Launch Debrief
Last Friday, I wrapped my first ever Sprint Week on a topic that I swore I’d never teach on: How to find New Donors.
I chose a “Sprint Week” vs launching a course is because I’m better live. I also get more energy out of teaching live vs a recording. Furthermore, I read a stat that explained 70% of people who buy courses don’t finish them. No shade on courses (I have one too), but the combination of all of that made me want to try this new modality.
After much resistance, I decided to chose a topic around the #1 question I get asked: how nonprofits can find new donors. In this way - it was the epitome of listening to my audience - which I didn’t want to give into for the better part of the last two years.
I resisted teaching on this topic because if you’re a fundraiser, you already know: it’s the wrong question to be asking. But after having hundreds of conversations with nonprofits of all shapes and sizes, I’ve realized sometimes folks just literally just need new donors. Specifically, if they are just getting started, they have a horrible retention rate or they are rapidly expanding - they need new blood. And I saw a gap for teaching them that skill.
Finally, over the last 12 months, I’ve been rethinking my business in terms of an ascension model. For example, I have a course/group hybrid program called Campaigns that Convert. I thought to myself, “What do my folks need to know BEFORE buying Campaigns that Convert?” I realized that they can have the best campaign in the world, but if they don’t have donors (specifically, warm ones) it will be all but impossible for them to be successful. Even though it was built out of order, the New Donor Sprint Week will become the first stepping stone in my offer suite before moving up the ladder towards Campaigns that Convert.
Here are the nitty-gritty details:
4 day, live Sprint Week, 2 hours each day live
Price: $197 with a $97 up sell
Goal: 50 attendees
Email list segment: 2,100 (not my full list, but a majority)
Social media followers: 2,400
The ramp up:
Unlike nearly all of my previous live launches, - I narrowed my focus BIG TIME. For the 5 weeks leading up to my launch - I didn’t discuss anythng that wasn’t about finding new donors. Not 👏 a 👏 thing 👏. Every blog post, opt-in, social post, email - it was all pointing to new donors. Period. Def a smart move (I think) because it felt smooth when it came time to selling (vs. out of the blue)
For my warm up, I did three things:
I pushed people to a free workshop (where I pitched live)
I pushed out a revised opt-in (Quickstart Guide)
I pushed out a New Donor Calculator (this was brand new)
Overall, I think all three worked, but I wish I would have recruited more people to the live workshop (we had about 110 sign ups). I think people are overloaded with free content right now because while only 40-ish people showed up live, over 129 folks have watched the replay.
Another thing I tried was a 3-week open-cart period. In the past, I’ve done 7-14 days, but the truth is in our sector - people can’t/don’t just throw down their credit card. They need approvals (yes, even for a $197 product). I’ll do this again for sure and was amazed that 9 sign-ups came in the last 24 hours.
Finally, I didn’t do any paid ads, which is normal for me. Next time, I might experiment with running ads to my free workshop next time, but I’ve found that people really want to get to know me, my vibe, my style and my results before purchasing anything, at any price from me.
What worked:
I’ll be honest, with a week before cart-closing, I was bummed at the number of sign ups I had. After complaining to my community manager, she reminded me that people need a individual nudge sometimes. So I went to work on the 1:1 outreach - something I haven’t really done in the past. I followed up on DMs, I sent text messages and emails and I put up polls in my IG stories that gave me a reason to reach out to people. I also followed up. Anyone who had told me they were going to buy, I made sure to circle back with the link. This might come as a shock, but I realize now that I’ve been pretty passive at selling the past and have room for improvement for sure.
Another thing that worked really well for this specific offer was encouraging nonprofit leaders and Executive Directors to send their team members vs. themselves. It’s amazing to me that they didn’t think of it on their own, but once I suggested it they were like, “Brilliant!”. I know that doesn’t work for everyone or every nonprofit organization, but for someone who is constantly telling folks to stop trying to do it all - this was helpful for them to hear.
Challenges:
Ugh - what would a launch be without it’s challenges, right? I’ll admit, I’m feeling frustrated that I’m still converting at only 1% (I know it’s in the “normal” range). I’ve been consistent and showing up with value for 2.5 years, my email list is strong - open rates above 45+%, engagement on social is high. I’m starting to realize, maybe that’s where I should set my expectations vs. what we see online sometimes in the for-profit world.
This launch was a good reminder that just like folks need new donors, I need to be bringing in new community members…always. It’s a good thing visibility is my #1 Q1 goal.
Finally, because this was the first go around - I had ZERO testimonials. I’m looking forward to re-launching this offer again and not having to overcome that challenge for the next round.
The results:
28 sales
$5,516 in revenue
26 of the 28 orgs paid in full
The live show up rate was super high - 75%-90% each day
Nonprofits ranged in budgets of $100k/year to $20M+/year
I’m an open book and really believe in transparency. This was my 10+ live launch and it’s fascinating to me that I’m still learning how to do these well. Happy to answer any and all questions.