Learn How a Global Nonprofit That Provides Disaster Relief Creates a More Personalized Experience with Marketing Cloud

The Challenges

Our client in the nonprofit sector provides humanitarian assistance and disaster relief around the globe. By partnering with local communities, organizations, and governments, our client is able to deliver culturally relevant programs and build local capability for sustainable change. Because our client relies largely on donations to sustain their programs and operations, reaching potential donors at the right time with the right message is crucial for success.

Before working with our team, our client wasn’t utilizing all of the features and functionality that Marketing Cloud has to offer and needed help with streamlining and automating their marketing processes. Because our client wasn’t using the product to its full capacity, they were struggling with their marketing efforts, including increasing engagement with both current and prospective donors.

Another challenge our client faced was not being able to properly bring over data from their CRM to Marketing Cloud due to issues with their API connector. They needed assistance with cleaning up their data to ensure accuracy of information and that email subscribers were not receiving emails they had opted out of. Our client also wanted to improve engagement with their email communications and needed direction in terms of their email marketing strategy. 

The Solution

After meeting with our client to understand their unique needs as a global nonprofit organization, both our client and the KA team decided that Salesforce Managed Services was the right fit. With Managed Services, we focus on not only ongoing support, but also the long-term strategy of our client’s Salesforce roadmap. Our team team acts as an extension of the client’s team with the goal of helping our clients make decisions on strategic initiatives by providing expert advice and recommendations. After learning about our client’s business processes and getting the right stakeholders involved, we were able to provide recommendations for how Marketing Cloud can be best utilized by our client.

To improve our client’s messaging and email strategy, we developed a Four Pillar data segmentation solution to segment data according to four categories of interest (Health, Emergency, Livelihood, Education). By developing this data segmentation solution, our client can create custom emails with messaging tailored to fit the interests of their current and prospective donors. This involved developing a custom preference center where donors can select which emails they’re interested in receiving. By giving donors the flexibility to opt in and out of emails, the likelihood of them engaging with emails increases because they’re receiving content that fits their interest and needs.

We also developed a double-opt in process for emails to increase engagement. Creating a double opt-in solution requires subscribers to confirm their email address by clicking a link in an email they receive after subscribing. This ensures that our client is sending emails to individuals who are actually interested in receiving their content. Our client was struggling with spam emails, and the double opt-in process also helped them greatly reduce their spam email numbers. 

We also provided data cleanup to ensure that subscriber data in our client’s CRM and Marketing Cloud is accurate and updated in real-time. Part of this process involved a custom solution to ensure our client’s API connector was passing data correctly between our client’s CRM and Marketing Cloud. A significant number of our client’s subscribers would opt out of an email in Marketing Cloud, but this information wasn't being passed over correctly to their CRM. This caused many users to receive emails they didn’t want in their inbox and frustration among donors who had opted out of certain newsletters. By ensuring the API connector is passing data correctly between the two systems, our client is no longer at risk of not meeting email standards or losing potential donors due to receiving duplicate or unwanted emails.

Customer Impact

Before working with Kelley Austin, our client wasn’t taking full advantage of all of the benefits that Marketing Cloud has to offer. After meeting with our team of experts and deciding that Managed Services was the best fit for their organization, we were able to offer strategic guidance and support with their Marketing Cloud instance.

This involved developing a data segmentation solution to help our client tailor their messaging to current and prospective donors based on interest in specific areas of their organization. We also built a custom preference center that allows users to opt in and out of specific newsletters.

Connecting with current and prospective donors with messaging that fits their interests and past donation efforts has allowed our client to create a more personalized experience — improving both donor retention and planned giving numbers.

To help our client increase email engagement rates and reduce the number of spam emails, we developed a custom double opt-in solution. Subscribers now have to confirm their email address after opting into a newsletter, which has helped improve open rates and overall engagement.

We also developed a custom solution to ensure our client’s API connector was properly configured to pass data between our client’s CRM and Marketing Cloud. This has helped our client improve their email marketing strategy by ensuring that contact information is accurate and subscriber lists are correctly updated in both systems. 

By leveraging the full power of Marketing Cloud with tailored messaging, Journeys and automations, and a cohesive email marketing strategy, our client can now reach the right people at the right time. Connecting with current and prospective donors with messaging that fits their interests and past donation efforts has allowed our client to create a more personalized experience — improving both donor retention and planned giving numbers.