Your Guide to Fundraising Conversion Optimization
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EVALUATION LINKhttp://bfred.us/2mtfTmz
1.5 Credits for CAE and CFRE
@BeaconfireRED
@Habitat_org
Visit us at Booth 517 to get your Tips, Tools and Checklist for Testing
Sara Hoffman
Analytics and Optimization Lead
Beaconfire RED
Liz Murphy
EVPBeaconfire RED
Scot Ninnemann
Internet Strategist
Habitat for Humanity
Who we are
Jen Boland
Analytics and Optimization Lead
Beaconfire RED
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Z About Beaconfire RED
Digital Marketing & Fundraising
UX & Visual Design Web & Mobile Development
Full Service Digital Experience Agency
+ + =Changing the world
Z
• Habitat’s vision: a world where everyone has a decent place to live.
• Build and renovate decent, affordable housing.
• Homeowners:
○ pay an affordable mortgage
○ receive financial education
○ build homes alongside volunteers
• All 50 U.S. states and 70+ countries.About Habitat for Humanity
Looking for those quick tips?
#17NTCtestingtips© Warner Brothers
There is no such thing as one size fits all tips or a single
checklist, but there is a process and that’s what we will
focus on.
9 Steps for Optimization Success
1. Define your long-term goals and how you will measure success
2. Understand your traffic and your visitor journeys
3. Understand your visitors, especially the non-converting ones
4. Gather intelligence from competitors or experts
5. Identify your persuasive assets
6. Create your experiment strategy and plan
7. Design your challengers
8. Launch your experiment
9. Transfer learnings to other media
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Step 1 Define your long-term goals and how you will
measure success
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How many of you have had your boss
walk into a room and say:
“Hey I saw this cool
thing on X site,
can we test it?
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Keep your eye on the ball
Example Annual Goals
• Revenue: $1,000,000
• Donors: 11,000
○ Retain 7,000 donors
○ Acquire 4,000 new donors
• Budget: $250,000
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Step 2 Understand your
traffic and your visitor journeys
Traffic and Journeys
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Channel Report
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Start: Channels Report in Google Analytics
Channel Report
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?????
Organic Search – 90,122 Visits
Branded Search to Homepage
18,543
Donation Form
1,258 (68% drop off)
Non Branded Search to Deep Content
Pages
62,828
Donation Form
1,555(98% drop off)
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Donations
157(78% drop off)
Donations
14 (99% drop off)
Organic Search – 90,122 Visits
Branded Search to Homepage
18,543
Donation Form
1,258 (68% drop off)
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Donations
157(78% drop off)
Non Branded Search to Deep Content
Pages
62,828
Donation Form
1,555(98% drop off)
Donations
14 (99% drop off)
KPIConversion Rate
Time on Site
Exit Rate
Bounce Rate
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Non Branded Search to Deep Content
Pages
62,828
Donation Form
1,555(98% drop off)
Donations
14 (99% drop off)
Why this funnel?
KPIConversion Rate
Time on Site
Exit Rate
Bounce Rate
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Non Branded Search to Deep Content
Pages
62,828
Donation Form
1,555(98% drop off)
Donations
14 (99% drop off)
Why this funnel?
Supporting Metrics
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Only you can make the decision for investing or viewing this as a rabbit hole?
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BrightFocus Gift String
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5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
0-25 26-50 51-75 76-100 101-250 251-500 501-1000
Gift String Analysis
Control
Dig into other metrics
• Default ask was $50.
• Review past giving amounts
• Is that the right default?
Step 3 Understand your
visitors, especially the non-converting
ones
Habitat for Humanity “Visitor Journeys”
• Low donation form completion rate
• Survey of online donors: "Reason for your visit to our site?"
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Habitat for Humanity “Visitor Journeys”
Survey of online donors: “Reason for your website visit?”
○Mind already made up to donate to Habitat
Considering donating, but wanted more info first
All other reasons for visiting (volunteering, donatestuff, etc.)
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Mind already made up to donate to Habitat
Considering donating, but wanted more info first
All other reasons for visiting (volunteering, donating stuff, etc.)
Habitat for Humanity “Visitor Journeys”
• Survey of online donors: “Reason for your website visit?”
○ #1: Mind already made up to donate to Habitat
○ #2: Considering donating, but wanted more info first
○ #3: All other reasons for visiting (volunteering, donate stuff, etc.)
that’s…
• 3 different “donor journeys:”
○ Already decided to donate money
○ Already decided to donate stuff
○ Considering donating, but need to be convinced/reassured
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Donor Journey #3: Considering Donating, but Need to Be Convinced/Reassured• How to convince/reassure?
• Nielsen/Norman study (2009):
1. What does your organization do?
2. How will you use the money I give you?
• What info are we providing?
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Habitat for Humanity “Visitor Journeys”
• Does not answer key questions
• Not showing impact of donation
• Little here to reassure/convince
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Barriers to Conversion
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Low page loadForm errorsUX problems
Step 4Gather intelligence
from your competitors
Problem: Need to Reassure and Persuade
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Strong HeadlineUnderlined and linked texts = benefits of giving and unique value proposition
Problem: Donation Completion Obstacles
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ConversationalPersonal Experience
Problem: Increase Email Capture
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+1 for LightboxAdditional Segmentation Options
Problem: Increase Email Capture/Advocates
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NoticeableNon-Interrupting
Problem: Increase Conversions on Deep Content Pages
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Donation Asks on Deep-Linked ContentCould work well for “Rage Donations”
Step 5Identify your
persuasive assets
Habitat’s persuasive assets
Studies: decent, affordable housing transforms a family’s life
Habitat’s persuasive assets
Homeowner videos and stories
“What our Habitat house means to our family”
Habitat’s persuasive assets Focus groups: what resonates most with our supporters?
• Aspects of our work that they relate to?
• Language that clicks with them?
• Concerns, past or present?
• Misconceptions?
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Human Rights Watch Stunning Imagery
Social Proof
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It’s nicer way of saying
peer pressure
Social Proof – Quotes work too
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Social Proof
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https://blog.kissmetrics.com/social-proof-factors-2/
https://econsultancy.com/blog/65722-18-highly-effective-examples-of-
social-proof-in-ecommerce/
Step 6Create your experiment
strategy and plan
You are not AmazonYou can’t test everything
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Sample Test Needs DocumentTraffic Problem Solution Traffic Conv. Rate Estimated Increase
Direct Traffic Users who are aware of our organization and visit the homepage directly are not making it to donation forms at an anticipated rate
Add a top banner which builds the case for donating.
25,000 1.00% 50% more direct visitors make it to a donation form
Paid Search Donation form is slow to load, causing a high bounce rate.
Eliminate render-blocking JavaSCriptand CSS in above the fold content.
5,000 2.00% 25% more users complete a donation
Facebook Ads Donation form is slow to load, causing a high bounce rate.
Eliminate render-blocking JavaSCriptand CSS in above the fold content.
8,000 2.35% 25% more users complete a donation
Hypothesis Template
Based on <data discovered> we
believe <issue> is causing <undesirable
result>. We believe <change to be tested> will
help resolve <issue> and cause <desired
result>.
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Prioritize or Rank your Tests
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Test Plan
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Step 7Design your challengers
Habitat’s Test Challengers
Donation copy refocusing
• Test: “Why your donation transforms a family’s life”
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Habitat’s Test Challengers
Donation copy reformatting
• Existing: green box, “skip this”
• Test: black text, white background
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Habitat’s Test Challengers
• Hypothesis 2: site-wide content that convinces/reassures
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Habitat’s Test Challengers
Tactic: Make key site elements easier to understand
• Test: de-jargon (example: “affiliates”)
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Habitat’s test challengers
Tactic: Make key info easier to find
• Test: standard navigation terms
• Test: reorganize site navigation
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HRW: Drive More Visitors to Donation Forms
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+119% in visits to
donation form
BrightFocus: Get Conversions on Deep Content Pages
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ADA: Reformatted Donation Form Experience
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Old form
New form
Step 8Launch your experiment
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Habitat Test Results
Make key info easier to understand
Test: De-jargon the local search tool
Result: Donations up 22% (p < 0.01)
Make key info easier to find
Test: Use standard navigation term “About Us”
Result: Donations up 34% (p < 0.01)
Test: Reorganize navigation for scannability
Result: Donations up 42% (p < 0.001)
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Habitat Test Results
Donation copy refocusing
Test: Focus, “Why your donation transforms a family’s life”
Tested both completion rate anddollar amounts chosen
Result: Donors chose larger dollar
amounts (p < 0.05)
Donation copy reformatting
Test: No green box; standard black text on white background
Result: Donations up 48% (p < 0.05)
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BrightFocus: Raise Average Gift and Revenue
Existing Gift String
NEW Gift String
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BrightFocus: 85% Increase YOY for Gifts Over $151
Step 9Transfer learnings
to other media
BrightFocus Foundation AdWords TestUsing Google AdWords to test how effective different copy variations are at improving click-through-rates.
Control Variants
+25.2%
CTR Improvement
-6.9%
CTR Reduction
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AdWords Copy Used in Email CaptureBrightFocus rolled out “Don’t Miss Out” language to email capture form and saw an
improvement in email conversion.
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The Spaghetti Tests
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What worked for Habitat?
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Process outlined today
• What are our site visitors’ needs?
• What stops potential supporters from donating?
• What info would persuade/reassure them?
• What do industry-wide studies tell us?
• What are our hypotheses about what works, and why?
• What specific changes will address those needs?
• What happened when we A/B tested those changes?
• What do the results tell us about motivating our donors?
#17NTCtestingtips
NTC Housekeeping!SESSION HASHTAG
#17NTCtestingtips
COLLABORATIVE NOTES
http://po.st/17NTCtestingtips
EVALUATION LINKhttp://bfred.us/2mtfTmz
1.5 Credits for CAE and CFRE
@BeaconfireRED
@Habitat_org
Visit us at Booth 517 to get your Tips, Tools and Checklist for Testing