According to Blackbaud’s 2015 Charitable Giving Report, although online donations grew 9.2% year over year, more than 90% of fundraising still comes from traditional sources like direct mail.
direct mail target illustration design over a white background
Direct mail is still unparalleled in its ability to accurately target prospects and existing donors. However, if your target audience doesn’t respond right away, they often forget about your ask…even if they may be interested in supporting your organization.
What if there was a way to combine the growth of online with the strength of direct mail? Well, there is: Enter direct mail combined with the Google Display Network to solve your problems associated with the limited time in front of your target audience.
What is the Google Display Network and how does it work? Google paid advertising is split into 2 main categories: Search & Display. Most of us are familiar with paid search where you can pay Google to have your ad show up at the top of the page when specific search terms are entered.
The Google Display Network is the long tail of search that follows you after you visit a specific web page or search for a specific item.
Have you ever located a specific product on Amazon or Ebay, not purchased it right away and then found that exact item following you around as a display ad on different news & social media sites that you visit? That’s the Google Display Network working behind the scenes. It’s a very effective tool for keeping top-of-mind awareness for a product or service.
How can the Google Display Network be paired with your direct mail campaign? Before your mailing campaign is printed & mailed, we review the target geography of your mailing list and evaluate your web traffic. If your web traffic is below the threshold needed to activate the Google Display Network then we’ll schedule paid search in your target areas. Once your pieces are printed and out in the mail, we activate the Google Display Network across your target geography.
The effect of this is that it gives a boost to your campaign because anyone who visits your website as a result of your mailing gets cycled into Google Display Network ads for your organization for a 30-day period.
Why is this a perfect program for small nonprofit organizations? The Google Display Network doesn’t kick in until there’s a certain threshold of traffic on a website. Most small nonprofits don’t have enough organic traffic to satisfy the minimum threshold. By combining optional Google Ads, before your campaign is launched with the Google Display Network once your campaign is in the mail, we work to satisfy the minimum traffic requirement for you in advance.
How can I take advantage of Google Display Network + Direct Mail? You can think of direct mail combined with the Google Display Network as direct mail on steroids, and we’re now offering this as a service to good clients like you.
You can supply your own mailing list, work with us to compile the perfectly targeted mailing list for you, or do a combination of the two.
Contact us for more information about how you can use this exciting new technology.
About the author: Blase Ciabaton is an established expert in the field of direct mail marketing. He has maintained the content on TheDirectMailMan.com for over 10 years, and publishes an enews with content specifically tailored for nonprofit professionals. His company offers turn-key solutions for direct mail including database procurement, professional graphic design, printing, addressing and mailing.
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I can’t wait to meet with you personally.
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