109. SPN (Some Personal News)
The influence and opportunity of social commerce in fundraising; Understanding landing pages; and, lots of Jobs
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In this week’s SPN:
The influence and opportunity of social commerce in fundraising
How to make your landing pages 1% better
Lots of jobs that took my fancy this week
Everything is Social
Back in November SPN tackled 8 approaches to engage Gen-Z.
Recently Google’s Jigsaw subsidiary surveyed Gen-Zs to better understand their online behaviors.
The survey wasn’t particularly scientific. It mostly consisted of in-depth interviews with a handful of Gen Zs - but it had a few interesting takeaways. Jigsaw concluded first and foremost that most of young people’s online behavior had a single purpose: “timepass.” In other words, just killing time.
Attention is scarce, and nonprofit Org’s are competing for that scarce resource. Reed Hastings’ infamous quote about Netflix comes to mind: “At the end of the day, we’re competing with sleep.”
Even among emergent AI tools, this is playing out.
Do your graphic designers use Midjourney? Hopefully, yes. But from what I’ve heard, the lion’s share of usage comes from people messing around and creating AI-generated images to entertain themselves. They might choose Midjourney over Netflix or TikTok or YouTube. This fact might change long-term, but it might not.
Giving Circles
“Timepass” also typically involves something else: Socialization. Sharing stuff with friends. Including “Giving Circles”. Among digital natives, everything is social. Outside of our sector, there seems a steady march toward more social products.
Shopping: Flagship is commerce infrastructure that powers creator recommendations through boutique storefronts
Mental Health: Marble Health offers group therapy for teens
Investing: AfterHour offers a social hub for trading and financial learning
Dating: Amori takes single-player dating and makes it collaborative and social with LLM-powered matchmakers
The “incumbents” for the sectors above - in this case, Shopify, Teladoc, Robinhood, Tinder - are far less social. Their products revolve around one person’s usage. The startups above, meanwhile, have social built into their DNA.
Social, discovery-driven
No one has nailed it yet, but social seems to be seeping successfully into shopping. TikTok Shop is on a tear and Flip “a social shopping app that combines a TikTok-like discovery experience with a premium e-commerce service” has grown popular for more social, discovery-driven shopping. And Claim is taking off on college campuses, letting people discover new brands through drops and rewards.
Where’s the Opportunity?
I re-read a report from Philanthropy Together this week that said the fastest-growing form of philanthropy in America is collective giving - where individuals, usually women, pool their funds and decision-making.
Donations are broadly unrestricted
Giving is overwhelmingly local
The number of people who are part of one, tripled between 2007 and 2016 - and then tripled again between 2016 and 2023
These groups are by their very nature social. They are discovery-driven, even serendipitous. And they’re creating real community.
Could your monthly pledge program take inspiration? Could your mid-level giving program play host? Could your individual giving go-to-market be more online event-focused in certain geo’s among certain Gen-Z audiences? Or benefit from being more offline for that matter?
At the very least this movement towards social commerce will be informing donor (consumer) expectations. Org’s need to be discoverable outside of traditional search - donor-generated content, short-form video content, “shoppable” videos through which you can donate - and offer donation experiences that are as seamless as one-click check out’s.
And whenever in doubt, Org’s need to be facilitating community.
Jobs & Opps 🛠️
Feed the Children: Digital Campaign Manager
Fund for Public Health in NYC: Chief Development Officer ($190,000 - $210,000)
Wikimedia Foundation: Lead Direct Response Specialist ($106,870 - $164,923)
Make-A-Wish Foundation: Senior Manager, Corporate Partnerships ($93,512 - $115,539)
American Kidney Fund: Senior Director, Special Events ($155,000 - $160,000)
Appalachian Trail Conservancy: Associate VP of Marketing and Communications ($120,000)
Youth INC: Senior Associate Director, Content Marketing ($70,000 - $90,000)
RestoringVision: VP, Global Communications & Marketing ($135,000 - $155,000)
American Brain Foundation: Director, Philanthropy
Rainforest Trust: Director, Philanthropy - Individual Giving ($115,000 - $140,000)
KIPP Foundation: Senior Director, Major Gifts ($165,000 - $195,000)
Environmental Defense Fund: Senior Director, Planned Giving ($170,000 - $180,000)
American Cancer Society: Strategic Director, Enterprise Strategy - Development ($117,000 - $146,000)
The Who’s Who of Landing Pages
Let’s talk about which kinds of landing pages you should be creating for different audiences/channels/traffic sources.
The only way in which a landing page is effective is if it’s also the right type of page for the traffic that’s arriving there. You want to make sure people packed clothes for the right destination…
I’ve shared below what I’ve experienced that works best based on the different channels I’m sending traffic from. My hope is that this posts provides 2 nuggets that you can go apply this week on your own funnels and landing pages. If you need these built out, I know where to point you.
Okay, let’s dive in:
The Macro
For context, landing pages were one of the most important levers for our marketing and fund raising team at UNICEF that powered our growth. Our keen focus on building and optimizing LPs drove better performance, reduced bounce rates, increased our CVRs, and lowered CPAs when sending traffic from paid ads.
When I learned paid social, it wasn’t within the realm of e-commerce or direct response. It was to understand how to drive engagement for internet publishers. The task was to drive traffic that stayed for 5-7 page views on a website. It really forced me to think more about building a tailored experience and hosting content people want to stick around for.
More often than not, LPs print money. At this point I’ve designed, tested and developed hundreds of landing pages for so many campaigns and emergencies. Those LPs have resulted in hundreds of millions in donations and have hovered between 4% and 12% conversion. In one particular case, I recall a single landing page (CAR, 2019) being worth $1,800,000 in a week. That one was a team effort! Others though… $166.
But that’s not to say there aren’t some that just don’t hit, and that’s fine. If all your ideas/tests are winning, you’re not trying a wide enough breadth of tests.
Even as recently as last week I’ve seen how simply updating an LP can lead to double digit percentage increases in CVR or double digit percentage reductions in CPA.
Much of the secret sauce is about understanding the source of traffic. Then connecting the messaging/positioning, the look/feel, and ensuring it feels cohesive to whomever is going through that funnel.
Most of us wouldn’t run our Reddit ad creative on TV. Similarly, you have to think about using different landing page types for different sources of where people are coming from.
The 4-Part Quartet
At every audience level - single gift, monthly, midlevel, major (and I include Planned and Corporate Giving here too) - when it comes to nailing acquisition there are 4 things that you really need to get right: the Angle, the Ad Creative, the Landing Page, and the Proposition.
The Angle/Hook is the reason why your Org offers the valuable, unique solution to a problem someone wants to support solving. For example, Habitat for Humanity’s angle is affordable housing. Very clear, very actionable. You can build ad creative, LPs and a proposition around this all day long.
The Ad Creative is how you visually show and attract a donor into your Org’s world.
The Landing Page is the site experience someone has when they click an ad. In the case of most Org’s, people go to unoptimized pages or program pages, don’t understand what is being written or its relevance to why they arrived on the site, and leave. Test sending to homepage vs program or emergency-specific LP vs a donation form. There is no one answer here - it’s audience, context and channel specific.
The Proposition is what makes the landing page even stronger. Without this, a landing page can still work. Yet with a well framed proposition you’ll get to that 10% conversion rate level with your landing page.
To make these pages pair well with traffic sources, it’s all about reverse engineering the donor psychology of that specific channel and catering your LP approach to match the channel intent.
That’s why there are different LP formats that work on Meta vs Google vs TikTok vs TV, etc. It’s not a one-size fits all situation. Heatmap.com makes a lot of sense to leverage here too.
Here are some thoughts on each.
FB and Instagram
Meta is the global news stand mixed with the global mall. People are constantly trying to show off and shout at each other about politics, their day, what’s happening in current events or the outfit they just bought.
On IG it’s more about the aesthetic and visual appeal and showcasing the “best version” of people’s lives that may not always be true.
For the landing page from FB, I like running what I call the Hero Lander - generally focused on a single value proposition.
The Hero Lander is the LP that does it all. It gives you the offer, social proof, educational content and a way to donate all in one.
It pays dividends to have before and after sections showing program impact. The lesson about communication that we learned in 4th grade - show don’t tell - is very relevant here. A picture is worth a thousand words. Let the differences speak for themselves and demonstrate the benefits from a point of reference that the donor understands.
Donor/User-generated content, especially in the form of testimonials, is a massive lever to increasing donation revenue and boosting CVR on any LP. If you don’t have them, stop reading this SPN, and go get 10 right now. There are multiple studies that show that 95% of people read reviews before making a decision. This doesn’t just apply to e-commerce.
I wonder if there’s a supporting stat out there that says people donate more to Org’s that have testimonials from donors writing about their love of the Org than those that don’t. It would be an interesting test. If you run it or if you have the data, let me know.
The takeaway? There’s never enough social proof.
Google Ads
Google is pretty much the opposite of Meta.
The ad creative is text based and it’s high intent search by people looking for something. This is where copywriting and choosing the right keywords in the proposition really matters.
In general, when I’m designing LPs for Google traffic, I know that traffic is coming from high intent search. Typically, people search on Google after they’ve seen a social ad. Perhaps they didn’t click the ad on Meta, but they remembered the Org and wanted to do their own research a few days later on Google. This is the majority of traffic that comes from these channels.
That’s why it’s beneficial to create an LP that’s more educational and informational to help answer questions about the programs, for example, that a donor might have. Like an advertorial that explains the benefits and value props, where the design is simple, elegant and clean.
TikTok
TikTok traffic tends to be a little less friendly to the idea of donating through the in-app browser and the vibe on the app is more playful. Because of that, you want to keep the landing page simple. If you aren’t running to TikTok shops selling brand swag or trinkets, then a very basic LP that features one of your Programs and is focused on hyper-fast page load speed time is all you need.
Have an angle that speaks to the TikTok video that brought them there — ideally it’s an angle that is validated by an organic TikTok that did well. If you’re an Org that has a ton of organic traction already then just see how people talk about your work where it performed well, and copy that angle.
Have an ask that is friendly to a lower AOV donor — test in the $20 range.
Include social proof that feels like TikTok content, not just written donor testimonials.
Include the “As seen on TikTok” badge - this just helps!
Another test I like to run with TikTok is to a funnel that just collects first-party data. If you’re able to gather someone’s email or number, then you can follow up to donate or spend time educating them with content first.
TikTok has trained its users to have the shortest attention span of any social network. Most videos are only a few seconds long and the trained behavior is endless scrolling.
Anecdotally, the average TikTok donor seems to behave the same way. They’ll click your ad and bounce fast, onto the next thing. That’s why when they click to your LP, you have to give them the goods fast.
Influencer Marketing
Finally, when it comes to working with influencers and designing an LP that can be paired with their traffic, always feature the influencer front and center and above the fold on your LP.
Whenever possible, you should also have testimonials and additional creative that features the influencer preferably “on location/in the field” talking about your Org’s work to compliment the page. Bonus points if you have video.
On this page, there’s a couple of things you want to make sure you hit:
Make it clear why this influencer and the Org are a match. This is usually done with a storytelling section and demonstrates that the influencer is genuinely involved or an advocate of the mission. People can smell BS influencer tie-ups from a mile away, so if you have inauthentic partnerships, then good luck to you.
A listicle - “5 reasons why …” This gives the LP visitor a way to learn more about your Org/Programmatic benefits without it feeling like doing research.
That’s all for today!
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And huge thanks to this Quarter’s sponsor Fundraise Up for creating a new standard for online giving.
Now onto the interesting stuff!
Infographic: Nonprofit Tools Landscape
Click on this interactive infographic to explore the Nonprofit Marketing and Fundraising Tools landscape (Pledgr).
Reads From My Week
AI’s $600B Question - an update from 9 months ago when the question was how would AI revenues justify the $200B invested. Since then huge amounts of investment - but little signs of revenue. (Sequoia)
Another VC Bessemer looks at how Cloud is evolving and the impact of AI - The Legacy Cloud is dead - long live AI Cloud. (Bessemer)
The Washington Post have launched an AI chatbot that answers questions on climate change. (The Verge)
X/Twitter dropped some numbers about everything happening on X in Q2. (XData)
An interview with the head of Uber Ads Danilo Tauro gets into how the business is becoming more complicated - and more lucrative. (Ad Exchanger)
And, how to interview and hire ML/AI engineers. (Eugene Yan)