It felt like 2019 has only just started, yet we are already on the verge of the end of the financial year. For Not For Profit (NFP) organisations, June is the most important month of the year as people trying to max out their tax deduction with donations.Research from Givenow indicated that both the number and the amount of donations spike in June. In fact, June is the only month in which the number of one-off donations overtakes regular donations. The average value of donations in June is more than double the overall monthly average. For donations of $1,000 and under, the June average is 70% higher than the overall average. It is vital for charities to maximise this time period to drive a successful end of financial year campaign. But how can you stand out from the crowd when basically every charity and non-profit organisation is going to appeal to donors this June?
First, the channel: SMS vs Email
While email is the most common communication channel, with users receiving on average 1,216 emails a month, and 90% of them being spam, it has become saturated. The average number of text messages users receive per month, on the other hand, is 178, and only 1% is spam; now you see why many businesses and organisations are switching to SMS for its efficiency. But there are more statistics to support SMS:
- Open rate – while email has an open rate of 32.4%, the open rate of SMS is at 94%, that’s nearly 3 times more than email.
- Response time – on averages users take 90 seconds to respond to an SMS, with email it’s 2.5 days.
- Click through rate – 19% of recipients clicked through to the links sent via SMS, only 4.4% of email recipients do so.
- Conversion rate – SMS has a staggering 32% conversion rate, whereas email’s conversion rate is 3.26%.
Sources: Oracle | Litmus | Adobe | Esendex
When’s the best time to send the message?
SMS promote a sense of urgency, so we often suggest using the SMS campaign as the final reminder for the end of your event. In fact, a study on last year’s EOFY giving behaviours revealed that an SMS campaign sent on the last day of the financial year, even though was on a Saturday, saw a 20% higher ROI than the same message sent the day before. So don’t be afraid to send your SMS campaign on the 30th June to drive last minute donations.
Crafting the message: Personalisation is key
Recent research from Accenture revealed that 44% of Australians are willing to donate more to NFP organisations that offer a personalised experience. But what does personalised experience mean for donors? 56% of the Australian respondents said that being informed about the real outcome of their charitable work or donations would create a more personalised experience with the organisation they contributed to (source). So when crafting your SMS, try something like these:
“Hi Leah, your donation of $500 helped feed 2000 homeless people last year. Donate now to help feed more people in need and get tax deduction before the EOFY: he.lp/feed Opt out? Reply STOP” “Hi Amy, only 2 days left before the EOFY. Donate now to help the children and get tax deductions. $100 can get 5 children books and stationery supplies for a year. Give now: he.lp/children Opt out? Reply STOP”
With our dynamic field capabilities, you can easily personalise the text message using an Excel sheet with your data and enable donors to feel the real impact of their donations.
Supercharge your SMS campaign with images
Charities know the power of images and often use photos of people in need to appeal to donors. With our latest product SMS Landing Pages, you can now send these powerful images via SMS to enjoy the much higher open and engagement rate.
SMS Landing Pages are essentially web pages that are designed for viewing on mobile phones. They have all the appealing visual design elements of any web page – images, brand colours, call-to-action buttons, but – here’s the twist – with the added benefit of including personalised content for each recipient with the use of dynamic fields. You can easily build an SMS Landing Page in our Messaging Studio with ready to use templates, and the page will be hosted by us, taking out any restraints or concerns you might have with web developers or designers. Many users who tried SMS Landing Pages have reported an increase in engagement rates, or in this case, a whopping 30% increase in conversion rate! And since an SMS Landing Page is designed to put mobile users’ experience first, it’s the perfect tool for campaign like the EOFY where timing is key, and donors can easily access the page to make the donations right then and there on their mobile phone.If you’d like to harness the power of SMS for your EOFY campaign, please get in touch at 1300 764 946 or contact us here.
Prachi Bametha
Marketing Coordinator, Esendex Australia