Typically, I'm a fan of landing pages. But then we did an email "Save The Date" for an event we were having for high end donors a few weeks back and just asked them to call or email the person in charge to reserve their place. We didn't have time to do a landing page (the email was to replace the print invites, which were delivered late) so it was just a plain message with no links included to click through. We followed it up a week later with a slightly modified email, again no link.
The event went from being extremely underbooked to extremely overbooked. No landing page was necessary.
So fast forward a few weeks. The Parents Fund wants to do an email follow-up to a print solicitation they did a month back or so. My argument was that they should just do a quick and simple email and send them straight to the give online form. Make it as easy as possible for them to give a gift before they have the time to think about it (or call their spouse for permission!). However, what we ended up doing was sending them to a landing page that explains the impact of the gift before sending them directly to the gift form.
I have mixed feelings about this (and we don't have the data yet to say whether it worked or not). We have evidence from our last e-solicitation campaign with the annual fund that clearly shows that people are more likely to make a gift if we just send them directly to the gift form, rather than sending them to the site first, where they may get distracted. On the other hand, parents may need a bit more convincing that all that tuition money that are currently paying just does not cover the full amount the college is spending to give their child a world class education. Perhaps a split test is in order :-)
If the ultimate business goal of the organization is to raise money, and we can conclusively show that sending people to a landing page impedes that goal, should we just do away with them for the most most part? I'm not saying don't have the content on your site when it's appropriate but in regards to driving people to make a gift from other mediums (email, facebook, etc...), wouldn't it make more sense to make it as seemless as possible for the user?
Friday, February 29, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Abilene Christian University issues incoming students iPhones
Abilene Christian University (ACU) announced yesterday that they would be issuing iPhones or iPod Touches to incoming freshman for use in their college courses and day to day lives.
At ACU - the first university in the nation to provide these cutting-edge media devices to its incoming class - freshmen will use the iPhones or iPod Touches to receive homework alerts, answer in-class surveys and quizzes, get directions to their professors' offices, and check their meal and account balances - among more than 15 other useful web applications already developed, said ACU Chief Information Officer Kevin Roberts.
They specifically mention the use of web applications that they've developed, but extend this concept in a demonstration movie (Youtube link) called Connected. The movie shows how a fully deployed mobile learning environment might look, with mocked up examples of true iPhone applications:
 |  |  |  |
The movie details a fully integrated iPhone and college experience, with integration into coursework, class participation, payment system, directory and 3d mapping. They caution that the movie is entirely speculative, of course. Some demos of their iPhone web apps are available at http://acu.mobi/.
This news, by itself, would only so interesting if the university was acting on its own, but MacRumors has heard that Apple is taking an active role in deploying the iPhone in university settings to try to regain some of their historic educational marketshare. Besides ACU, pilot projects are expected at universities such as Harvard, MIT and Stanford in the near future. The new iPhone SDK is expected to also play a role in future iPhone/University integration, though it appears that ACU does not yet have access to it.
In 2004, Duke University had a program in which they issued iPods to incoming Freshman to allow them to listen to lecture materials. Similarly, the iPhone will have tight audio/video integration with each school's iTunes University content.
Why let students visit you in their mall when you can build your own across town!
So I was talking with a friend about a new product that just came out that allows schools to build social networks for their prospects. My friend, apparently feeling a bit punchy today, sent them an email asking them why he couldn't just use MySpace or Facebook. Here is the reply:
Good question! The idea behind it is to engage in the conversation in your own space (or on your own turf!).
In a lot of ways, having your own social network versus using Facebook or Myspace is the internet equivalent of inviting students to campus to chat with you versus hanging out at the mall.
It's not that it can't be done, but there is a perception among Millenial students that those networks are, in fact, their space, and you don't necessarily belong there.
Not that they don't want to talk to you; they just don't always want to do it in that arena.
Also, technically speaking, both Facebook and Myspace have some distinct institutional disadvantages. Facebook, which is a little more institution friendly, is also very Spartan: there is not a lot of branding opportunity available. Myspace, which is much more brandable, is not very institution friendly. So we're covering the middle-ground design-wise by giving you a cleanly transitioning, customized design (based on your existing web brand).
In the end, the goal is not to drive students away from other social networks on to yours or to keep them from talking about you on other networks (the fact is, they'll always be having side conversations about your school). The goal is to provide an opportunity for you to greet students at your front door, rather than the places they hang out.
Good question! The idea behind it is to engage in the conversation in your own space (or on your own turf!).
In a lot of ways, having your own social network versus using Facebook or Myspace is the internet equivalent of inviting students to campus to chat with you versus hanging out at the mall.
It's not that it can't be done, but there is a perception among Millenial students that those networks are, in fact, their space, and you don't necessarily belong there.
Not that they don't want to talk to you; they just don't always want to do it in that arena.
Also, technically speaking, both Facebook and Myspace have some distinct institutional disadvantages. Facebook, which is a little more institution friendly, is also very Spartan: there is not a lot of branding opportunity available. Myspace, which is much more brandable, is not very institution friendly. So we're covering the middle-ground design-wise by giving you a cleanly transitioning, customized design (based on your existing web brand).
In the end, the goal is not to drive students away from other social networks on to yours or to keep them from talking about you on other networks (the fact is, they'll always be having side conversations about your school). The goal is to provide an opportunity for you to greet students at your front door, rather than the places they hang out.
My question is why would you want to force a student to take an extra step to contact you by creating yet another social networking account (like they don't have enough already!) when they are already on MySpace and Facebook? I mean, we have to acknowledge that there is a huge difference between renting a store in the mall and opening it up to everyone and accosting mall shoppers against their will and forcing information upon them. When I was in admissions, I found that students were more than open to talking with admissions staff on either site....as long as you kept your distance and allowed them to come to you. If they aren't going to come into your store to shop in their usual mall, why the heck would they bother trudging across town to visit another mall to shop in your store there?
I don't know....I think this venture is misguided on the part of the company. Don't get me wrong - I think they'll make money off it. I just think schools that pay for it would be better off spending that money elsewhere.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Wednesday Video Fun?
So my original goal was to update this blog every day during the week but that plan got completely thrown out because I was accosted on a blog I maintain about politics and religion and have had well over 300 comments in the last two days LOL. So I've been a bit busy :-)
But I was just forwarded this ESPN Commercial about user-generated content from a colleague so I thought we could have our video fun a few days early this week. Enjoy!
But I was just forwarded this ESPN Commercial about user-generated content from a colleague so I thought we could have our video fun a few days early this week. Enjoy!
Friday, February 22, 2008
Mailing List for Higher Ed E-Marketing
It's a FOUR blog day! You can definitely tell it's Friday :-)
Rob from Carthage and I just decided that we wanted a mailing list specifically for those who are involved in emarketing in higher education (admissions, development, etc...). This is not meant to be about web development like uwebd (though we certainly won't turn people away from joining from that group!).
Here's the link: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/emarketingcollege/
Rob from Carthage and I just decided that we wanted a mailing list specifically for those who are involved in emarketing in higher education (admissions, development, etc...). This is not meant to be about web development like uwebd (though we certainly won't turn people away from joining from that group!).
Here's the link: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/emarketingcollege/
Facebook Upgrades Branded Pages
I lied....it IS a three blog day! Thanks to Rob at Carthage for this tidbit.
From OnlineMediaDaily:
Facebook Upgrades Branded Pages
Friday, Feb 22, 2008 7:45 AM ET
FACEBOOK IS ALLOWING MARKETERS TO create more dynamic profile pages through new tools including custom versions of Flash animation and HTML for the social networking site.
Among other upgrades to Facebook Pages--the program that lets businesses create branded outposts--companies promoting alcohol-related products can now add a setting that permits only those above the legal drinking age to fully access their sites. The Inside Facebook blog also reported Thursday that fans can now upload photos to brand pages. There are currently more than 150,000 Facebook brand pages.
"While apparently growing slowly, Pages will become an increasingly important marketing vehicle on Facebook over time--especially as the volume of fan-endorsed Social Ads continues to grow," wrote Inside Facebook author Justin Smith.
--Mark Walsh
From OnlineMediaDaily:
Facebook Upgrades Branded Pages
Friday, Feb 22, 2008 7:45 AM ET
FACEBOOK IS ALLOWING MARKETERS TO create more dynamic profile pages through new tools including custom versions of Flash animation and HTML for the social networking site.
Among other upgrades to Facebook Pages--the program that lets businesses create branded outposts--companies promoting alcohol-related products can now add a setting that permits only those above the legal drinking age to fully access their sites. The Inside Facebook blog also reported Thursday that fans can now upload photos to brand pages. There are currently more than 150,000 Facebook brand pages.
"While apparently growing slowly, Pages will become an increasingly important marketing vehicle on Facebook over time--especially as the volume of fan-endorsed Social Ads continues to grow," wrote Inside Facebook author Justin Smith.
--Mark Walsh
Friday Video Fun: College Saga and Frozen Grand Central
What, you thought because I reviewed Harvard earlier that I wouldn't post my Friday videos? It's a two blog day, my friends....and perhaps a third later if I'm feeling especially saucy ;-)
So this video is "work-related":
(warning, this is really long....and kind of deranged...I mean, this kid was either REALLY motivated or REALLY bored)
And this one is just for fun :-)
So this video is "work-related":
(warning, this is really long....and kind of deranged...I mean, this kid was either REALLY motivated or REALLY bored)
And this one is just for fun :-)
Surveying Development Websites: Harvard
So maybe Harvard just feels like it doesn't have to try. I don't mean that sarcastically. If I had a $30 billion endowment and raised about $600 million a year in gifts, I'm not sure I would want to try either. In fact, from a business perspective, why would I dedicate resources to "fixing" something that doesn't really appear to be broken?
Still, since I'm reviewing websites based on a standard set of questions, I'll go through the exercise with their site as I did with Princeton.
Let's remind ourselves of the criteria:
1) Does the main institution website link directly to the development website in a way that makes it easy for the user to give?
2) Does the development website do a good job of convincing me that my gift matters, no matter what the size?
3) Do they provide features that make me nostalgic about my institution or stories of students today that my gift will be benefitting?
4) Is making my gift easy?
5) Is my gift acknowledged?
1) Does the main institution website link directly to the development website in a way that makes it easy for the user to give?
Answer: No.
There is no giving button on the main Harvard page. Instead, a person interested in making a gift (who may not just be an alum as an aside), should click on the Alumni button in the upper right hand corner:
Once they click on that, they are brought to the alumni community page, which appears to be the main places for them to make a gift online:
We're only a few more clicks away from actually being able to make our gift! (Ok, maybe that one was sarcastic :-) ). So you click on "Make a Gift" in the left hand nav and are brought here:
Click on "Credit Card" and you are brought to an excessively long and overwhelming form:
I really have to wonder what percent of their users drop out at some point in the process. I know I would. I'd rather give my money to someone that's going to make my life easier!
2) Does the development website do a good job of convincing me that my gift matters, no matter what the size?
Answer: That depends on what you mean by "convince"
Ok here's the thing: After poking around for about half an hour, I finally found the annual fund site! This is a little better than the the alumni community site:
After poking around a bit further, I found this:
So it explains what the money would go for, but as far as making me feel like a $25 gift will make any sort of difference, I'm not convinced. Of course, we all know that a $25 gift is a drop in the bucket relatively speaking but there are ways to make people feel like its ok....that it may not build a new dorm, but it's better than nothing! I think this is an especially important attitude to build in younger alums who will not be able to afford making gifts right off the bat. Get them into the habit of giving to their school and one day, that $25 million gift may come.
3) Do they provide features that make me nostalgic about my institution or stories of students today that my gift will be benefitting?
Answer: The have a lot of news on their site, though I'm not sure it's the same thing.
I won't knock them for having news on their site but it also seems to do little more than aggregate content from other places. Not a bad idea to conserve resources certainly....I just think they could do a better job of actually featuring the news stories that are relevant to their audience instead of just linking them to other pages around the university.
4) Is making my gift easy?
Answer: HA! I think we already answered this :-)
5) Is my gift acknowledged?
Answer: Hmmmmm....
Well....there's a flash piece thanking donors for the 2005-2006 year:
(View the Flash piece here)
As far as any sort of honor roll though, I didn't come across one. Also, in 2008 I'm not sure it's still a good idea to have a thank you piece from a few years ago on your site....
Overall: I'll say it again - They're Harvard. They don't have to try.
Still, since I'm reviewing websites based on a standard set of questions, I'll go through the exercise with their site as I did with Princeton.
Let's remind ourselves of the criteria:
1) Does the main institution website link directly to the development website in a way that makes it easy for the user to give?
2) Does the development website do a good job of convincing me that my gift matters, no matter what the size?
3) Do they provide features that make me nostalgic about my institution or stories of students today that my gift will be benefitting?
4) Is making my gift easy?
5) Is my gift acknowledged?
1) Does the main institution website link directly to the development website in a way that makes it easy for the user to give?
Answer: No.
There is no giving button on the main Harvard page. Instead, a person interested in making a gift (who may not just be an alum as an aside), should click on the Alumni button in the upper right hand corner:
Once they click on that, they are brought to the alumni community page, which appears to be the main places for them to make a gift online:
We're only a few more clicks away from actually being able to make our gift! (Ok, maybe that one was sarcastic :-) ). So you click on "Make a Gift" in the left hand nav and are brought here:
Click on "Credit Card" and you are brought to an excessively long and overwhelming form:
I really have to wonder what percent of their users drop out at some point in the process. I know I would. I'd rather give my money to someone that's going to make my life easier!
2) Does the development website do a good job of convincing me that my gift matters, no matter what the size?
Answer: That depends on what you mean by "convince"
Ok here's the thing: After poking around for about half an hour, I finally found the annual fund site! This is a little better than the the alumni community site:
After poking around a bit further, I found this:
So it explains what the money would go for, but as far as making me feel like a $25 gift will make any sort of difference, I'm not convinced. Of course, we all know that a $25 gift is a drop in the bucket relatively speaking but there are ways to make people feel like its ok....that it may not build a new dorm, but it's better than nothing! I think this is an especially important attitude to build in younger alums who will not be able to afford making gifts right off the bat. Get them into the habit of giving to their school and one day, that $25 million gift may come.
3) Do they provide features that make me nostalgic about my institution or stories of students today that my gift will be benefitting?
Answer: The have a lot of news on their site, though I'm not sure it's the same thing.
I won't knock them for having news on their site but it also seems to do little more than aggregate content from other places. Not a bad idea to conserve resources certainly....I just think they could do a better job of actually featuring the news stories that are relevant to their audience instead of just linking them to other pages around the university.
4) Is making my gift easy?
Answer: HA! I think we already answered this :-)
5) Is my gift acknowledged?
Answer: Hmmmmm....
Well....there's a flash piece thanking donors for the 2005-2006 year:
(View the Flash piece here)
As far as any sort of honor roll though, I didn't come across one. Also, in 2008 I'm not sure it's still a good idea to have a thank you piece from a few years ago on your site....
Overall: I'll say it again - They're Harvard. They don't have to try.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Great training resource
A few days ago, I blogged about utilizing my professional development budget for solid training rather than fruitless higher ed conferences that usually end up being little more than a four day bender. The next day, I proposed that we sign up for a premium membership in lynda.com, a warehouse of online training videos on almost every topic you can imagine from the biggest names in interactive. My boss agreed and for only $375/year, far less than attending a single conference, the resources provided are well worth the price.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Swaptree: Ebay on the honor system :-)
If you haven't checked out Swaptree.com yet, you are missing out. Log on and register all those books, CDs, DVDs or video games that you have laying around collecting and you can set up trades for items that others have. When you've agreed upon a trade with someone, Swaptree will even print out your mailing label, including postage (at the post office's rate, so they aren't making any money off it). They also encourage you to find trades with people in your own community and then meet up at a coffee shop or something for the trade so it doesn't cost you anything!
I swear, I haven't been paid to say this....I just think this website is a really cool idea :-)
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Making the Business Case for Email: Is 11,000% ROI not good enough for you????
I had a conversation with one of my bosses this morning and she was explaining to me how she has to make a business case for email to her boss in regards to getting it into next year's budget. We had just run a series of emails through a provider and our conversation got me curious. I decided to run a quick ROI calculation using the American Marketing Associations super-convenient ROI Calculator. The results were overwhelming:
Number of pieces/Cost: 73,553 at a cost of $1,103
Number of respondents: 1,231
Number of buyers (or in our case givers): 815
Total program revenue: $129,316
Cost per response: $0.89
Cost per giver: $0.01
Cost per piece: $0.01
Number of respondents: 1,231
Number of buyers (or in our case givers): 815
Total program revenue: $129,316
Cost per response: $0.89
Cost per giver: $0.01
Cost per piece: $0.01
ROI: 11,624.02%
Here's a screenshot of the actual calculator:
Now, I've got an MBA....but you CERTAINLY don't need to know that that's a good deal at twice the price!
Now, I've got an MBA....but you CERTAINLY don't need to know that that's a good deal at twice the price!
The power of the letter (or an interesting pr idea...)
Like most people, I don't write a lot of letters. Hell, I barely send out birthday cards. If I want to communicate with someone, I'll send them an email or call them on my cell phone.
I'll admit, I was intrigued. So I typed poweroftheletter.com into my browser and ended up here:
A MINISERIES? Ok, I'll admit I was expecting something a bit more profound. But I started clicking around and it's actually not a bad site. The post office is running a promotion where you can get a free greeting card that they will personalize with your picture through the end of March. It also provides links to photos of some of John Adams original letters to his wife and, of course, you can watch a preview of the mini-series. I found myself thinking that it was a clever little PR move to promote this mini-series, except for one thing:
Except for my friend Aaron. For reasons I'm not remotely going to go into here, Aaron is in jail and the main way I have to communicate with him is by writing letters. So I got a valentines day card from him yesterday and I'm looking at the envelope and I see this in the corner:
I'll admit, I was intrigued. So I typed poweroftheletter.com into my browser and ended up here:
A MINISERIES? Ok, I'll admit I was expecting something a bit more profound. But I started clicking around and it's actually not a bad site. The post office is running a promotion where you can get a free greeting card that they will personalize with your picture through the end of March. It also provides links to photos of some of John Adams original letters to his wife and, of course, you can watch a preview of the mini-series. I found myself thinking that it was a clever little PR move to promote this mini-series, except for one thing:
No one bloody writes letters anymore.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Why I won't attend any more higher ed specific conferences (unless my boss orders me to)
When I went to South By Southwest in 2006, it blew my mind. It completely changed the way I thought about my job and left me anxious to get home so that I could apply all the ideas I had come up with while I was in Austin.
I have not had that same experience with any conference I've been to that were specific to higher education. And I've been to a lot. Time after time, I got my hopes up but they were quickly squashed with presentation after presentation geared towards absolute beginners explaining what "this web 2.0" thing is or why the content on your site needs to be written for the web.
Don't get me wrong - there's a place for stuff like this. Goodness knows there are plenty of people in higher education who need an intro to this stuff including what it is and why it's important. I just have no desire to sit through it any longer. I'd rather be in my office actually doing stuff than zoning out in a hotel conference room while listening to the do's and don'ts of blogging for the 500th time or sitting through yet another vendor/consultant presentation that rarely amounts to little more than them pimping their product for an hour.
I want to have my mind blown again. I want to be able to confidently tell my employer that it will be well worth the price of airfare, hotel and registration. Given that higher education is usually about ten steps behind the eight ball on the web, I just can't make that claim of higher ed conferences any longer. So, where am I going to find that? If I only knew LOL. And please, if you know of something leave a comment! In the meantime, I'm going to focus primarily on improving my technical skillset and see where that gets me. Even if I don't get the new ideas that are going to blow my mind, at least I'll come away being able to implement the ideas once they rear their head :-)
My next trip: Boston for the Presenting Data and Information seminar given by Edward Tufte
I have not had that same experience with any conference I've been to that were specific to higher education. And I've been to a lot. Time after time, I got my hopes up but they were quickly squashed with presentation after presentation geared towards absolute beginners explaining what "this web 2.0" thing is or why the content on your site needs to be written for the web.
Don't get me wrong - there's a place for stuff like this. Goodness knows there are plenty of people in higher education who need an intro to this stuff including what it is and why it's important. I just have no desire to sit through it any longer. I'd rather be in my office actually doing stuff than zoning out in a hotel conference room while listening to the do's and don'ts of blogging for the 500th time or sitting through yet another vendor/consultant presentation that rarely amounts to little more than them pimping their product for an hour.
I want to have my mind blown again. I want to be able to confidently tell my employer that it will be well worth the price of airfare, hotel and registration. Given that higher education is usually about ten steps behind the eight ball on the web, I just can't make that claim of higher ed conferences any longer. So, where am I going to find that? If I only knew LOL. And please, if you know of something leave a comment! In the meantime, I'm going to focus primarily on improving my technical skillset and see where that gets me. Even if I don't get the new ideas that are going to blow my mind, at least I'll come away being able to implement the ideas once they rear their head :-)
My next trip: Boston for the Presenting Data and Information seminar given by Edward Tufte
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Friday Video Fun: Ultimate Showdown
So I was recently introduced to Tales From Redesignland, which is pretty much the most hilarious (and yet scarily accurate) blog I've seen on higher ed and the web. One of the cartoons about the web governance especially hit home and reminded me of one of my favorite viral videos of all time, Ultimate Showdown. This is the video that inspired me to start my other blog, www.wickedviralvideos.com, and was my first post. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have :-)
Happy Friday!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Maybe politicians are good for something...
It's no secret that I'm a Barack Obama fan. But I have to say, even before I pledged my vote to the man, I was always a fan of his e-mail marketing strategy. To me, the timeliness is most effective. There are many times when I'll get a news update from the campaign before I hear it on MSNBC. For example:
(click on any of the pictures to enlarge)
This was actually how I learned he won the South Carolina primary, welcomed news after the loss in New Hampshire. Another example:
This e-mail was sent the night of the State of the Union at 11:40pm. (Note: The video was not embedded in the email - it opened up in a web page).
And lest we forget the 12:30am update on Wednesday morning after Super Tuesday:
The campaign also enlists his wife, Michelle, on e-mails that have a less urgent tone:
And of course, the fund raising. Here's the one that inspired me to make my most recent donation to his campaign. From his campaign manager:
:-)
So what can higher ed take away from this:
1) Timeliness is key: These things have to be planned proactively to be their most effective. It's not like the Obama campaign suddenly thought "wouldn't it be cool if we sent a video out after the State of the Union" after the speech had already started!
2) Use your assets: Your email doesn't always have to be from the same person. Mix it up! Who is the most appropriate person for this message? It may be your VP....it may be your president....it may be a student....it may be an alum. Don't pigeonhole yourself because the sender can be a significant factor in the results that you get.
3) Competition is good for fundraising: We do this all the time - pit the classes against each other or "shame" the alums who haven't given into submission by not including their names in the online honor roll. Also, I think its important to note that regardless of the message of a specific e-mail, the overarching theme is "GIVE ME MONEY!!!" Links to donate are always prominent, sometimes being given multiple times in the same email.
4) First name basis: This may be more attractive to some people than to others. I'm a very informal person so it really annoys me when people get obsessed with title, position and power. It's that informality that really bonds me to the person writing the e-mail on a human level and makes me much more inclined to give them a donation.
Overall, I think the biggest piece of inspiration that higher ed can take from this is that it's OK to look outside our niche. Look at business. Look at politics. Look at other non-profits. Oftentimes, we're about five steps behind these areas in our e-marketing efforts so it's not only OK, but should be encouraged, to go to them when we're looking for some new ideas.
Email basics
Email marketing is probably one of the easiest and most cost effective things you can do but if you have e-mails that look awful when they are delivered, you've missed the point! What a lot of people don't realize when they first start designing email templates is that there IS NO STANDARD. Email clients don't abide by WC3 standards (though, God willing, the Email Standards Project is on it) so you have to take extra care when designing your templates to make sure they work over multiple environments. Here are some rules of thumb:
1) KEEP IT SIMPLE! Use a simple, tables-based layout.
2) If you're going to use CSS, you can ONLY use inline styles: Gmail does not currently support embedded style sheets and I'm guessing you have more than a few users on there. To make it even more fun, they and Outlook 2007 only support the following properties:
- background-color
- border
- color
- font-family
- font-size
- font-style
- font-variant
- font-weight
- letter-spacing
- line-height
- margin
- padding
- text-align
- text-decoration
- text-transform
4) Keep your text simple and to the point. Give your users ONE THING and ONE THING ONLY to do. "Here, click this link!" If you don't have a call to action for your users, you probably want to rethinking sending an email in the first place.
5) TEST, TEST, TEST! You have a few options when it comes to testing:
- Set up a bunch of accounts in a bunch of different e-mail clients...though this often proves to be more trouble than its ultimately worth given the alternatives.
- Use an ESP that will test for you. For example, right now we are using a service that gives us screen shots in all the major clients, with images on and off.
- Campaign Monitor offers a great service where they will give you screen shots of your template in over a dozen e-mail clients for $10 a pop.
- If you can get your hands on a handheld, its not the worst idea in the world to test what your e-mail looks like in Versamail and in different web-based clients, particiularly if you are targeting an older audience.
Once you get your basic templates down, it becomes relatively easy from there. Happy emailing!
UPDATE: In an effort to get Gmail to see the light, the Email Standards Project has started "Project Gmail Grimace":
Here's my picture:
Monday, February 11, 2008
Surveying Development Websites: Princeton
Most of you know that I come from an admissions background, so when I moved into development I had to shift my prospective. There are a lot of similarities between the two. For example, at the end of the day its all about making a human connection to make the sale. But the sale you're trying to make is fundamentally different: In admissions, you're competing with 4,000 colleges across the country. In development, in many respects, you're really competing with yourself. Your alums have already "bought" your product. It's now your job to convince them that it was a good purchase. It's like in the movie Dave: the part where he is outraged that the government is paying for a program to convince Americans that their choice to buy an American car was a good one:
DAVE
(hearing him)
Yes, Bob. Choices... Now the
Commerce Department..,
SECRETARY OF COMMERCE
(sitting erect)
Yes, Mr. President?
DAVE
(from a card)
You're spending forty-three million
dollars on an ad campaign to...
(reading)
'Boost consumer confidence in the
American auto industry.'
SECRETARY OF COMMERCE
And it's proving quite effective...
DAVE
Does it make the cars any better?
SECRETARY OF COMMERCE
No, sir. It's more of a perceptual
issue.
DAVE
(beat)
Perceptual?
SECRETARY OF COMMERCE
Yes, it's designed to bolster individual
confidence in a previous domestic
automotive purchase.
DAVE
(beat)
Why?
SECRETARY OF COMMERCE
Well... to shore up product
identification and preserve market
share.
DAVE
So we're spending forty-seven million
dollars to make people feel better
about a car they've already bought?
A slight digression...but this is really what development is all about. We're spending money to convince alums that their decision to go to school here was a good one so that they, in return, will give us money to spend on the next generation of students.
So how does the web fit into all this. Well, a good development website, in my opinion, has a number of tasks to achieve:
1) Provide alums with an easy way to make donations to the institution.
2) Acknowledge alums who have donated to give them a warm, fuzzy feeling.
3) Convince alums who are thinking about making a donation that it is a worthwhile venture through stories and iconic images.
4) Compliment ongoing marketing initiatives of the office that are taking place through other mediums.
When I first started my job back in November, I thought it would be a good idea to survey current development websites. Basically, I decided to go down the list of Top Colleges as ranked in US News and World Report. Here is the criteria I am looking at:
1) Does the main institution website link directly to the development website in a way that makes it easy for the user to give?
2) Does the development website do a good job of convincing me that my gift matters, no matter what the size?
3) Do they provide features that make me nostalgic about my institution or stories of students today that my gift will be benefitting?
4) Is making my gift easy?
5) Is my gift acknowledged?
Let's start off with the top dog themselves: Princeton. Princeton just launched a $1.75 billion campaign, Aspire.
1) Does the main institution website link directly to the development website in a way that makes it easy for the user to give?
Answer: Sort of.
When you click on the giving link, you are brought to http://giving.princeton.edu, which looks to also be serving as the main page for their campaign:
Now I'll be honest: I'm a sucker for this website. I think it's clean, very easy on the eyes. I also love the bold orange on light grey...plus I think the grey just makes the images on the page pop out.
2) Does the development website do a good job of convincing me that my gift matters, no matter what the size?
Even a small gift of $25 matters. If you are able to give more, it has a greater impact. Well done.
3) Do they provide features that make me nostalgic about my institution or stories of students today that my gift will be benefitting?
4) Is making my gift easy?
The "Make A Gift" button is clear in the top nav on the page and from there, you can make your online gift. Users can elect to log into an alumni account or just proceed to the gift form, which is broken up into four pages so that it doesn't overwhelm the user (this may seem like a small thing but just wait until we get to some other college sites....)
5) Is my gift acknowledged?
Answer: Ehhhh....
Overall, I think we have to admit that Princeton does a damn good job. The site is clear, easy to navigate and seems built to handle most of the objectives a good development site should while also throwing in a bit of Web 2.0 here and there. Kudos to Princeton :-)
DAVE
(hearing him)
Yes, Bob. Choices... Now the
Commerce Department..,
SECRETARY OF COMMERCE
(sitting erect)
Yes, Mr. President?
DAVE
(from a card)
You're spending forty-three million
dollars on an ad campaign to...
(reading)
'Boost consumer confidence in the
American auto industry.'
SECRETARY OF COMMERCE
And it's proving quite effective...
DAVE
Does it make the cars any better?
SECRETARY OF COMMERCE
No, sir. It's more of a perceptual
issue.
DAVE
(beat)
Perceptual?
SECRETARY OF COMMERCE
Yes, it's designed to bolster individual
confidence in a previous domestic
automotive purchase.
DAVE
(beat)
Why?
SECRETARY OF COMMERCE
Well... to shore up product
identification and preserve market
share.
DAVE
So we're spending forty-seven million
dollars to make people feel better
about a car they've already bought?
A slight digression...but this is really what development is all about. We're spending money to convince alums that their decision to go to school here was a good one so that they, in return, will give us money to spend on the next generation of students.
So how does the web fit into all this. Well, a good development website, in my opinion, has a number of tasks to achieve:
1) Provide alums with an easy way to make donations to the institution.
2) Acknowledge alums who have donated to give them a warm, fuzzy feeling.
3) Convince alums who are thinking about making a donation that it is a worthwhile venture through stories and iconic images.
4) Compliment ongoing marketing initiatives of the office that are taking place through other mediums.
When I first started my job back in November, I thought it would be a good idea to survey current development websites. Basically, I decided to go down the list of Top Colleges as ranked in US News and World Report. Here is the criteria I am looking at:
1) Does the main institution website link directly to the development website in a way that makes it easy for the user to give?
2) Does the development website do a good job of convincing me that my gift matters, no matter what the size?
3) Do they provide features that make me nostalgic about my institution or stories of students today that my gift will be benefitting?
4) Is making my gift easy?
5) Is my gift acknowledged?
Let's start off with the top dog themselves: Princeton. Princeton just launched a $1.75 billion campaign, Aspire.
1) Does the main institution website link directly to the development website in a way that makes it easy for the user to give?
Answer: Sort of.
Right now, the giving option is located in a quick links menu in a dropdown on the main page. To be fair, however, it looks like Princeton will be launched a new homepage with a more prominent giving button soon. Here is the preview:
Now I'll be honest: I'm a sucker for this website. I think it's clean, very easy on the eyes. I also love the bold orange on light grey...plus I think the grey just makes the images on the page pop out.
Answer: Yes, but you have to dig a little.
It's vital for colleges to be able to convince potentials donors that their gift matters, particularly with the younger classes. When we leave college, most of us just cannot afford to give any significant amount of money until at least a few years into our chosen career. At the same time, it's important for colleges to begin to cultivate that idea of philanthropy into their alums right off the bat so down the road when they can afford to give a lot more, it will be easy to sell them.
I'm actually a huge fan of how Princeton handles this on their site:
Even a small gift of $25 matters. If you are able to give more, it has a greater impact. Well done.
3) Do they provide features that make me nostalgic about my institution or stories of students today that my gift will be benefitting?
Answer: Ehhhh.....
I think this is where they start to fall short. I think the closest they come to meeting this goal is with their blog for the campaign, which I am a fan of:
Visit it at https://blogs.princeton.edu/aspire
The blog combines images of today with some pretty cool historical images and you can subscribe to it via e-mail. It's also easy to find, being linked directly off of http://giving.princeton.edu.
4) Is making my gift easy?
Answer: Yes
The "Make A Gift" button is clear in the top nav on the page and from there, you can make your online gift. Users can elect to log into an alumni account or just proceed to the gift form, which is broken up into four pages so that it doesn't overwhelm the user (this may seem like a small thing but just wait until we get to some other college sites....)
5) Is my gift acknowledged?
Answer: Ehhhh....
Although Princeton does offer a page with "profiles in giving" (pictured below), there is no full honor roll that I can see. Here, I think they are missing an opportunity. The honor roll on our page is one of the biggest drivers of traffic to the website (from people googling their name) and one of the biggest drivers of gifts (because people don't want to see their classmate's name listed and not theirs. Additionally, the profiles in giving only features high level donors, which is going to be an unreachable height for us mere mortals. Acknowledgment of only multi-million dollar gifts could work to undo any cultivation of younger classes, who may once again feel that their small gift won't matter:
Overall, I think we have to admit that Princeton does a damn good job. The site is clear, easy to navigate and seems built to handle most of the objectives a good development site should while also throwing in a bit of Web 2.0 here and there. Kudos to Princeton :-)
Saturday, February 9, 2008
For the record...
...I have not been employed by Norwich University since November 9, 2007. If you have tried to call my 485 number there, please keep in mind that even after three months, the university has yet to clear out my voicemail so it still says I work there when you call. My apologies for any confusion this caused but the situation is out of my control. I have asked them to remove the voicemail and they have refused to do so. If you're trying to contact me, the best way to do it is by email or by AIM using the contact information to the right of the blog.
Thanks for understanding :-)
K
(UPDATE! A big shout out to those of you in Northfield that are Googling my name! You guys are nothing if not predictable...)
Thanks for understanding :-)
K
(UPDATE! A big shout out to those of you in Northfield that are Googling my name! You guys are nothing if not predictable...)
(UPDATE 2! The message has finally been cleared! Whew. Who said blogging couldn't get you anywhere ;-) )
Friday, February 8, 2008
One more video....
I'd already seen this but special thanks to Eric Hobart of Norwich University for making me take a second look :-)
Friday Video Fun
So in my last blog, I use to post some of my favorite viral videos every week on Fridays. I don't know if that will be a weekly tradition with this blog, but this video of a group of Dartmouth students messing with a tour group seems appropriate.
If you have any interest in some of my other favorite viral videos, you can visit my other blog: www.wickedviralvideos.com
Enjoy!
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Considering the fine print with social networking
Today I did an Academic Impressions webinar about social networking and alumni relations/development. :::sigh::: I suppose my biggest problem with things like this is that it seems as though the presenters never actually USE the mediums they are experts on. They can talk for days about what the tool CAN do but rarely talk about how to create VALUE based on how normal people ACTUALLY use them. They leave out the fine print when discussing possibilities. For example, you can't just create an alumni Facebook group and let it do its thing. You have to have someone ENGAGED in it on a daily basis. You can't just put your recruiting video on YouTube and except it to be a viral hit. It has to be clever, quirky and fit the style of the medium.
I also don't think the presenter took into consideration the culture of some of the mediums. For example, on MySpace his argument is that you shouldn't have music automatically playing when your profile loads because that is usually frowned upon in traditional web design. However, this does not take into consideration that this is the norm on MySpace. I don't think there's anything wrong with having a fight song of a university play when the profile loads, though I wouldn't necessarily do it on the official .edu page.
Though it wasn't all that bad. There were good points made about blogging:
-Consistency is key.
-Giving people a topic to focus on is helpful
-Blogs have great internal uses.
My last peeve with the webinar wasn't anything that was the fault of the presenter: it was the users. It still baffles me that schools are so baffled by this idea of control. It's very similar to my last place of employment: They are more interested in controlling negative comments about the university online than in fixing the things at the university that cause the negative comments to begin with. Here's the thing: There will ALWAYS be negative comments. However, if the majority of your students/alums have/had positive experiences, they will come to the defense of the university.
Giving up a bit of control is a great way to engage the users....and the users that are inclined to engage with the "official" web 2.0 sites are probably going to have an affinity towards your school. For example: I'm never going to give money to my graduate school because I had a horrible experience with the administration. Therefore, how likely do you think it is that I'll be inclined to engage with the school on a social networking site? I couldn't be less interested. I might mouth off about them on my blog ( ;-) ) but I'm certainly not going to do it in an area they have control over. I suppose this is all a really long-winded way of saying that they shouldn't be worried about controlling people who probably have an affinity towards them anyway: They should spend that energy building a strategy that engages those users to translate that affinity into a donation.
I also don't think the presenter took into consideration the culture of some of the mediums. For example, on MySpace his argument is that you shouldn't have music automatically playing when your profile loads because that is usually frowned upon in traditional web design. However, this does not take into consideration that this is the norm on MySpace. I don't think there's anything wrong with having a fight song of a university play when the profile loads, though I wouldn't necessarily do it on the official .edu page.
Though it wasn't all that bad. There were good points made about blogging:
-Consistency is key.
-Giving people a topic to focus on is helpful
-Blogs have great internal uses.
My last peeve with the webinar wasn't anything that was the fault of the presenter: it was the users. It still baffles me that schools are so baffled by this idea of control. It's very similar to my last place of employment: They are more interested in controlling negative comments about the university online than in fixing the things at the university that cause the negative comments to begin with. Here's the thing: There will ALWAYS be negative comments. However, if the majority of your students/alums have/had positive experiences, they will come to the defense of the university.
Giving up a bit of control is a great way to engage the users....and the users that are inclined to engage with the "official" web 2.0 sites are probably going to have an affinity towards your school. For example: I'm never going to give money to my graduate school because I had a horrible experience with the administration. Therefore, how likely do you think it is that I'll be inclined to engage with the school on a social networking site? I couldn't be less interested. I might mouth off about them on my blog ( ;-) ) but I'm certainly not going to do it in an area they have control over. I suppose this is all a really long-winded way of saying that they shouldn't be worried about controlling people who probably have an affinity towards them anyway: They should spend that energy building a strategy that engages those users to translate that affinity into a donation.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
MIT does it right
Kill some time at work by checking out MIT's giving solicitation/really fun flash game Operation 'Tute: http://giving.mit.edu/operation-tute/mit_game.html
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Social Ads on Facebook
Want to get easy exposure to younger alums? Then you would be crazy not to take advantage of social ads on Facebook. We've been experimenting with this at Dartmouth and found it to be an extremely cheap and easy way of reaching our audience during a giving challenge this past month. Definitely do pay-per-click because you'll only get about 0.3% click through....but these will be some of the most well-qualified leads you get and we've found them much more open to making a gift than our average visiter.
So to start, just go to the bottom of any facebook page and click "advertisers" and you'll come up here:
I highly recommend making a separate account for your ads that is different than your personal account.
Click get started and you come to your first screen:
Now, if you don't want to built a separate landing page for this ad, I recommend using integrating this with Google Analytics and using their URL builder to make sure you can track your results. Alternatively, you can just create a Facebook page. If you're just making slight modifications to a current ad, you can select to create an ad that is similar to one you've already run, which makes it easy to test what headlines/pictures work best. Moving on...
Now you can really target your audience. This is particularly great for colleges because it makes it very easy to target your alums. You can go further by targeting specific geographic areas or age ranges, etc...
The hardest part is creating the actual ad because Facebook doesn't give you many options. You get a 25 character subject line, a really small picture, and about 130 characters for the body of the ad. Make sure you use a striking picture to get the most play. Facebook does help you out by giving you an automatic preview of the ad though.
The last part is bidding for your ad, setting a max budget and entering your credit card info. Your ad will automatically start running within a few hours. Facebooks allows you full control over how long your ad runs and gets you a limited amount of information regarding how many impressions and clicks you've had, which is why its beneficial to further integrate it with Google Analytics. Overall, we've spent about $70, which has driven 200 people to our challenge website - a bargain at $0.35/person.
So to start, just go to the bottom of any facebook page and click "advertisers" and you'll come up here:
I highly recommend making a separate account for your ads that is different than your personal account.
Click get started and you come to your first screen:
Now, if you don't want to built a separate landing page for this ad, I recommend using integrating this with Google Analytics and using their URL builder to make sure you can track your results. Alternatively, you can just create a Facebook page. If you're just making slight modifications to a current ad, you can select to create an ad that is similar to one you've already run, which makes it easy to test what headlines/pictures work best. Moving on...
Now you can really target your audience. This is particularly great for colleges because it makes it very easy to target your alums. You can go further by targeting specific geographic areas or age ranges, etc...
The hardest part is creating the actual ad because Facebook doesn't give you many options. You get a 25 character subject line, a really small picture, and about 130 characters for the body of the ad. Make sure you use a striking picture to get the most play. Facebook does help you out by giving you an automatic preview of the ad though.
The last part is bidding for your ad, setting a max budget and entering your credit card info. Your ad will automatically start running within a few hours. Facebooks allows you full control over how long your ad runs and gets you a limited amount of information regarding how many impressions and clicks you've had, which is why its beneficial to further integrate it with Google Analytics. Overall, we've spent about $70, which has driven 200 people to our challenge website - a bargain at $0.35/person.
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