You’ve sent your fundraising email… and it looks great! In my earlier blogs we discussed how you need to be personal; present a problem, a solution and a clear call to action. Now you can sit back and reap the rewards of your labor … or can you?
Apparently not! Unfortunately across all nonprofit emails, an average of only 17% of those who click through to the donation page will actually make a donation. It is possible to increase your nonprofit's chances of getting a donation though, and here I present several tips to help increase your conversion rate.
Remove Distractions
When someone clicks on your donation page, you are interested in one outcome, and one outcome only… getting a donation. Remove anything that is going to distract from this, remove all of the navigation links including the donate button from the header of your donation page. The header you use on your website and donation pages should not be the same! It’s one of the easiest and overall fastest ways to optimize any fundraising page - on any other page you are interested in driving the reader to explore your website; not so on the donation page.
Consider your Background Image
They say one picture is worth a thousand words. If your cause is hard to depict in an image it could be that your donation page will actually perform better without one… but some perform much better with one! The only way to truly see what is best for you is to test - for one campaign leave it off, for another add one. When using a background image, the persuasive power a picture can pack is truly unfathomable, and you can increase the odds by choosing one that conveys the right message!
For the background image on a donation page, choose an image that is related to your mission, your value proposition or related to the people who are directly impacted by donations.
Here’s an example of one by NextAfter.com.
One of their clients had a donation page depicting a background image which showed a person’s hands raised high in the air. Their fingers formed the shape of a heart that was superimposed on a visible sunlit sky in a scenic backdrop.
While arguably a nice image, it failed to depict anything about the nonprofit's mission. Nor did it represent the non-profit’s value proposition so ultimately, it didn’t convey anything meaningful to potential donors.
So the question is: what image would convey the right message and stimulate donors to give to this nonprofit?
What was needed was a picture that portrayed the concept of their mission which is “to connect people during life’s most difficult times.” A close up shot of two people holding hands was used instead.
They A/B tested the two background images on otherwise identical donation pages and the results showed that the donor conversion rate jumped by 19.8%!
A background image that can impact your donors’ imagination will help them empathize with your organization’s cause in less than a second. This happens because images have the power to stir up people’s emotions in ways that words can’t! So be mindful of this if you use a background image for your donation page.
Each organization has its own dynamic needs and my goal is to help your organization move to the next level and turn your vision into donations. You can contact me at suzanne@suzannelieberman.com; let’s start a conversation.
Comments