Click & Pledge Tech Scoop

Predictable Giving: Best Time To Send An E-Mail Solicitation?

It is Wednesday at 4 p.m. and you have worked for two weeks on an appeal email.  After careful review, you decide that the appeal campaign is ready to go.  But is the timing right?  Is it best if I send the email to arrive late in the week?  Or should I delay the launch until Monday…or late Sunday night?  

We all struggle with questions about the perfect time to launch a campaign.  So, when should you send the email and ask for donations?

Two years of data say “NO” to a launch late in the week.  Here are data that will help guide you with your decision:

Based on our analysis the best time to send a solicitation is Monday and given the statistics shown in the previous posting, perhaps the best time is 9 or 10 a.m.

E-mail solicitations arriving on a Monday at 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. take advantage of the best hours.  You will benefit from the Tuesday and Wednesday higher than average giving potential for those that act on emails a day or two after receipt.Of course your experience might be different.  When do you think solicitation emails or appeals should be sent?

It is 1 p.m. Do you know where your donors are?

So far we have profiled Joe123@aol.com  and tried to decide if going on a blind date with him is a good idea.

Next, let’s use Click & Pledge’s data from the last 2 years determine when Joe123@aol.com is most likely to donate.   Consider the following chart:

Based on total donations given over the last 2 years, one observes an almost normal distribution when most donations are given between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Now let’s consider the giving behavior of Democrats versus Republicans during the same time span.  The following chart provides insight into giving by Democrats:

The normal distribution also appears with Democratic Party supporters.

The following illustrates the giving pattern of Republicans:

Interestingly, the pattern for Republican supporters does not follow the normal distribution.  It appears that Republicans engage the web later at night compared to the Democrats.

Why is this so?  What can we say about the observed patterns and how can it be used effectively in your fundraising campaigns?

Love to hear your take on this.

Digital assets: Are AOL users more conservative?

In the first part of this series I showed the stats on how people using different email providers may differ from each other (or do they?).   The following are a few obvious observations:

• Mac.com domain shows the highest average donation per transaction.  Could it be that Apple users are wealthier on average than an average PC user?   Or simply more generous in nature?
• Gmail & Yahoo users contribute more than other users.  This is in-line with MailChimp findings that these two domains have the highest opening rate of emails relative to other domains.  If these users are more engaged with the web then it is only natural for them to give more online.  Perhaps they donate least through the traditional mailing campaigns.

So should a political candidate or a nonprofit target email domains differently when soliciting donations through the web or email campaigns?

I think we need to look at the data through another filter.  The data are anonymized as stated in the previous post and are a random selection of donations received from the last 2 years at Click & Pledge.

Look at the following 2 graphs:

Average donation size to four political parties by each domain:

The following is the relative donation volume (number of donations) to each political party by each domain.  The data are normalized by the highest volume in the series.

What do you think the data show?  If you have an AOL account are you more likely to be a Democrat or a Republican?

If you have a website & someone with an AOL account registers, would you change the content to fit the probable profile?

Is it a good idea to change the content of general marketing emails according to the domain the email is being sent to?

John Zogby, in his book “The Way We’ll Be” states:  “After Wal-Mart, conservatives prefer Sears” [p 8].  Can the same be said about domain names?

What do you think?

Digital assets: what do they say about you?

As much as we try not to judge a book by its cover or a person by his or her appearance, at times we can’t help it.  Some people look at a man wearing a Rolex watch and an Armani jacket and think he is educated and rich while others  look at the same person and say – how can he spend so much money on clothing  - he must be insecure.

Regardless of which camp you are in, it is hard not to pass judgment by simply looking at a person.   Most people care about what others think about them.  This is how we act in person, but what about our digital assets?  How do we look on the web?

Is it possible that our digital assets such as emails, userid’s, passwords, avatars, and other signature traits that define us digitally on the web are also saying something more personal about us?

Will you choose your next blind date by their email domain?

At Click & Pledge, we can’t give you any dating advice, but through a little analysis from the last 2 years of donations the data reveal some very interesting behavioral trends.

Take a look at the following data sets and charts.     Following your review, I would like to know your opinion.  A few things about the data sets:

• The data sets are anonymized by removing the last name and any personal identifiable information.
• The sample is a random selection of all data we have in our database in 2008-2009.
• The data are limited to donations made in the United States to organizations located in the United States.
• Data are normalized with respect to the highest number in the set to make comparisons easier.

I was interested in comparing the personality traits and behavior of email users.  Are we able to predict someone’s traits and behavior simply by identifying their email provider?

Of course there are a lot more questions that one may ask but I would like to limit this entry with only the above question.

So here we go:

The following shows the average size of donations ($/transactions) received by email domains, e.g. Mac.com, aol.com, gmail.com, etc.

What do you think the data show?

The following chart shows the relative donation volume for each email domain:

What do you think the data show?

The following shows the total amount of donations made by donors using emails with each domain.

What do you think the data show?

After looking at the data I did a simple web search to see if anyone else has done a similar work and came across the following:

• http://mashable.com/2009/09/08/gmail-more-engaged/

What do you see with the MailChimp data & analysis and how does it compare with our data?