Beyond the Conversion: Building Long-Term Relationships with Your Supporters. Reading Time: 3 minutes
Congratulations, you’ve successfully converted some of your audience from subscribers to supporters! It’s an exciting milestone, but the work is far from over. In fact, building long-term relationships with your supporters is just as important as converting them in the first place.
Think of your marketing map as a journey from meeting new people to entering a long-term relationship. That means…
Phase 1: Reach = putting yourself out there to meet new people
Phase 2: Subscriber Engage = dating
Phase 3: Convert = the wedding
Phase 4: Supporter Engage = the long-term marriage relationship (And this is what we’re talking about today.)
Once someone has become a supporter, it’s time to offer them a deeper relationship with your organization. You’re still building trust, affinity, and excitement, but your goals for this phase are slightly different. I break it down into three parts:
Ascension First, you want to ascend the value of each supporter—help them engage further. Just because they volunteered or donated doesn’t have to be the end of their support. That initial conversion could be the first of many (if you know how to encourage the next best step).
Make sure your supporters know what other options exist for them to be involved. You can pull these options from your tiers in Phase 3: Convert.
Retention Remember, your goal is to create mutually beneficial long-term relationships. And long-term relationships require intentional effort and thoughtful communication over time. Keep in regular contact with your supporters to build trust and keep them engaged.
Identity It's essential to help your supporters identify with your cause so that they feel a sense of pride and ownership in their involvement. In addition, when people identify with your mission or brand, they naturally tell others about it, creating a ripple effect that can spread the word about your cause.
To achieve these goals of ascension, retention, and identity, you must include ongoing nurture opportunities, triggered communication, and campaigns. So, let’s break these down further.
Ongoing Nurture First, think about how you can continually nurture your supporters. For example, do you send a regular newsletter? Or occasional time-sensitive updates? Do you have a private network for supporters?
Triggered Communication Second, you need to include triggered communication. What does someone automatically receive after donating or volunteering? Is there an automated check-in after three months or on their anniversary? Do you send out birthday messages?
Campaigns Finally, you should run scheduled campaigns that focus on this audience. For example, are you intentionally asking your one-time donors to consider giving monthly? Or are you asking volunteers to consider donating?
You may have a separate team that handles subscriber communication (e.g., a donor relations team instead of the marketing communications team.) You should segment your supporters in various ways, such as by giving history, communication preferences, and interests. Some segments warrant very one-on-one communication, while others can remain one-to-many.
And remember, just like Phase 2: Subscriber Engage, people move at different speeds through levels of engagement. And that’s okay.
So, the honeymoon may be over, but the love is still strong. Building long-term relationships with your supporters takes effort and intention, but it’s worth it. Keep nurturing those relationships and watch your organization thrive.
Today's Action:
1. Create a spreadsheet with the following four columns (see example below):
Engagement Type
Activity
Audience
Notes
2. Fill in your spreadsheet with the engagement activity you currently use.
3. Ask yourself, “What else could we be doing to engage our subscribers at different levels of commitment?” and add that to your spreadsheet.
By the end of this series, you’ll have five spreadsheet tabs that map the intentional actions you need to take for each step of your Relational Marketing Map.
What's Inspiring Us Do you consider yourself an original thinker?
✅ The right amount (but not too much) of procrastination can actually generate more creativity.
✅ Self-doubt is paralyzing, but idea-doubt is energizing.
✅ The greatest originals are the ones who fail the most because they try the most.
And the best takeaway: Anyone can become an “original!” Adam’s talk sparked a great conversation during our staff meeting about how we uniquely approach work tasks and creativity.
If you’ve never watched his talk, I recommend checking it out over your lunch break for some inspiration.
Your digital marketer neighbors,
Ben, Janelle &Chris Nonprofit Amplifier
Next Steps When you’re ready, here are 2 ways we can help you grow your nonprofit and amplify your mission:
Unlimited Marketing for Nonprofits - Get unlimited marketing and creative services from a team of nonprofit marketing experts who care about advancing your mission for less than the cost (and hassle) of hiring a full-time marketer.
Free Workshop Replay - Watch this replay to get help mapping your ideal audience journey using the Relational Marketing Map. You’ll learn the critical actions you need at each step to build valuable long-term relationships with your audience.
