Stelter Client Strategist Kit Lancaster is in today with a primer on the metrics you need to track to assess the success of your planned giving marketing outreach and provide you the ability to optimize your future campaigns.
Do you have a fitness tracker or a smartwatch?
I bought my first fitness watch a few years ago and let me tell you: It was love at first button push.
For every run and bike ride I go on now, I have a wealth of data points available to me. How far did I go? How high did I climb? Am I getting faster? What was my heart rate on that big hill? For a data nerd like me, it’s delightful, and it’s been a huge help in setting realistic goals and optimizing my training.
When I look at the data, I can make smart decisions about what’s going well and where I need to improve.
The same is true for planned giving marketing.
In this blog we’re going to look at what data you can use—and what metrics you can track—to help you evaluate the effectiveness of your planned giving marketing efforts.
Essential Metrics to Track: Building Your Foundation
Consider tracking these key metrics for each of your planned giving marketing efforts. Always keep your goals for your project in mind, though—you want to ensure that whatever you track will measure how well you met your goal.
Direct Mail Campaigns
Response rate: The total number of responses you received divided by the total number of pieces you mailed out multiplied by 100.
Example: Responses: 63 ÷ Total mailed: 35,500 x 100 = 0.18% response rate
Tip: Include all your quality responses here, like people requesting information, wanting to start a conversation, or letting you know they’ve put your organization in their plans. Don’t include “transactional” responses in this calculation, like change-of-address notifications.
Gift Intention notification rate: The total number of gift intentions you received divided by the total number of pieces you mailed out multiplied by 100.
Example: Gift intention notifications: 11 ÷ Total mailed: 35,500 x 100 = 0.03% gift intention notification rate
You can also track other leads that you can attribute to your direct mail campaign. For example, how many phone calls or emails did you receive, or how many people visited your website because of your direct mail piece? Using a QR code or a URL redirect with tracking parameters can make this easier.
Email Campaigns
Click-through rate (CTR): The number of recipients who clicked on one or more links (unique clicks) divided by the number of emails delivered multiplied by 100.
Example: Unique clicks: 1,013 ÷ Total emails delivered: 55,000 x 100 = 1.8% click-through rate
Stelter also tracks a related metric for clients when we send their emails—a Focused CTR. This shows the percentage of people who specifically clicked on message-related links—not things like social media icons or other footer links.
Unsubscribe rate: The number of recipients who unsubscribe from future emails divided by the number of emails delivered multiplied by 100.
Example: Unsubscribes: 247 ÷ Total emails delivered: 55,000 x 100 = 0.45% unsubscribe rate
But what about open rates? Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection policy has made this metric more of a “fuzzy indicator.” It can still help compare email performance, but it’s unreliable since open counts are now inflated. Stelter’s digital manager, Bryan Lloyd, explains more in this blog.
Website Engagement
Visits: The total number of times your website was visited during a specified timeframe. A visit is recorded when a person comes to your website. If a person visits the site two times during the timeframe you are viewing, this counts as two visits.
Conversion Rate: The number of visitors who complete an action divided by the number of total visitors multiplied by 100.
Example: Actions taken: 2,136 ÷ Total visitors: 8,000 x 100 = 26.7% conversion rate
Conversion rates help you evaluate the effectiveness of digital campaigns that ask the user to complete a specific action, such as completing a form to download an estate-planning tool.
It’s also valuable to look at where your website visits are coming from, known as visit sources. Visit sources can include:
- Organic: Visitors who find your website through a search engine like Google.
- Direct: Visitors who directly type your website URL into their browser or click a link in an email.
- Referral: Visitors who arrive at your website by clicking a link on another website.
- Paid: Visitors who click on a digital advertisement to reach your website.
Tip: Use campaign tracking parameters, like UTM codes, to link your website visits to your specific marketing activities.
Tools and Technology: Your Secret Weapons
The right tools can help you unlock the full potential of metrics—just like my fitness watch did for me!
You may be able to pull direct mail response data from your CRM. If not, consider setting up a spreadsheet to consistently track this data as responses come in. You can also partner with your marketing department to look at data from your web analytics and email marketing platforms.
If you use Stelter’s digital or email services, you have convenient access to all your digital data in one place on the Stelter Intelligence Center.
The Next Step: Use Your Metrics to Inform Your Strategy
As you continue to track your planned giving marketing metrics, you’ll find new ways to use insights to optimize your marketing efforts.
- A/B Testing: Deploy two versions of a marketing campaign and see which performs better. Test only one variable at a time to identify what drove the improvement.
- Lead Scoring: Assign a score value to specific activities to quantify a person’s engagement. Effective lead scoring can identify your most qualified planned giving leads.
- Measuring Impact and ROI: Link metrics to revenue generated through planned giving initiatives. For more on calculating ROI in planned giving, check out this blog.
Remember: Metrics are not static—they’re dynamic insights to guide your decisions. Know your goals, keep tracking, and keep optimizing. Stay the course and your hard work will pay off!
More From Kit
