December 2022: How to adjust your campaign while it’s running

Happy year-end campaign season! I hope yours is off to a great start. 

I just saw this wonderful news: My We Are For Good podcast episode, How to Rock Your Year-End Giving Campaign, is one of the pod’s top 10 most downloaded episodes of all time. What an honor! 

After months of planning, most year-end campaigns are now up and running. While some are seeing instant money-making success from emails, digital ads and other channels, others may not be seeing many gifts (yet). 

If you’ve worked with me before, you know that:

• I design digital campaigns with testing built in, to spread my clients’ budgets across a variety of channels, creative assets and messaging avenues. 

• I treat digital campaigns as living, breathing things that require attention and care while they’re running.

Assuming your year-end campaign is already running or nearly ready to rock, let’s focus on that second point.  

Digital campaigns are living, breathing things that require attention and care while they’re running.

I’ll call out a few prominent digital channels to illustrate this point. 

Digital ads:

If you’re currently running social media or display ads for fundraising and they’re not yielding any or many gifts…

Don’t panic, because most donations will come in the final days of the year—and most people need to see your ad(s) multiple times before giving. 

That said, you should be continuously investigating during your campaign. For starters, are people clicking on your ads? If your click-through rate is at or below the benchmarks for the platform(s) you're using, are there adjustments you can make to your creative or copy that might yield better results? 

It’s important to only make changes to your ads once a week. Decide on the changes you’d like to test, then make them all at once and give your campaign another full week before deciding how the changes performed. If you make edits too frequently, digital advertising platforms get stuck in "learning mode" and won’t have time to optimize on your behalf.  

Emails:

Email appeals not converting like you’d hoped? Are people opening the emails but not clicking through, or are they clicking through but not donating? The former could be an email problem, the latter could be a website problem. 

If people aren’t clicking the call to action buttons or links in your emails, brainstorm some adjustments you can test. Can you make your call to action more visually prominent? Can you split your email list into two groups and test a different message or email length with each group? Split testing will provide you with insights to inform the next email, and the next. 

Website: 

As your campaign progresses, if you're still struggling with low performing ads or emails closer to the end of the month, it could be a user experience problem. 

Is your year-end landing page simple and emotive? Is it super easy to donate, with multiple payment methods to choose from? If lots of people are hitting this webpage and promptly bouncing, your web page isn’t carrying donors across the finish line. 

Time for more brainstorming. Can you test a different background image? A different headline? Simplify that donation form? Make changes one at a time, then give it a week before assessing the results. 

Campaign management is an art and a science.

It’s an art brainstorming what might make your campaign more compelling, and it’s a science reviewing the data within each platform to prove or disprove your hypotheses. I recommend tracking your campaign adjustments in a spreadsheet so you can line up the timing of your changes with any spikes or drops in donations. Your change log will also be a valuable resource when you’re planning next year’s campaign... and can't remember the details from this year! 

To sum it all up:

• Stay curious about your campaign while it’s running; brainstorm adjustments you can make that could improve results.

• Make one round of changes per week so you can collect enough data for clear results.

• Look to last week's data to inform your next move.

And remember: Year-end campaigns are unique because the majority of gifts are made in the final days of the year, even when you advertise and communicate consistently throughout December. The ads, emails, texts, and other digital pushes you're running now are priming people for those final days! 

So in the words of my nephew Noah (delivered in an adorable Irish accent), “Don’t freak out, man.” 

Don’t freak out, and don’t give up. Stay curious, test thoughtfully, and keep track of any changes you make. 

I’m wishing you the very best with year-end and 2023 planning. And, equally as important, wishing you a joyful and restful holiday season.

-Caroline

P.S. Sharing a few fabulous offers from trusted colleagues in case they’re of interest to you:

🎁 Christina Edwards just launched a new email course that’s starting in January. Get $100 off Easy Emails for Impact at this link - the deadline is December 31st. You will love Christina, she’s a great teacher! 

🎁 Dana Snyder has one spot left in her Monthly Giving Mastermind. Apply here ASAP if you’re interested and let her know I sent you.

🎁 CharityHowTo has a great lineup of live webinars and workshops coming up. Head to the website and use the discount code “caroline10” for 10% off. You can use this code any time, as many times as you'd like. 

🎁 We Are For Good PRO is an excellent investment heading into 2023. I’m a paying member and I love the content. Sign up at this link and use the discount code “caroline” for a discount on your first month. You can use this code any time.