Conversations Still Work: Over the Phone Acquisition Programming

Telemarketing is thought of as a channel best suited for re-engaging lapsed donors, renewal appeals, and asks for monthly giving. A recent case study of an over the phone campaign with the American Civil Liberties proved that it works for acquisition, too! Given the rising costs of direct mail acquisition campaigns and a constantly shifting landscape for paid search and digital acquisition, donors acquired over the phone are increasingly more competitive in terms of both their ROI and likelihood to become monthly givers.

In this presentation we’ll discuss how a grassroots-style fundraising effort for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was successful in generating over three thousand new supporters over the phone. You’ll learn how the American Civil Liberties union achieved a remarkable return on investment, with net acquisition costs ranging from a modest $2 to $25 per donor. We cover the program from top to bottom: reviewing how the campaign employed a multi-channel approach to create a “surround sound effect” with specific list sourcing, the types of acquisition packages used, and the scoring system used for the list building process. We’ll review how the script process kept up with a changing political landscape, our unique training program for entirely in-house callers, and the messaging strategies for both email and paper fulfillment. Importantly, we cover how we addressed concern over the ethics of over the phone prospecting and brand reputation for the American Civil Liberties Union.

We discuss how telemarketing, given its age, has a large amount of historical data that help guide decision-making on when and how to engage these donors on becoming sustainers. We will highlight the trends in how TM responsive these donors are expected to be for future telemarketing initiatives and how to further increase the ROI from an over the phone acquisition program.