data Archives | Bee Measure

November 12, 2019 By Erin Cafferty

Boost Donations for the Holidays, Google’s New Privacy Tools & 1-Click Donation Forms

This newsletter has been following political advertising on FACEBOOK since the Cambridge Analytica story broke. And the controversy hasn’t stopped since. With Twitter’s announcement that it’s banning political advertising, the focus is now on FACEBOOK.

My feelings about this are too mixed to fit into one bite-sized intro. But banning political advertising outright isn’t a real solution. This hurts new, upstart candidates who need a way to get their message out. The real issue, in my opinion, is exactly what makes FACEBOOK advertising so attractive in the first place: the ability to hone in on a very specific audience. (It’s especially appealing to budget-strapped nonprofits trying to reach a certain demographic or potential donors).

Unfortunately, it’s also what makes political advertising so problematic. It’s hard to debate what politicians are promoting there if you can’t actually see the other side’s ads. I doubt the answer is as easy as “more visibility,” but it’s a start.

‘Tis the Season For Giving

You are probably sick of hearing aquaintances floundering for small talk remark on how the holiday season starts earlier each year, so I’m going to cut to the point. Thanksgiving is coming, and you really need to figure out your year-end digital fundraising. While this article is directed toward boosting holiday sales, it also applies to boosting holiday donations! I absolutely love the advice to use Google Search Ads to build an audience and use Facebook to close them.

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June 11, 2019 By Erin Cafferty

Google’s Data Studio Updates, Location Ranking & Tinder for Clothes

Google’s Data Studio Just Got a Bit Better

Google’s Data Studio is a pretty sharp (and free) way to create dashboards and visualizations from your Google Analytics data and other data sets. But it’s always been limited in what it can do. However, the program has received some fun product updates in the past few months. My favorite new features are custom data range comparisons and the Tableau-esque ability to drill down in charts. So far, I’ve used this new feature to create more useful maps. Now, dashboard viewers can drill into details about which states and cities their users are located.

Ads, They Know Us Better Than We Know Ourselves

There is a growing interest in the idea of personalization and privacy in the online age. This caught the eye of the New York Times, who decided to conduct its own digital advertising experiment to show how far advertisers go to collect and use our information. My main takeaway is that we have a choice to make: either we all agree to be targeted by hyper-personalized ads that are more relevant to us or we need to create and pass more stringent data privacy laws.

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April 26, 2019 By Erin Cafferty

Better Brand Awareness, Tracking Abandoned Forms & Unraveling the Marvel Universe

Cookies: Sinful or Secure?

This article is a TLDR version of Safari’s latest ITP (Intelligent Tracking Prevention) initiative. If your job involves digital communications, it deserves at least a quick glance. These changes are great for user security and privacy, but not great for people trying to understand their website users. Prior to this change, Google Analytics cookies expired after two years. That means — theoretically at least— you’d recognize a repeat visitors to your site even if their previous visit was 23 months prior. ITP means that cookies expire after a week. Now when someone doesn’t visit your site for two weeks, their next visit is counted as a new user all over again. Basically, if your organization has goals around growing an “audience of loyal users who visit the site once or twice a month,” Safari’s making it a lot harder to measure your progress.

Europeans, They Are Just Like Us

This newsletter is a sucker for survey results. This time, European charities tell Salesforceabout their marketing challenges. Here are my favorite stats: For 75% of nonprofits in Europe, “raising awareness of their cause” was the top reason to use social media. But 96% (!) said they aren’t using digital marketing “to its fullest potential.” What’s holding them back? These organizations report struggling with selecting the right social platforms, using paid search (including their Google Ad Grant) and measuring outcomes.

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August 17, 2018 By Emily Patterson

Fundraising Gamer Style, Writing Better Content & Why No One Likes SEO

Good Content Keeps ’em Coming Back
It is easy to get caught up in increasing website traffic and forget that you need quality content to keep them there – and get them to return. This recent Forbes article reminds us of common mistakes nonprofits make in developing content. First, stop copying your print materials. What works in a flyer isn’t right for online. If volunteers help maintain your website and social media, be sure to train them on style and content. Finally, good writing is important. Just because someone is an expert on a topic, does not mean they can write well about it. Don’t be afraid to get out your red pen (or activate Word’s track changes).

Making a Game out of Fundraising
Bored with the same old silent auctions, 5Ks and Facebook fundraisers? The brave new frontier of digital fundraising is in gaming. According to this article in Nonprofit Quarterly, game company Activision Blizzard donated nearly $13 million to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) through their online game, Overwatch. Blizzard, which makes World of Warcraft, sold limited edition avatar skins as well as merchandise like t-shirts for players. Another game company recruited champion players to livestream their gameplay, donating tips from viewers to a charitable cause.

Poor, Misunderstood SEO
If you don’t really understand what SEO is, you aren’t alone (even outside the nonprofit marketing world). A recent survey found that businesses ranked search engine optimization (SEO) as the “least popular digital marketing channel.” Only 44% of respondents named SEO as part of their online marketing strategy (social media, website and email were the three most popular.) The researchers expressed surprise over this finding, attributing the lack of popularity to a misunderstanding of SEO and the fact that results from SEO efforts often take some time to show.

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