Video and the Conversation

I have seen a number of terrific videos for fundraising in the last couple of months. One point, with clear messages and a call to action that carries clear meaning weight and importance. In several cases I was interested enough to reach out to the office that was using it and ask about the results.

To my great surprise not one of the 4 that I took this action with had produced more than a small handful of gifts and none of them produced any money beyond participation level support. That set of results is in clear contrast to the message and flow of the videos and this got me to thinking. Why aren't these communications that do everything that we have been taught needs to be included in a piece providing results?

Investigating further, I found a very common theme very quickly - nobody was watching them. In each case, they had launched a campaign using email to push the video and in each case they were planning for that email to stand alone. Rather than utilizing a multimedia cross platform approach to get as many eyeballs on the message as possible each was pushing the video through electronic means to the exclusion of all others. In one case they had sent email to upwards of 50,000 alumni and had a total of 139 views at a cost of more than $7,000 for the video production and a total of 7 gifts for less than $200.

By implementing a simple mailing to those who are most mail responsive and integrating that video into other appeals, be it as a PS or a follow up email or letter from a phone program call, you can leverage your video, utilize it for a much longer period of time and get folks who are warm and interested to watch it. This will dramatically increase your opens and ultimately your gifts.