Increase Your Fund Raising Conversion Rates

Increase Your Fund Raising Conversion Rates

The last month of the year is a critical fund-raising time for most non-profit organizations in the United States. Ministries cannot afford to miss critical donors that visit their website during the month.

Last December, 2009, in conjunction with a broader fund-raising campaign, we tested 3 "hotspots" on a Revive Our Heart's home page giving people the opportunity to donate. The results were somewhat surprising and we thought we'd share them with you.

 

Round 1: Curiosity Killed the Cat

. Clicks Transactions Conversion Rate Top Navigation Link 129 66 51% Left Rail Promo 514 10 2%

• Curiosity seemed to be driving traffic on the left rail promo. That curiosity did not translate into donations.
• People who came to the site to donate looked specifically for the donate link.

Round 2: Plain Wording Beats Flashy Ads

. Clicks Transactions Conversion Rate Top Navigation Link 278 200 71.94% Left Rail Promo 452 77 17% FlashAd Promo 377 31 8.22%

• Changes in wording on the Left Rail Promo led to significant increase in effectiveness for the Left Rail Promo.
• The top level navigation link only increased in effectiveness as we approached the end of the month.

Conclusions

Here are four conclusions that we've drawn from this real-life exercise that we hope you find helpful:

1. Clicks do not equal revenue. Do not be fooled into thinking that number of clicks equals the most revenue. Track transactions all the way through the end of the purchase process. Google Analytics e-commerce tool combined with Google's URL Builder for tracking campaigns provide excellent free tools for this initial analysis.
2. Keep "Donate" Front and Center. When people are coming to your site use wording that makes it as easy as possible to accomplish their goal. Based on other usability testing that 5Q has done, "Donate" is the wording option that most people look for (more than "Giving" or "Support"). Keeping the word "Donate" front and center in for your site visitors will help assure you won't lose those people who are looking to support our ministry.
3. Know your users. Screen real estate doesn't necessarily mean it will grab people's attention. People come to a site a specific reason. The better you know your user, the easier you make it for them to accomplish their task, the better impression your organization will have on your site visitors.
4. Words Matters. Test and change your wording to see which is most effective. Google's "Website Optimizer" offers great multi-channel testing features to compare several web page options at the same time.

Have you done other testing on your donation pages? We'd love to hear your results.

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