Know your audience – better online fundraising #1

Last week I was speaking at an Institute of Fundraising conference about online fundraising. Once again, the thing that struck me most powerfully was how important it is to think through your project from the point of view of the users.

As we talked about what works and what doesn’t – and there were varying opinions represented in the room, of course – I returned time and time again to thinking that the answer lay with focusing on your target audience, particularly the following questions:

• Where they have come from & what they have already seen
• What they want to do/know
• Who they are
• Where they spend time online
• How they communicate & how they want to hear from you

Is it too simplistic to say that if you plan with this in mind, you are bound to end up with an effective online experience? What do you think?

Read more:

http://www.chrisg.com/getting-to-know-your-audience/
http://www.papaadvertising.com/_file/docs/WP_20_Tips_to_Get_to_Know_Your_Audience.pdf
http://www.ethos3.com/2009/10/5-ways-to-get-to-know-your-audience/

Commerce without cookies?

ICO Advice
 
Yesterday the ICO issued its advice on the new EU cookies regulations, which come into effect on 26 May. The advice is, quite frankly, contradictory.

It suggests at one point that temporary, anonymous collection of data which is non-intrusive is fine -  but at another states:

“An analytic cookie might not appear to be as intrusive as others that might track a user across multiple sites but you still need consent.”

Our short term advice is to:

• Look at the cookies you use on your site. The more invasive and deep the data capture,  the more likely it is to get a complaint and get the ICO involved.
• Speak to your web agencies, e-commerce providers and donation providers about what they suggest. If you carry third party forms or pass data to third parties (like donation data) you will need to work out how to cope with that as well... and given that we are the charity sector, we need our paid-for providers to take the lead.
• Think about the design, functionality and content of your site. If you ask people to sign up, join, buy, donate – anything where they action a form, then adding a ‘consent to cookies opt-in’ is simple (and a ‘how to opt out’ link). If you run videos, surveys or anything that opens, you can get consent when the user takes action. And if you have a language/country choice you could also include the cookie opt-in there.

While we all take this in we are going to contact a bunch of agencies and ask their advice... so hopefully we will have some more feedback tomorrow on what the ‘experts’ advise.

An alternative approach?

As the UK government clarifies how it plans to implement the new EU Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive (which comes into effect on 26 May), it is fascinating to read today’s story on Mashable:  In a World Without Tracking & Cookies, Can Online Commerce Succeed?
 

It features an interview with Tara Hunt, founder of Buyosphere, the online tool created to help users get control of their online shopping data.  Although the USA doesn’t yet have the kind of anti-cookie legislation that the EU is currently implementing, Hunt’s company is nonetheless leading the way in giving the consumer control. She explains:

“At Buyosphere, you gather what you buy and own, and you make your own personal data package. Then you choose who to share it with. We build tools on top of your data for your own use — analytics, organization, notification, etc. — and in the future (and when the Do Not Track legislation heats up), we’ll be there to offer retailers a way to receive these personal data packages in a way that consumers control 100%.”

As UK charities consider how to show that they are working towards compliance with the new legislation, this example of commerce without cookies could provide some timely lessons.

What are you doing?
 

We’re interested to hear what people in the UK are already doing about the new directive:

• Charities - have you decided how your organisation is going to respond to the new directive? Please tell us more.
• Designers and developers - are you working on practical solutions to the new directive? We’d love to hear what you’re working on.

Also of interest
Advice from a lawyer about what the new directive means for the UK, courtesy of the DMA: http://www.dma.org.uk/_attachments/resources/7123_S4.pdfhttp://www.dma.org.uk/_attachments/resources/7123_S4.pdf

Or then again, maybe DON’T tell me a story... Effective online communications #6

A couple of weeks ago we published a blog about storytelling, saying that storytelling is crucial to successful communication because humans are essentially narrative beings – we get a handle on life by telling stories to ourselves.

So it’s interesting to see a different take on this. M & R Strategic Services has published ‘Storytelling and the Art of Email Writing’, which claims that fundraisers are discovering that stories aren’t helping them raise money. Actually, the authors aren’t claiming that stories don’t work at all: their conclusion is that a personal story isn’t enough. Instead, you need to make sure that your story explains your mission and your impact. As they conclude:

“In the story that gets people to give, your organization is not the hero. The donor is the hero.”

Following some interesting online discussion about this, I came across a great story (told in ‘The Political Brain’ by Drew Westen. A group of business students were asked to evaluate each other’s presentations. Those who used facts and figures were rated higher than those who had told stories. However, when the students were interviewed again some time later, they couldn’t remember the facts and figures but did remember the stories.

Perhaps one of the crucial things here, as ever, is to start by thinking about your purpose. If you are fundraising and IF it does turn out to be true that personal stories alone don’t aid fundraising, then we need to bear this in mind, as we generally want people to respond now to fundraising appeals. However, if we are building support and raising awareness, personal stories that stick in the mind might be exactly what we need.

What do you think? Does your experience endorse this? I’m looking forward to following the discussion around this subject.