There’s been a lot of talk lately about personas and user journeys. From built-in journey development in your CRM, to speaking more intentionally and personally with your audiences through carefully crafted personas, the focus on user journeys across the nonprofit (and commercial) space is rightfully deserved. We’re all competing against numerous digital channels, memes, headlines and offers that can quickly draw someone in or compel them to keep scrolling.
Persona and journey development helps messengers communicate more effectively to specific audience segments instead of communicating broadly to your entire audience. Think of it as a Ladder of Engagement 2.0, but better. It’s better because journeys are actually based on something someone did — whether they engage with you on social or go to your website — and allow you to customize the content they receive based on their response to each offer you put in front of them.
So, is all the fuss about journeys worth it? Consider these six crucial reasons.
- The interactions someone has with your organization are personalized. Research shows the more tailored the message to someone’s interests, the more likely they are to engage with your organization. And let’s face it, all engagement matters — whether it’s liking a post, commenting on a statement, writing to an elected official, talking to friends, donating and more.
- Build long-term relationships with prospects and donors. In personalizing the content someone receives from your organization, you’re able to communicate with them regarding the issue or event that initially drew them into your organization. From there, you can expand when and how you communicate based on that initial entry point before moving them into other channels and messaging streams.
- Build trust. Content that speaks to a donor or prospect’s interests conveys that you are mindful of their interests, want them to be engaged with your organization and know how you can have a lasting relationship together. The level of trust increases as you deliver more personalized content that’s based on the interactions of the donor or prospect.
- Better fundraising results. With a deeper sense of connection to your organization, prospects are more likely to convert into donors and those donors are more likely to stick around. In fact, Causemo has helped our customers create user journeys that have resulted in dramatic growth for their digital giving programs.
- Increase retention. Leveraging data based on someone’s interaction with your organization, using it to deliver personalized content and inviting a donor or prospect to engage with your organization will increase the likelihood that your organization is able to retain that donor. Supporters understand their value to your organization because you’re asking them to participate in your work in ways that are relevant to them. And, they feel valued. The combination of retention, increasing lifetime giving and the donor feeling valued is a win, win, win!
- Lower the cost per acquisition. Implementing journeys can be time-consuming at first. Understanding the data, creating content, customizing the journey and supportive collateral can be exhausting. However, it doesn’t need to be. The better you become at leveraging user journeys, the less you’ll be paying to acquire a donor as your content becomes optimized to increase the value of prospects and donors.
The data supporting user journeys makes for a convincing case to implement them. Understanding the people with whom you’re speaking — their motivations, relationship with key issues and how they want to be engaged with your organization — is always valuable. It’s even better when we can deliver meaningful experiences for those donors to engage with your organization.
