lessons from a crowdfunding platform: how donorschoose.org ... · donorschoose.org: revenue raised...

Session Title

MORGAN KAZANSenior Marketing ManagerDonorsChoose.org

Lessons From a Crowdfunding Platform: How DonorsChoose.org generates revenue with transactional and triggered email

Morgan KazanSenior Marketing Manager DonorsChoose.org

Speaker Headshot

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About DonorsChoose.org

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DonorsChoose.org: Our email audience and goals

1.5MDonors

500KTeachers

Goals: Retention + Revenue

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DonorsChoose.org: Revenue raised through email

In FY15, we raised $75M as an organization

$37.5MPartners

$37.5MIndividual donors

$21.5MOther channels

$16MEmail

~20% of our revenue comes in through email. $14M

Transactional and notifications

$2MPromotional

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DonorsChoose.org: Revenue raised through email

In FY15, we raised $75M as an organization

$37.5MPartners

$37.5MIndividual donors

$21.5MOther channels

$16MEmail

~20% of our revenue comes in through email. $14M

Transactional and notifications

$2MPromotional

87% of revenue from transactional;13% from promotional

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Email: Our breakdown

Transactional

• Receipt

• Thank you note

Notifications + alerts

• Favorites

• Halfway to funded

Promotional

• Back to School

• Holiday season

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Email: Our breakdown

Transactional

• 61% Open Rate

• 22% Click Rate

Notifications + alerts

• 32% Open Rate

• 6% Click Rate

Promotional

• 22% Open Rate

• 3% Click Rate

• How we use transactional email to increase conversion

• How we optimize these emails

Getting conversions from transactional email

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Transactional Email: How we drive repeat business

Receipt: “Your receipt (and your employer's matching form)!”

Welcome Email:“You’ve made a difference today”

Receipt WelcomeThank

You NoteShipping Photos Alerts

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Thank You Note: “Ms. Clark’s letter to you”

Ship Notification: “Special delivery!”



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Classroom Photos: “Mrs. Kuhn just shared photos with you”

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Alerts and Notifications: How we drive repeat business



Favorite teacher alert: “Mrs. Kraiza’s new idea for her students”

Your friend donated:“Morgan just gave to ‘New Rug’”

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Recommendations: How we drive repeat business

Location-basedSubject-based

“We need you in Rialto, CA”“Your classroom recommendation”

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How we started A/B testing transactional emails

• Found a tool that worked with our custom-built system

• Asked CTOs for good, peer companies

• Took four months to implement

• Strengthened relationship between Marketing and tech teams

Step #1: Technology – Make it easy for the marketing team to test

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How we started A/B testing transactional emails

Step #2: Strategy – Put a plan in place for effective testing

• Audited all existing transactional emails

• Made sure each one had a clear CTA

• Used analytics to find our top 10 revenue-driving emails and started optimizing

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Test #1: Control

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Test #1: Treatment #1

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Test #1: Treatment #2

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Winner:

• Click rate increased by as much as 57% (19% versus 30%)

• Conversion rate increased as much as 25% (.95% versus 1.18%)

• Applied to other emails

Lesson: Don’t show customers too much

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• Favorite teacher notification email

• Open Rate: 30%

• Click rate: 8%

• Revenue: $500,000 per year

Ideally images have no borders or background

We ran AB test with email + A/B LP testing

Test #2: Email

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Test #2: Landing page control

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Test #2: Landing page treatments

• Tested four different values

• $50, 75, $100 and Control

We auto-filled the donation amount

on our site

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Lesson: Guide customer thinking

AUTO-FILL AMOUNT Conversion rate Average Donation

CONTROL 30.7% $54

$50 33.4% $67

$75 29.5% $45

$100 29.7% $50

Winner: $505% increase in conversions, 22% increase in average donation amount and higher percentage of $50 donations

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Test #3: Control

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Test #3: Treatment

Added staff curation

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Winner

• Control had better clicks (45% decrease in clicks for curated email)

• Stronger conversion rate (31% decrease in conversion rate for curated)

• Email revenue decreased from $160K to $87K

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Lesson: It’s all about YOU (not us)


Winner

• 45% decrease in clicks for curated email

• 31% decrease in conversion rate

• Email revenue decreased from $160K to $87K

Make sure customers see what they care about first.

• Recognize power of existing transactional emails

• Know that one out of every 10 tests will actually yield results — commit yourself to running those tests to gain insights

Top takeaways

Thank YouMorgan Kazan

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lessons from a crowdfunding platform: how donorschoose.org ... · donorschoose.org: revenue raised...

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