3 Tried-and-True Tips for Optimizing Your Online Donor Experience

If you’re like us here at PS Digital, November’s successful #GivingTuesday campaign is simply a fond memory. It’s now time to execute on your well planned year-end campaign (check out my colleague Seth’s article for last-minute hints and tips) and make your 2018 plan.

Who isn’t a big fan of lists? Because honestly, what gives more structure than a to-do list for next year? Check out what’s on the list for our clients’ programs:

1. Optimize Your Donation Form

What are quick improvements you can make to your form?

• Brand it to your organization
• Make it mobile friendly
• Ask for just the right amount of donor information
• Provide a clear, prominent call to action

Are you ready for additional improvements? We’re big believers in continuously improving the donation form, and here are a few more ideas:

• Test the ask string. What’s your program’s average online gift? What if you made the default amount 10% larger? Do you have an option for $5,000 on your form, but rarely receive online gifts in that range? Then get rid of it. Whatever you do, remember to run a proper A/B test with your current form as the control to validate your changes.
• Offer the recurring giving ask and make it the pre-checked option. Provide different ask strings customized for recurring vs. one-time, and we can’t stress this enough: test this change on your form. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by the increase in additional recurring donors to your program.

2. Offer A Digital Wallet Option

To put it simply: Paypal, Apple Pay, Amazon Payments, and similar digital/mobile wallet technology make it easier for donors to give. According to Zion Market Research, the digital and mobile wallet market will grow by 32% to $3 billion by 2022. If you take a closer look at how your donors are reading your emails, at least half of them are on a mobile device, and a majority of those are on Apple devices. For many of our clients, these payment types represent 15% or more of total revenue, often with a higher average gift.

3. Don’t Let Them Leave

The average conversion rate for your donation form likely ranges from 15 – 20%. What if you can follow up with those 8 potential donors to ask for a gift? Well you can! Two of our favorite tactics to lift the conversion rate are:

• Exit Intent Modals. These are pop-ups that appear when a visitor’s cursor leaves the page. It’s the last opportunity to grab the attention of your potential donors, fast. Use dramatic imagery and high impact, short copy to get them to follow through on their intent to donate.
• Cart Abandonment Tool. According to BI Intelligence, approximately $4 trillion worth of merchandise was abandoned in online shopping carts in 2015. Savvy e-tailers use cart abandonment technology to retarget the shopper after they leave, and it’s a tactic you can steal for your program. Tools like CartStack, when integrated into the donation form, let you retarget the potential donor with emails to appeal for a gift. According to Listrak, initial e-tailer emails, sent three hours after a consumer abandons a cart, average a 40% open rate and a 20% click-through rate. Just remember to keep the content updated and relevant to your program.

We hope these ideas make it on your 2018 to-do list. Send us a note and tell us what else is on your list to improve your online fundraising program next year. Best wishes for an amazing year-end fundraising season!