantify ROI across the variety of channels. Another 37% of U.S. marketers say their biggest challenge is developing an efficient marketing mix across channels to drive ROI. The U.S. marketers are not alone, however; difficulty tracking the success of a marketing campaign into metrics was cited by one-third of global marketers as the largest threat to the success of their teams. In meeting multichannel challenges, marketers also feel the bar for technical skills is set higher than ever before because of expanding digital technologies and proliferating data sources. So it's no surprise that 78% of U.S. marketers point to understanding marketing technologies as a skill critical to their mission, and 72% think grasping digital media is crucial to success. Overall,  65% also say it is necessary to be data literate. Testing to optimize marketing mix ROI is an approach that some marketers are now taking, per the article, including survey author DataXu. These marketing teams are randomizing deployment of existing budgets across various channels and then measuring business outcomes to pinpoint where a campaign is most successful, transforming a media plan into a controlled experiment. For more on the article and its statistics, go to http://www.acculistusa.com/multichannel-marketers-see-roi-measurement-as-top-challenge/

Survey: Marketers Bank on Personalization Success

Senior marketing professionals are optimistic about the success of their personalization strategies, according to a survey of senior marketers from the CMO Council and Microsoft. As recently reported by MarketingProfs, 26% of the 179 marketers interviewed said they were totally confident in how their companies approached personalization. Another 49% were "hopefully optimistic" about personalization results. The marketers were primarily business-to-business focused (48%), with 18% in business-to-consumer marketing and 34% involved in hybrid B2B and B2C marketing. When asked what criteria they thought would be key to personalization success, 37% of respondents cited a unified view of the customer, 29% counted on an omnichannel approach, 22% stressed flexible tools to enable engagement, and 12% listed predictive analytics as essential. Download the white paper for more details at http://www.cmocouncil.org/current_program_details.php?pid=139

2016 Digital Spending Set to Rise; Direct Mail Steady

Online advertising and social media engagement efforts are forecast for the biggest surges in marketing spend this year, while direct mail holds its own, according to the annual Target Marketing magazine "Media Usage Survey." Of surveyed marketers, 54% plan to increase online advertising and 55% plan to boost social media engagement (brand pages, sharing updates, interactions), plus 49% also plan to boost social media ad spending. E-mail rules the roost as the most popular marketing channel, with 97% of respondents planning e-mail campaigns (and 49% planning to increase e-mail budgets). However, marketers sent mixed signals on mobile marketing, despite its supposedly "must-have" status, with the 38% who say they plan to increase outlays balanced by the 33% who don't even plan to use mobile in 2016. Amid the channel ups and downs, direct mail remains a steady choice in the marketing channel mix; although slightly more plan no direct mail (25% compared with 22% last year), most marketers, 69%, say they will either increase spending or hold spending steady. Television is the biggest channel loser for direct marketers, with 79% avoiding any DR TV ads and 76% nixing non-infomercial TV ads, too. For details of trends for all channels: http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/2016-channel-spending-trends/

Bigger Firms Lead Marketing Budget Growth Trend

Multiple marketing industry surveys are forecasting higher marketing spending in 2016, but Target Marketing magazine's latest survey reveals an interesting trend behind the upbeat outlook: The higher the company revenue, the more aggressive the push in marketing budget for this year. Overall, for business-to-business and business-to-consumer firms, the survey found that more marketers are increasing budgets this year (37% compared with 31% in 2015), and fewer are keeping spending flat (39% in 2016 compared with near 44% last year). But marketing enthusiasm definitely varies by company size. For companies with less than $1 million in revenue, the survey found 54.7% are actually holding budgets level with 2015 and just 24.5% are increasing spending. In contrast, for companies with revenues of more than $50 million, 50.4% of marketers say they are boosting marketing dollars over last year, and only 27.8% are keeping budgets even with 2015. Companies in the middle size range, with revenues of $1 million to $50 million, reflect the general budget outlook, with 41% increasing marketing outlay and 37.3% sticking with the same budget. For the magazine's 2016 survey report, go to: http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/2016-marketing-budget-trends/

Direct Mail Gains Traction With 2016 Retailers

Direct mail, previously declining in retail use, is finding greater favor with 2016 retailers, according to a Direct Marketing News magazine report on a new AgilOne study.  Although 33% of 150 surveyed bricks-and-clicks retailers still said they would cut direct mail spending this year, that's lower than the 39% who were backing off direct mail in 2015. AgilOne cited better targeting and personalization for reversal of mail's downward retail trend, reports DM News. In contrast, print and TV advertising spends, which fell last year, will keep sliding in 2016 per retailing respondents. Digital--websites and e-mail--continue as priority channels. However, effective "omnichannel" marketing still eludes many merchants, with the 34% claiming a unified customer view across channels offset by the 37% reporting no unified customer view, and more than half admitting lack of a cohesive omnichannel strategy. For the whole story, go to http://www.dmnews.com/direct-mail/survey-retailers-will-stick-with-direct-mail-in-2016/article/467674/

Getting Opens When Most B2B E-mails Go Unread

Most B2B e-mail recipients instantly delete messages without ever opening and reading them, according to a recent study reported by the KoMarketing Associates digital optimization agency. The "2015 B2B Participation Survey" by Iris found that 63% of respondents delete e-mails they don't think they want to read without ever opening them, per KoMarketing. The study found that another 19% open the e-mails they don't want to read--and then unsubscribe. So is there slim hope for B2B e-mail success? Actually, the same survey provided clues on how to craft e-mails, especially subject lines, so messages don't go straight into the trash. Respondents overwhelmingly (70%) said they do want to receive marketing e-mails that lead with example-driven content, and about 66% also said they like e-mails that are professional rather than overly friendly. Plus, unsubscribes are not a given if companies can manage at least a few open-worthy e-mails; 55% of respondents said they do not unsubscribe from a B2B e-mail list if a company occasionally sends an e-mail perceived as worthwhile. Curiosity works in business marketers favor, too, with 32% saying they stay subscribed to e-mail lists just to see what other B2B marketers are sending out. But if e-mail marketers are looking for a surefire tactic to boost opens, KoMarketing cites another survey by VentureBeat: Personalization--via name use, social profile or demographic targeting--increased open rates for a whopping 95% of 200 marketers surveyed, with the largest portion reporting open rate increases between 5% and 10%. For more, read http://www.komarketingassociates.com/industry-news/survey-majority-b2b-email-recipients-delete-messages-opening-2833/

Brand Marketers Are Ignoring Consumer Preferences

U.S. brand marketers model communications on a dictatorship rather than a democracy, consistently ignoring consumer preferences for channel and frequency, according to a recent study by MarketingSherpa. Indeed, the gap between consumer preference and marketer practice is often wide enough that many brands shouldn't be surprised at a profit-burning customer revolt. A useful infographic of research results, based on surveys of more than 2,000 consumers and 455 brand marketers, was recently created by Direct Marketing News magazine. Among the findings, although 54% of consumers say they prefer to receive promotions via print mail, only 19% of brand marketers send out print materials. Instead, 90% of marketers blast e-mails, even though only 60% of consumers say they want to get e-mail promos. And once they've chosen to woo consumers via e-mail, marketers time messages to suit themselves; 76% of companies base e-mail frequency on their own needs, even though only 24% of consumers want that brand-determined frequency. Of course, marketers are enticed by social media popularity, so 77% of those surveyed offer customers the opportunity to follow brands on social media. The problem is that only 20% of consumers want to receive company updates and promotions via social media. Similar overfishing of digital waters occurs with online ads, with 60% of marketers using online advertising, even though just 27% of consumers say they discover new products via online ads. For more details from the DM News infographic, go to  http://www.dmnews.com/infographics/marketers-ignore-consumers-right-to-vote-infographic/article/453627/

Content Tops Marketing Chiefs' Budget Plans

To keep up with leading marketers, plan to expand spending and refocus on content marketing, with an accent on social media. More than half of marketers not only plan to boost their budgets in the next few years, they will give content the biggest piece of the pie, according to a recent Advertising Age magazine report on a study by IBM and the CMO Club. The online survey of 100 chief marketing officers at b-to-b and b-to-c companies found that 57% plan to boost marketing budgets over the next two to three years. Content development will make up the largest portion of future marketing budgets (13.3%), followed by traditional advertising (11.5%), per the study. Other top areas of investment will be online advertising (11.1%), events (10.9%), website development (10.5%) and public relations (9.6%). Content leads marketing budgets explained Jay Henderson, director of strategy at IBM Commerce, to Ad Age because CMOs are focused on investing across the customer journey, and content requirements differ for the growing number of channels and devices at each stage, plus there is a demand for increased personalization at every stage. The survey divided the customer journey into six phases: discover (initial search), learn (research), try (testing and product comparisons), buy, use (requiring customer support) and advocate (recommending to others). The "discover" and "buy" phases currently receive the most marketer attention (20% and 21% of budget allocations, respectively), compared with the "learn" and "try" phases (16% each) and the "use" and "advocate" phases (13% and 14% respectively). But when it comes to prioritizing by channels, marketing attention is less evenly distributed, with social leading for all but the "buy" phase, when the website becomes the focus. See the full article at http://adage.com/article/btob/cmos-spending-content-buying-cycle/300181/

Why Do B2B Marketers Fail to Test Landing Pages?

We think of testing as a basic direct marketing tenet, yet a MarketingProfs survey published in September shows how remiss B2B marketers are when it comes to testing landing pages, an essential step in digital conversion success. Only 15% of respondents said they do extensive testing of landing pages (A/B, usability or multivariate), and 26% admitted to no testing of landing pages at all! The majority (59%) called their testing "limited." This lack of testing was despite the fact that respondents also said that A/B testing was the most effective method for optimizing landing page conversion rates. We perhaps understand low use of multivariate testing; it is rated as the most difficult tactic to execute by respondents. But what's the excuse for neglecting A/B testing? It was not only ranked most effective by 50% but also seen as one of the easiest methods to execute (only 14% rated it difficult)? A recent article in Marketing Land by columnist David Rodnitzky provides some common reasons online marketers give for skipping testing. Check to see if your marketing team is hiding behind one of these excuses: "We're at maximum efficiency," or "use it or lose it" budgeting pressures; "Our agency/marketing team can't be beat," or a bias in favor of existing assumptions/staff; and "We don't have time/budget," at least not enough to risk going outside what's already working. Rodnitzky shoots down each of these testing "fails," warning that "a complete lack of testing leads to decisions by HIPPO, 'the highest paid person’s opinion,'" When that person is influenced by bias and budget pressures, inefficient marketing results. "Don’t be a hippo, be a tester!" he urges. See his article: http://marketingland.com/test-everything-lies-online-marketers-tell-139072

2015 Retail Marketers Boost Social Media Use

Social media advertising, especially on Facebook, has moved up significantly as a favored acquisition tool of retailers, according to the recent State of Retailing Online 2015 survey conducted by Shop.org, Forrester Research Inc. and Bizrate Insights. Per a recent story by Multichannel Merchant, the survey found that 25% of retailers now cite Facebook as a top acquisition platform, although paid search and e-mail marketing still top their list of most effective channels. Among the paid social media tools, 50% of retailers said they are spending more this year than last year on paid Facebook options such as promoted posts and paid ads. YouTube came in second place among paid social choices, with 29% of retailers saying they will spend more on paid YouTube promotion, followed by Pinterest with 27% planning an increase, Twitter 22%, Instagram 20% and Snapchat 6%. For more from the survey, including trends in online marketplaces, search engine marketing and online site merchandising, see http://multichannelmerchant.com/marketing/facebook-is-the-top-acquisition-platform-for-retailers-22072015/

Marketers Pick E-mail for ROI, Mail for Response

Articles proliferate about social and online strategies, but the old standbys of direct mail, e-mail and even phone solicitation turn out to be the channels that shine when it comes to what matters: measurable results in terms of response rates, conversion rates, and return on investment. The Direct Marketing Association 2015 Response Rate Report vindicates marketers' continued faith in older, proven channels. Based on a survey of 485 marketers, the report shows that e-mail may have one of the lowest response rates among channels but still leads in ROI, with campaigns conducted with house lists achieving an average 30% to 32% ROI, and those using prospect lists achieving 15% to 17%. Direct mail continues to outperform all digital media in terms of response rates, with house list campaigns generating 3.73% response and an average 18% to 20% ROI. Social media, by comparison, had average click-through rates (CTRs) of 2.1% to 2.5% and 15% to 17% ROI. But social is still ahead of online display ads with CTRs of 1.1% and 1.5%. Meanwhile, phone calls win the highest response rate of 9% to 10%. For a survey synopsis, and a link to download the full report, see the Direct Marketing News article: http://www.dmnews.com/direct-line-blog/email-and-phone-uber-alles/article/406874/

Marketers Embrace 2015 Spending, Including Mail

Direct marketers have finally left behind recession-inspired cautionary spending, with many in a "full-steam growth mode," per Target Marketing magazine's "2015 Media Usage Survey." And the good news for direct mail data professionals like AccuList USA is that direct mail retains a key role in media budgets. Per the survey, about 44% of business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketers reported that their media budgets are staying the same as in 2014, with 32% increasing spending and only 12% planning a budget decrease. Where are they spending? Most respondents (65%) are increasing e-mail spending, and most respondents (61%) plan to increase social media engagement investments in 2015. Search engine marketing (SEM) and optimization (SEO) also both continue as high priorities, especially for acquisition, so that content marketing, video and mobile optimization—each offering strong search benefits—were cited as high priorities, too. However, snail mail is still a critically important channel for most direct marketers. Overall, 30% plan to increase mail budgets and 37% will keep spending the same compared with last year. More than half are still using direct mail for both acquisition and retention. Yes, 11% of respondents reported decreasing direct mail budgets, but, as Target Marketing sums up in its report, that doesn't mean direct mail is withering away but that "newer strategies are factoring into the direct marketing equation, and its share is being spread around to other corners of the media landscape." For more detail, read http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/target-marketings-media-usage-survey-2015/

Optimistic on Economy, CMOs See Budget Growth

If you're a marketer optimistic about the economy and planning to boost spending this year, you're like the CMOs of top U.S. companies. The CMO Survey found that chief marketing officers at Fortune 1000 and Forbes Top 200 companies are more optimistic about economic prospects so far this year than they've been since the start of recession in 2008, per a recent MarketingProfs report. The surveyed CMOs also expect marketing budgets to grow by 8.7% on average in 2015, the biggest increase since 2012. The digital marketing spend is expected to lead budget growth, forecast to rise by 14.7% this year, compared with an expected 1.1% drop in traditional advertising spend. Mobile marketing continues its charge, with mobile forecast to triple its share of marketing budgets from the current 3.2% to 9% in the next three years. Meanwhile, social media hovers at an average 10% of marketing budgets, even though the majority of surveyed marketers admit that they can't quantify results and have poor integration of social with overall marketing strategy. For details, see http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2015/27218/how-cmos-feel-about-the-year-ahead

Mail to Lead 2015 Direct Marketing Budgets

Direct mail will still lead marketing budgets this year despite all the chatter about e-mail and digital content, predicts the Winterberry Group. At a forecast $45.7 billion spend for 2015, direct mail is showing only a 1% growth, but that still puts mail well ahead of an expected e-mail spend of just $2.3 billion, as well search dollars of $26.9 (including desktop and mobile). Although targeted digital display, including desktop and mobile promotions, has the strongest predicted growth (21.1%), it still comes in well behind mail at $28.3 billion in projected spending. The key factors driving this year's direct mail budgets will be the lack of a postal rate increase in early 2015, rising mail volumes, strong acquisition mail investment to offset declining retention mailings, and a rise in digital-to-offline retargeting, according to the Winterberry study. Direct mail may also benefit from a proven ability in data-driven targeting. Across channels, Winterberry predicts that 2015 marketers will invest in data-driven promotion, with the top reason (from 52.7% surveyed) cited as the demand for more relevant, customer-centric communication. For an infographic summarizing results, check out the Direct Marketing News magazine article at http://www.dmnews.com/marketing-spending-in-2015-infographic/article/400487/

Spurring Referrals Is Top 2015 B2B Marketing Focus

If your business-to-business marketing is in a competitive scramble for leads this year, you're not alone. Generating new business is the top 2015 concern of professional services firms, according to a recent Hinge Research Institute study shared in Business2Community. A whopping 72% of firms surveyed said that attracting and developing new business is their priority this year. The Hinge survey included 530 professional services firms in a range of industries: technology, marketing and communications, accounting and finance, management consulting, architecture, engineering, and construction. So the focus of the surveyed firms' marketing plans should come as no surprise: generating more referrals was the most cited 2015 marketing initiative (61.9%). Senior executives named on average 5.7 different marketing tactics in their drive for new business. Only percentage points behind referral generation came increasing brand visibility, updating/upgrading the company website, increasing the visibility of their firms’ experts, making existing clients more aware of their full range of services, and developing more compelling messages to potential clients. For details and access to the full report, go to the Business2Community post at http://www.business2community.com/b2b-marketing/top-b2b-marketing-priorities-2015-01154781

Top Digital Marketers Share 5 Secrets to Conversion

The top 20% of digital marketers have conversion rates almost twice the average 2.6%, according to Adobe's 2014 Digital Marketing Optimization Survey. How do they do it? As reported by Direct Marketing News, Adobe identified five common traits of the elite digital practitioners. First, they do more testing, with over 70% of champion converters testing, compared to only 46% of the field. Second, they spend more; 60% of respondents in the top 20% said they devoted more than 5% of their budgets to optimization activities, versus just 39% of the rest surveyed. Third, they target content, with 83% in the top 20% using automation to make content decisions, for example. Fourth, they "democratize" marketing, meaning they are 88% more likely to involve other departments in testing efforts, and that approach helped lift conversion to 4.3% instead of the 2.6% average. Fifth, those with the best digital conversion rates make mobile a key part of their strategy, with more than four-fifths of top converters describing mobile as important to cross-channel marketing success, as opposed to two-thirds of the rest of the survey. Of course, the devil's in the details; for more, read the DM News report at http://www.dmnews.com/top-20-percent-is-twice-as-good-at-converting-as-the-rest/article/378105/

Survey Finds Marketers Bullish on Big Data

Marketers are pretty united in their positive attitude about the opportunities of "Big Data." According to a 2013 survey of marketers from the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), data-driven marketers are generating increasingly profitable returns and are bullish on marketing programs based on Big Data. The DMA's “Quarterly Business Review” for the third quarter of last year, developed in partnership with Winterberry Group, surveyed 220 marketers and found that 75.4% expressed confidence about data-driven marketing, with 49.5% “strongly agreeing” that marketing informed by data is positioned to expand in the months ahead. See the report summary at http://adage.com/article/btob/marketers-report-strong-data-oriented-results/290866/?btob=1