Written by Ashley Hickman, Head of Supporter Experience at Scope
Ashley is a senior leader with 17 years’ experience in direct marketing and customer and brand experience. Having started her career in media and publishing, she moved to the charity sector in 2017, where she has worked in fundraising, marketing and supporter experience roles at organisations including Macmillan Cancer Support, Cancer Research UK and Leonard Cheshire.
We can all agree that a good supporter experience is important. It’s no longer a concept spoken about by senior managers as an extraordinary new way to help retain supporters. Clearly – there’s a conference dedicated to it this week.
Sure, there may sometimes still be discussions in some places about who ‘owns’ the supporter experience. But the truth is, we can all own it.
Supporter experience really is for everyone
Talk to Each Other
Sounds a bit silly, right? But do you know what Jane in the policy team is communicating to supporters this week? Or what Joe in the comms team is writing in a press release? If you do, great! But chances are there are a fair few of us who don’t. So, get in a room together, share your plans, and join up your communications. Not only does having a single voice strengthen your message, but it also reduces duplication. Because, let’s face it, it’s nicer to tweak something that’s already written for your audience than it is to write it from scratch.
Use Your Data Wisely
We love data as fundraisers. We need data as fundraisers. But how often do we really have the time to sit down and get close to our data? Do you have a data model? Do you know how your supporters engage with you? The truth is, not everyone does. So, look at your data. Do some top line analysis. Find out what your supporters have done for you in the last year. And then ask them to do it again or find something else to ask them to do. If you have the budget, invest in a single-supporter-view to do that for you. Get to know your data and ultimately know your supporters better.
Many of us will be sending a monthly newsletter to our supporters. But how often do your supporters actually read that monthly email? In a world that is ever more digitally connected, it’s ever more important that we stay relevant to our supporters. So, why wait for another month to send an email? Take those good news stories, impact statistics and fun facts and send them every other week. Heck, send an email every week. Supporters may not read every single one. But just seeing them in their inbox is a form of engaging, and keeping supporters engaged is key to a good supporter experience.
So, there you have it. Look at your data, talk to your colleagues and talk to your supporters. There really is always something nice and easy that any of us can do to improve the supporter experience.
Learn more about our Supporter Experience Conference here
