Audience Segmentation Tips for Your Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Emails
This article was originally posted on NonProfit PRO’s blog.
Last month, I shared tips on how to find the right timing for your peer-to-peer fundraising email communications. They included key points from a five-session email communications workshop I presented with peer-to-peer fundraising experts as part of the virtual conference, It’s a Peer-to-Peer World.
In the last part of the second session, Kari Bodell and Julie Brock from Susan G. Komen and Joann Buckley Collins from Event 360 shared tips on email segmentation.
Here are some key ideas from the session:
Segmentation is about talking to different audiences in different ways, depending on who they are and how they might be interested in your cause. Email communications are most effective when you personalize the message, information, and asks based on what you know about the audience.
Segmentation is different for the purposes of recruitment versus participant engagement. Here are some of aspects you can segment on for the two different purposes:
| Recruitment | Engagement |
| Connection to organization – Have they given, raised funds for, or been an advocate for your organization? Connection to cause – Are they personally connected to the cause, participating because of a friend or family member, or are they just in it for the activity? Location – Where do they live? (This will tell you if they must travel to your event versus if they are local.) List source – How did you get their contact information?(Depending on how you got it, they might or might not be familiar with your organization or your event.) Interactions with communications – Are they opening and reading your emails? | Fundraising – What is their fundraising history and current fundraising status? Connection to event – Are they new to your event, a second-time participant, or a loyal repeat participant? Connection to cause – Are they personally connected to the cause, participating because of a friend or family member, or are they just in it for the activity? Current team status – Are they a team captain, team member, or individual? Other – What is their participation type, donor status, age, location, (or other information you might have asked them at registration)? |
With these segmentations in mind, here are some that are often most useful for each event type (see my article about email timing for a definition of each event type):
| Fundraising | Awareness | Activity-based | High commitment |
| Current fundraising Participation history Historical fundraising Team status | Participation type Team status Participation history | Team status Connection to cause/list source | Participation history Current fundraising Team status Historical fundraising |
Segmentation is about more than just content
Keep in mind that segmentation is about more than just what message you send to which audience. It’s also about timing and frequency. For example, you would send emails less frequently to someone who likely only wants to sign up for a local 5K run than someone with a deep connection to your organization’s cause. Team captains might get a different email series with more emails than an individual participant.
Learn more
Targeting your messages to the right audience (with the right timing and frequency) is an important aspect of successful peer-to-peer fundraising. Learn more tips and best practices for building strong email communications for your next peer-to-peer fundraising campaign or event: Watch the on-demand Email Communications Workshop from the 2021 edition of It’s a Peer-to-Peer world virtual conference.
