Optimize! How Human Rights Watch Grew 30+% with Design, Email and Testing Optimization Matthew Rullo, Human Rights Watch Joe Mclaughlin, Beaconfire RED Elise Ledsinger, Engaging Networks

Hello!

“Do the best you can until you know better “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” – Maya Angelou

Find your Baseline How have you performed in previous years? How are you performing THIS year? Website visitors One-time v. recurring gifts Bounce rates Average gift Email list size Retention rates Open/click-thru rates Actions taken Unsubscribe rate Social media followers Revenue

Enhanced Google Analytics Tracking

Revenue Contribution by Digital Channel

Build a Collaborative Environment

Website “Optimization”

Increasing Conversions from Homepage: Test 1 The orange banner increased site-wide unique page views to the donation form by 4.9%.

Increasing Conversions from Homepage: Test 2 The image banner increased the percentage of people who navigated from the homepage to a donation form by 12.82%.

Page Testing = Multi-variable page testing that serves up different versions of your landing page to optimize performance.

Increasing Landing Page Conversions control = direct to donation form

Landing Page Test - 1 positive splash page donation form

Landing Page Test - 2 negative splash page donation form

Results The landing pages achieved a 17.9% conversion rate lift over the control The positive variation achieved a 14.7% engagement rate improvement The negative variation achieved a 15.5% engagement rate improvement

Donation Page Test 1 vs.

Donation Page Test 2 vs.

Splash Pages are your Friend

Splash Pages The page of a website that the user sees first before being given the option to continue to the main content of the site. http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Splash-Page-for-a-Website

Mobile-optimized Email Template 27% increase in revenue 51% higher average gift

Engaging Networks Clients 2016

Campaign Concepts The biggest driver of email revenue increase had to do with being timely & responsive to news items that we knew HRW supporters would care about (i.e. the refugee crisis). This has continued to affect our email strategy with HRW in the months since (e.g. how we were able to shift into ‘rapid response’ mode after Trump election & inauguration).  In FY15, year-end accounted for 89% of all email revenue. In FY16, by leveraging more responsive-style campaigns, we were able to raise 46% of email revenue outside of year-end campaign.

Scaling Up Advertising

= 2x CPA compared to “Take a stand…” Facebook Retargeting “Help combat…” = 2x CPA compared to “Take a stand…”

Web Retargeting Run-of-web banner retargeting CRM and site pixel-based

Ad Creative Examples

Advertising Donor Acquisition Examples Facebook lookalike Upload email list to Facebook Donor ask in ads Donor acquisition/prospecting first tested during fiscal year-end campaign. After 12 months on file, average donor value has increased appx. 58% (from $44.18 when acquired to $69.90). o   Cohort was ROI positive within appx. 6 months o   Provided strong enough upfront return that we invested heavily in this channel this fiscal year (in particular right after Trump election & inauguration)

Results! Email revenue increased 237% year-over-year Paid advertising became a huge revenue driver during this first year of aggressive media. Accounted for 15% of all digital revenue in FY16 (up from 0.37% previous year). Web optimizations helped to reverse the downward trend in conversion seen immediately after the site redesign. Jan-June we saw a 26% year-over-year increase in number of web gifts.

Engaging Networks Client: MS Society UK 29% increase in conversion 30% increase in revenue

Don’t forget to visit the Thank You! rullom@hrw.org Joe.Mclaughlin@beaconfire-red.com elise@engagingnetworks.net Don’t forget to visit the Solutions Showcase! Many of the ideas discussed today are on display at the Solutions Showcase!