WVIA Media

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About WVIA Media

WVIA is a Pennsylvania affiliate for both NPR and PBS. With offices in Pittston, PA, it’s an ongoing and expected challenge for public radio and television affiliates to raise funds for the upcoming year. With the increased volume of fundraising solicitations, all organizations must look for new and creative ways to seek the support of first-time and repeat donors. It was from this need that WVIA and, specifically the Major Giving Officer, John Farkas, first found their way to IgnitePOST.

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Challenge: How to retain customers and generate repeat business

Common among most public radio and public television affiliates, WVIA does not have a large staff. This means the efficiency and effectiveness of any fundraising effort are paramount. The automated features involved in the IgnitePOST platform are substantial time-savers, which allows for more time either optimizing campaigns or, in this case, moving on to other things.

Fundraising campaigns aren’t quite the same as sales campaigns. In the world of fundraising, a string of ineffective campaigns could lead to horrible results, including the end of the organization. These campaigns have to build trust, and they have to capitalize on that trust to show results. We’re pleased to say, the report we received from John indicated that the IgnitePOST campaign WVIA sent did exactly that.

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The Strategy: Personalized handwritten cards to surprise and delight donors

Every campaign starts with a list, but choosing a quality list leads to the best results. If you have the luxury of obtaining a quality list, you can expect above-average results. However, WVIA didn’t really do that - they began with what they had and uploaded a list of 400 leads whom they had received recently, but had not established much, or in some cases any, contact.

They decided to reach out to their list with a highly personalized handwritten note from IgnitePOST.  The thought was to provide a ‘white glove’ treatment to their potential donors, especially since this would be the first impression of the organization.

To track results each handwritten card was personalized and contained both a contact phone number and email address for the recipient to call or email.

Taking this approach allowed WVIA to create an extremely personalized, trackable, mail campaign that would uphold the thoughtfulness that an initial touchpoint should convey.

Set up was easy and WVIA was able to execute this campaign by hardly lifting a finger.

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Results and Analysis: 40% response rate with record donations for WVIA

The results were far more substantial than we could have ever hoped!

Fully 40% of the people, 160 individuals, responded to this single effort of outreach. In the current climate, to see close to 50% response from a cold marketing campaign is unheard of with nearly every method of outreach. Email can’t do this, phone calls won’t do this. Personalized, handwritten mail from IgnitePOST, however, can and does.

The goal, of course, is to cultivate these relationships over time and turn interest into support. How much easier would the role of a fundraiser be if IgnitePOST were in everyone’s toolbox? WVIA operated one of the most successful campaigns they’d ever done, and the results speak for themselves.

IgnitePOST allowed John and WVIA to be more effective and more efficient. What can our platform do for you?

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In their own words:

“[I] used the incredible tools from your company to launch a personalized letter campaign to over 400 donors. The results were remarkable with over 40% reaching back out and wanting to learn more about an organization they have had very little contact with. I would love to share how a simple personal note can make all the difference when cultivating donors and building relationships...

— John F. - Major and Planned Giving Officer, WVIA

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Want to see the IgnitePOST Product Catalog so you can follow along with the various techniques we’re describing? Click the following button to download the overview and follow along:

DOWNLOAD THE PRODUCT OVERVIEW CATALOG & FOLLOW ALONG

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About IgnitePOST

IgnitePOST helps brands create magic moments for their customers. Our real pen and ink handwritten notes cut through the digital noise to surprise and delight customers exactly where they are in their shopping journeys.

Our intelligent software integrates with existing systems for easy set up and our robotics work at massive scale using ballpoint pens to give warmth to each note.

This software-hardware combination generates perfectly timed and crafted moments that drive customers to action as proven by our above industry average conversion rates.

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Contact us

For more information, or if you have any questions, please contact us! We want to hear from you: hello@ignitepost.com

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