If you answered “yes” to that question, then I have another one for you: Are you creating content that is compatible with tablets?

I ask these questions because tablet users are skewed noticeably older than smartphone users. In fact . . .

• Tablet users are 28% more likely to be in the 65+ age segment (as compared to smartphone owners)

• Nearly 3 in 5 tablet users are in homes with incomes over $75K annually

Here’s something else you may want to know: Tablet users are nearly three times more likely than smartphone users to watch video. And view it frequently – at least once a week. Some (about 10%) watched video nearly every day on their tablet.

And 26.7% of those who watch a video at least once a month on their tablet paid to watch content. So I also ask you . . .

Are you creating captivating videos?

Are your videos compatible with smartphones and tablets?

What other rich content can you create for this demographic?

What inspiring content do you have that you could charge a fee for people to watch?

Guess what? You need to be marketing, cultivating and fundraising in this channel.

Tablets reached critical mass in U.S.

Folks, tablets as a product have reached critical mass in the United States. Why is that significant? Typically products need to reach “critical mass” before becoming mainstream with self-sustained adoption (i.e., without having to add any more investment).

This means the number of people owning tablets is about to explode. Are you ready?

Bottom line: Older, more affluent donors have tablets – and they watch video on tablets.  Is your content “tablet-ready”?

Related:

Don’t really understand mobile? Need a primer/guidebook to walk you through? Click here.

Data for this post from a study published in a Marketing Profs article. Details here.

And your first one is NOT, “Do we go mobile?” Reaching donors and members through their smartphones has become nearly as important as reaching them on their PCs.

That’s just one of the points in a recent article in Target Marketing, “3 Options for Your Direct Marketing Mobile Strategy.”

But just in case you think mobile is only for the big nonprofits … or only for those who have disaster relief missions and want to raise funds quickly via mobile … think again.

Get the facts. A popular primer – or guidebook – spells out ALL the ways mobile benefits nonprofits in clear, non-technical terms: Mobile for Nonprofits.

Okay. You’ve read the primer and done your research. And now you’ve made your decision to go mobile. Target Marketing lays out your next options nicely in terms of developing a mobile strategy.

And it’s all based on how you want mobile to support everything else you do, who you want to reach, and naturally what’s your budget.

Here are the 3 options related to your direct marketing mobile strategy from the article:

1) Mobile-compatible website (probably the quickest and cheapest), a web-based application, or a native mobile application? Which will you choose?

2) If you opt for an application, know that you shouldn’t take everything off your website and simply drop it on an app. (Anymore than you should take a 2-4 page direct mail letter and plop it onto your website or into an email without serious editing.)

3) There are numerous platforms (e.g., iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and more), and they all have varying development costs.

All these decisions. It’s a good article and I recommend you read it for the details relating to Target Marketing’s three options.

You’ll find more help in these related posts:

Friendly Nonprofit Mobile Websites

3 Steps to Strategically Mobile Nonprofits

And no, this has nothing to do with Halloween. I’m referring to the amount of copy that remains after merciless editing for a mobile-friendly version of your story.

When people pick up their mobile device it’s primarily because they’re killing time. They’re waiting in the doctor’s office and want to pass the time. They’re riding on the commuter train. They’re browsing during the TV commercials. They’re in a boring meeting waiting for someone to say something interesting.

But even though these people are “killing time,” that doesn’t mean they want to “waste time” reading a bunch of fluff or filler content.

Where’s the beef?

Mobile users don’t want to spend time searching for the beef – the guts of the story. They want it visible and served up first. Yes they might be relaxing and killing time, but when in mobile-mode … they want all beef. No filler.

This is because they’re relaxing with a purpose. That purpose is to find something out NOW or to simply have lots of fun and thrills with a game.

Therefore, you must take your direct mail letter or email and chop it down without mercy until it’s condensed into a few short paragraphs. Then let people who want more details click to get more on the next screen … and then even more on another screen for the deeply interested.

Mobile demands the skeleton have no fat or extra tissue

For example: Let’s take an integrated campaign with direct mail, email, your website and mobile.

In the diagram below see how the amount of copy continues to shrink drastically as we move to the right.

Stick to the main points when writing for the mobile web.

What’s the ONE thing you want readers to know and understand above all else? What must they understand and do?

Share that first. Add a short few clarifying paragraphs and then links to secondary screens for those who want to know more.

If you try to give the skeleton too much shape by filling in with lots of details, mobile users get almost instantly bored with your wall of text and leave your site.

And for mobile, even several very short paragraphs that lead to lots of scrolling quickly become a wall of text. Writing copy for mobile users is a whole new world. And also an exciting one.

Like what you found here? More related posts:

Friendly Nonprofit Websites (mobile-friendly, that is)

Mobile for Nonprofits – a primer for non-techies

3 Steps to Strategically Mobile Nonprofits

Want visitors to have a good experience when they come to your nonprofit website?  And do you have a Facebook page?  Do you Tweet?  Do you have a YouTube channel?  Do you have donors between the ages of 18 and 90?

If you answered “YES” to any of those questions then you need to have a mobile-friendly website. 

Not sending text messages or asking for text donations?

Doesn’t matter.

You still need at least some of your web pages to be mobile-friendly and here’s why: 

1. You can’t afford to frustrate or annoy donors, advocates, prospects, members, and other supporters.  They will have a negative experience when arriving at your site via a mobile device unless you’ve created some mobile-friendly pages.

2. The number of people accessing the web via mobile will be greater than those using a PC/desktop computer in less than 3 year’s time.  The daily growth is almost exponential (it’s happening that fast).

3. People are 5-times more likely to respond to a mobile call-to-action than email, direct mail, or anything else.

4. Over 80% of consistent social networkers access their networks via mobile.  This means they’re looking at your Facebook page, tweets, etc. on a mobile device.  And if you have a call-to-action that takes them to your website … then they’re also viewing those pages via mobile.

5. Email is viewed via mobile by about 38% of the people.  So not only work with your email service provider to have mobile-friendly emails, but remember that any link to your website in an email is being viewed via mobile by a large segment of your subscribers.

Where should you begin?

Make it manageable.  Move forward a step or two at a time.

For example: Start with 3 pages of your website and make them mobile-friendly.  Consider your home page, donation page, and one other page.  To help decide what the third page ought to be, look at your website analytics.  What page gets the most traffic?  Or … are you planning a major campaign in the next month or two?  Perhaps you’ll want the landing page for that campaign to be mobile friendly.

In other words, use a combination of website traffic and your business/fundraising goals to choose the third page.  But also look at which web pages your mobile users are viewing.  It could be different from PC users.

Still not convinced?

Still not convinced that every nonprofit – including yours, regardless of size – needs to have some mobile-friendly web pages?

Read point number one again.  Do you believe you can afford to deliberately annoy and frustrate your supporters?  With acquisition more and more challenging … with supporters more and more demanding that all tasks, sites, pages, etc. be EASY FOR THEM … with a recession that causes people to scrutinize their decisions to donate or join more thoroughly … can you risk your budget this way? 

Perhaps the following graphics will illustrate the point.

"Above the fold" view of a web page on a PC/desktop computer.

This is how a “regular” web page might look on someone’s personal or desktop computer.  You see the full width of the page.  And in one glance you get a feel for what is on the page.

Now look at the next graphic.  The red box illustrates how much of the SAME web page you might see on a mobile device.  Not much is it?

"Above the fold" view of SAME web page on a mobile device (i.e., area inside the box).

Studies have shown it’s about 2-times as difficult to read content on a mobile device simply because the screen is so small. 

It’s more challenging (and some folks would say, “More painful”), to use the web on a mobile phone because . . .

o Downloads are slower

o On many phones there’s no physical keyboard

o You don’t have a mouse for easy selection or to issue commands. 

o Again, a small screen that usually has TINY text

o No where near the consistency in design that “regular” web pages have so people have to figure everything out from scratch.

All this adds up to the fact that comprehension is MUCH LOWER when reading web content on a mobile device.

And it’s essentially because of screen size.  Mobile users can see less at any given time.

Consequently they must rely on their memory as they try to understand the content on your site because so little of it is fully explained within the viewable space. 

Screen size also impacts how users move around on the page.  They must do a LOT MORE scrolling to find the content and aids they need – they can’t just glance at the whole page for the answer.

Scrolling reduces comprehension because …

o It takes more time.  And this chips away at our memory.

o Users are trying to read something, find something, or get an answer.  The more they scroll the longer it takes to get what they want because their attention is on scrolling and not directly on getting the information they want.

o And after all that scrolling around it’s harder to find their starting point on a mobile screen than on the screen of a desktop computer.

Make it EASY FOR YOUR SUPPORTERS by creating some mobile-friendly pages of your nonprofit website.  Start with three pages: Home, donation (or perhaps “join” page for an association), and one other.

If you’re a charity, work with a vendor and make this happen before the Fall and holiday giving seasons.  If you’re an association, get it done just as fast.

Resources

Primer/guidebook written for non-techies to help you understand the basics of mobile before talking to any vendors:  Mobile for Nonprofits

Vendors to consider when creating mobile-friendly pages:

http://www.imediareach.com/ imedia Reach ― Gary or Linda Bonner

http://www.hipcricket.com/home.aspx hipcricket ― Doug Stovall

http://www.mobiento.com/ mobiento!

http://www.2ergo.com/ 2ergo ― Lindsay Woodworth

http://mobiforge.com/directory A directory found here of a large community of independent mobile web developers and designers.

I read an article in Mobile Marketing Watch predicting: “Vanity Short Codes Soon to be Irrelevant in SMS Marketing.” 

Before I go any further, I want to ensure we’re all on the same sheet of music. 

o SMS refers to text marketing; sending text messages via mobile devices.
o In text marketing there are “random” short codes and “vanity” short codes.  Random is any combination of 5 or 6 numbers and the client has no control over what the numbers will be (e.g., 59648, 235786, etc.).  Several clients have the same short code.

Vanity short codes are numbers the client chooses for one reason or another.  Maybe it’s to make it easy for people to remember a sequence (e.g., 56789, 123456), or it’s a zip code (57785), or the client wants a “phoneword” (e.g., 466453 spells “Google” on a mobile keypad).

o Finally, it is common for ads (whether print or digital) to have a call-to-action like this, “Text RALLY to 57785.”  The keyword (RALLY) and the short code (in this example a vanity short code which is a zip code). The combination of the two – keyword and short code – is what makes each call-to-action unique for a given client.  

Just to be clear, when your nonprofit is using signs, newspapers, direct mail, email, TV, radio or anything else to post a mobile call-to-action … you’re asking people to respond on their mobile device by typing in the keyword and short code.  They end up on a landing page where you deliver what you promised.

So why does Mobile Marketing Watch think the days of vanity short codes are numbered?  That they’re in danger of become obsolete?

It’s because of the QR code (Quick Response). 

Point your smartphone’s QR tag scanner here to get help on ALL the ways nonprofits can use mobile. HINT: It goes far beyond fundraising.

QR codes can make ANYTHING interactive.

And it’s easier to use the QR tag scanner on your smartphone than it is to type in a keyword and short code combination … there’s nothing to remember and no chance of making an error typing!

Perhaps the biggest stumbling block to QR codes is that mobile devices don’t come with the software.  You need to install it on your smartphone.  Well, check out the resources below for two sources to do just that.

But the good news is that vendors are beginning to pre-load the scanner software on their mobile devices.  Soon when you purchase a new smartphone you’ll be all set.  You may want to ask about this when buying one.

Nonprofit Example of QR Code

You’ll notice in the example above that I didn’t show the QR code by itself.  In the United States these codes are still new enough that I believe you need to add a bit of explanation: What to do AND what they’ll get when they do it. 

And even though in a year or two scanning QR codes will likely be second nature to us, you still ought to let people know what they’ll get when they scan.  If you don’t it’s as bad as putting up an email sign-up box on your website without telling donors and members the benefits they’ll get by signing up!

Here’s an example of a nonprofit (an association) who did it right. In the July/August issue of “Aviation for Women, International” they have this full-page ad:

Look in the lower left-hand corner and you’ll see the QR code with copy to the right of it.  Here’s an enlargement of that section of the ad:

I don’t know whether vanity short codes will become extinct, but I do agree that they’ll fall in the tall shadow of QR codes sooner rather than later. 

Also, I STRONGLY recommend you start adding QR calls-to-action in your nonprofit marketing and fundraising campaigns TODAY.  And make certain you follow the example above: Include a brief statement on what you what the donor or member to do, followed by what they’ll find when then do it.

Has your nonprofit used QR codes? Let me know.  I’d be happy to feature your organization in an upcoming post.

Resources: 

Still not sure whether mobile is right for your nonprofit? Overwhelmed by the technology and not certain where to begin?  This guidebook deciphers the jargon and shows the multitude of ways mobile can help your nonprofit – especially with stewardship: Mobile for Nonprofits  

Two websites (out of dozens) where you can download QR code reader software for your smartphone if you don’t already have it.

QR code reader software – one source

QR code reader software – second source

Most of us appreciate good customer service. And one of the prime ways for a business to differentiate itself is by giving good – or better yet, great – service.

My question to you is this:

How can you differentiate your nonprofit and do an even better job of serving your donors or members?

Or stated another way,

How can you simultaneously engage them and add value to their experience with your nonprofit?

Mobile is Nonprofit Friendly. Wireless technology is only "freaky" for birds. (Cartoon by Morten Ingemann)

My answer to you is this: Add mobile marketing to your integrated campaigns.

Mobile is an ideal channel for delivering targeted messages that add value . . . that engage people . . . and it can do this even better than social networks.

Start simple and don’t let mobile “freak you out.”  Send helpful text messages to your donors, members, advocates, volunteers.  Examples include:

Associations
- industry news
- career tips
- trends
- reminder of seminars to retain professional certification

Charities
- hospital … health tips; reminders for periodic exams based on gender and age groups
- parks … travel tips; suggestions on where to visit; etc.
- college or university … achievements by students currently enrolled; homecoming news; alumni reunions; awards for any research; etc.
- museum … stories about moments in history related to your mission; tidbits on some of your exhibits; special events; etc.
- all types … status updates of programs or advocacy efforts; success stories

Your text message may be a teaser with a link to the rest of the story.  Other times the whole tip fits within the text message.

After donors or members have been receiving updates from you for awhile, ask them for feedback.  What do they like? What do they want more of?  What are they most interested in?  And so on.

With this feedback and previous repsonse data, you can segment your list and send more targeted messges to build even greater loyalty.

Mobile is perfect for engaging your supporters.

Mobile is perfect for cultivating them and building stronger relationships.

And after you’ve been engaging and cultivating, mobile is great for the occasional fundraising request.

Remember this: Mobile phones are one of the few items MANY people look at when they start their day, and it’s one of the last things they put aside before going to bed.

Don’t abuse this personal space.  Don’t spam.  Carefully follow the rules.

And ONLY send relevant, value-added messages.  Test and experiment to find the frequency and the different times of the day to send text messages.

Your reward for this value-added engagement is higher retention, higher conversions, and more revenue for your nonprofit via mobile marketing.

More on mobile:

3 Steps to Strategically Mobile Nonprofits

Myths Dispelled on Mobile for Nonprofits – Interview with mGive Foundation

When You Need to Raise $5K or More, FAST

As the saying goes, “Dig your well before you need the water.” 

In other words, there’s preparation and advance cultivation needed if you want dependable results. I think you’ll see what I mean when you read the cartoon below.  The cartoon also answers HOW to raise the money quickly when needed.

Go here to find several more related posts on mobile for nonprofits and mobile marketing.

What is the biggest obstacle . . . the biggest question . . . or simply the primary reason why your nonprofit is not using mobile today? What’s keeping you from moving forward?

I’d like to know. Please answer by adding a comment below.  Relax.  I won’t pressure you with endless sales messages based on your comment.

I just don’t want to guess at what is keeping so many nonprofits from moving forward. 

When I have some idea what your questions, hurdles, and concerns are then I can share more posts and possibly even free webinars to get the answers to you.

Mobile is for MORE than fundraising

And remember, as you write your questions in the comment box below recall that mobile is also a powerful cultivation tool, acquisition channel, and more. 

It’s also a very, very popular portal for a growing number of smartphone users to your Facebook page, Tweets, your YouTube channel, and other social media sites.

Again, what is it that you want to know about mobile?

What don’t you understand?

Why isn’t your nonprofit using it? 

What are the one or two things you need to conquer in order to include mobile in your integrated marketing program?

Please use the comment box below to send me your answers.  And if you prefer to keep your answers confidential then let me know and I won’t publish your comment. Or you can send me an email.

One way or the other ALL nonprofits ought to be involved with mobile. 

On one end of the spectrum this only involves getting your website and emails mobile-friendly.  And on the other end it means also having a completely integrated marketing and fundraising program that incorporates text cultivation messages, mobile ads, and mobile giving.

However you proceed, the wise nonprofit will begin by thinking strategically.  Here are three initial steps to viewing mobile more strategically:

1 – Recognize how donors, members and prospects are interacting with you via mobile.

Are you on Facebook?  50% of Facebook traffic is via mobile devices.  Therefore any links from Facebook to your website should be to mobile-friendly pages.

What percentage of your website traffic is from mobile devices?  And from which devices (e.g., Blackberry, Android, or iPhone)?  Google Analytics – which is free – tells you all this under “visitor” information.  And even if the percentage is relatively low today, are you sure you want to annoy this 5 or 10% by making pages all but impossible to read for them? 

Do you send emails to your supporters?  Growing numbers of people use mobile devices to read their emails. 

2 – What programs and areas of your fundraising and marketing programs could use a little help?  Which ones are particularly compatible with mobile?

Have any special events?  For example:  Walk-a-thons, run-a-thons, or whatever-a-thons are all very compatible to promotion via mobile.

Do you encourage peer-to-peer fundraising?  If so, again strongly consider adding mobile to the mix.

Do you want to strengthen the relationships you have with your supporters?  Do you want personal one-on-one communications with them?  Mobile is ideal for cultivation and building loyalty.

Do you want to have a quick way to raise funds for a special project (e.g., $10,000 for new school computers this fall), or be ready for disaster relief fundraising?  Mobile is a fast action channel.

Do you want educational articles or resources available to people?  The American Cancer Society is gearing up to have health information at the fingertips of those who need it.  For example: If you just found out you had cancer and didn’t understand half of what the doctor just told you, you’ll start looking for more info fast.  Mobile searches make it available instantly while sitting in the car outside the doctor’s office.

Could your staff and/or volunteers work more efficiently – help more people – through mobile?  For example:  Coordinate the actions of your people in the field helping beneficiaries of your mission via text messages or alerts.

Do you want to boost email open rates and conversions?  Augment with mobile text messages.

3 – Adjust how you think and operate.  (This may be the toughest of all.)

Integrate all your databases. 

Break down the silos.  For example, think about how best to cultivate ALL donors and not online over here and direct mail over there by different staff members.  Have team meetings where your analytics, email, social, mobile and web people all show up and work toward common goals.

That ought to jump start your strategic thinking about mobile.

One last thought:  On February 16th I attended Nonprofit Mobile Day (DMANF in Washington, DC).  One of the speakers said this,

“If you believe in mobile you can do phenomenal things – regardless of size and budget.  But you must BELIEVE.  Everyone who tries it . . . loves it.”

Need more help understanding mobile?  Want a handy resource you can refer to that’s written for non-techies?  Get the “Mobile for Nonprofits” guide book you’ll find by clicking this link.

Yesterday I had a delightful phone interview with Jenifer Snyder, executive director of The mGive Foundation. She is very passionate about her work in helping nonprofits raise awareness, raise funds, and cultivate relationships with donors and prospects through the mobile channel.

mGive Foundation report on donor mobile behavior

Earlier today the Foundation published a press release announcing the results of a survey that examined the behavior of mobile text donors and how they like to use this channel: Text Giving Donor Survey Report.

It’s the first of its kind.

The Text Giving Donor Survey was commissioned by the Foundation; researched and written by CCS (consulting and management firm for nonprofits).

As Jen Snyder said during her interview with me, “There’s a lot of conjecture and speculation in the marketplace, but no authoritative metrics behind that data. We consider ourselves a leader in this arena and felt it was time to conduct this survey; to get some authoritative data.  Now we understand more about the demographics of donors and we can answer questions from nonprofits in an educated fashion.” 

Today I share highlights of the survey, insights from the discussion I had with Jen Snyder regarding the data, plus you can also listen to an excerpt of my interview with her.  I encourage you to take a few minutes to listen because we talk about aspects of the survey and how nonprofits can benefit from mobile that you won’t find in the report.

Highlights of the “Text Giving Donor Survey Report”

- “86% of respondents who give via text are willing to consider giving larger amounts via other channels.” In other words, a $5 or $10 text-to-give donation won’t keep them from giving more online, via direct mail, or other channels.

- Closely related to the previous bullet is this result: “79% of respondents who give to a nonprofit via text have also given to that same nonprofit via email, website or direct mail.”  They’re reporting what they have actually done as opposed to stating what they might do.  As surveys and research go, that’s an important distinction.

   This result also emphasizes the importance of integrated multi-channel campaigns.  And intetration applies equally to fundraising, advocacy, and cultivation.

- 66% are highly educated with undergraduate or graduate degrees

- 62% of respondents give to 2 or more nonprofits via text; and 12% give to 4 or more!

- The top two reasons cited for giving by text: 1) convenience, and 2) the giver was already connected to the organization’s cause.

Speaking of convenience . . . “Donors today are more sophisticated than ever. Donors want options when it comes to charitable giving, and they want to see the organizations they support incorporating new technologies to reach them more effectively,” shared CCS Operational Vice President, Peter Hoskow (firm that researched and wrote the survey commissioned by The mGive Foundation). 

Make it easy for the donors.  Give them choices.  Donate via direct mail, email, website, mobile, etc.  Remember, with mobile you’re part of a donor’s private world.  Mobile devices are how they communicate with friends and family, as well as look up where to eat and what to do (there’s an idea – make your nonprofit museum, concert hall, theater, wildlife refuge, etc. easy to find via mobile). 

Join donors, advocates, members and all your supporters in this very personal space known as mobile.

And don’t assume that only the teens and twenty-someones will engage with you via mobile.  Jen Snyder and I talked about this at some length.  First the data:

35% of respondents were Millennials (ages 16-33)
24% – Generation X (34-44)
23% – Boomers2 (45-55)
14% – Baby Boomers (56-65)
 4% – Seniors (66+)

Granted the majority of respondents were Millennials, but look at how evenly matched GenX and Boomers2 are (24% and 23%, respectively).  Here’s what Jen had to say about this:

“Having a better understanding of who mobile donors are – education levels, ages – I think that’s going to be critical.

Nonprofits are having a very difficult time attracting new donors, including Millennials.  Mobile is an excellent way to engage a different generation and needs to be part of a holistic strategy.

Our study confirms that mobile is most effective (at this moment in time) with Millennials.  But you’ve got GenX and Boomers heavily engaged as well.

The fact that this technology [mobile] is somewhat ubiquitous among all the different generations is critical and important going forward.”

And while we’re on the general topic of “engaging donors,” Jen and I also talked about cultivation during the interview.  For those of you who follow my blog and my newsletter, you know that using mobile for cultivation is the soap box I’m often on. 

Snyder agrees that, “Mobile is such an easy way to keep donors and constituents engaged.  Cultivating relationships and keeping them alive is critical so they stay with you over longer periods of time.  Use mobile to keep them feeling happy, connected and fulfilled.”  Yes, mobile is a tool/channel perfectly suited for cultivation.

I’ll publish more on my interview with Jen Snyder in future posts – parts of our discussion that went beyond the pure results of the mGive Foundatin survey.

But now you get the chance to hear for yourself some of Snyder’s comments from the interview.

Questions you’ll only hear answered in the interview are (i.e., this recorded discussion isn’t part of the Text Giving Donor Survey Report you can find at mGive.org):

1 – What’s the #1 question nonprofits ask about mobile; and how does the survey dispel the myth surrounding this question?

2 – Over 56% of survey respondents “rated their experience with text giving as excellent or good.”  I asked Jen Snyder how it can get better.  Any idea what’s missing that could raise that great number even higher than it already is?

3 – What do you [Jen Snyder] believe is the most important concept for nonprofits to understand about mobile?

Finally, I’ll close with another quote from CCS (mGive Foundation’s research partner in this survey): “Mobile giving can be an excellent vehicle for nonprofits to diversify their fundraising programs,” says Hoskow. 

Whether you want to add to your current understanding of mobile, or you need a tutorial to guide you from A-to-Z on what it is; how it works; and ALL the ways mobile can benefit your nonprofit . . .

Mobile for Nonprofits – Connecting to Donors Through the Power of Mobile

How do the results of this survey change your thoughts about nonprofits including mobile in the marketing, cultivation and fundraising mix?