Pay, Stay, and Refer

This is one of my favorite topics because it is the heart and soul of Magnetic Marketing!

It’s relatively simple. You want your customers, clients, donors, and/or sponsors to do this. You want them to pay for the benefit of supporting your mission. You want them to stay with you and continue to fund your programs for as long as possible. And you certainly want them to refer others to you.

Well, it’s easy to say, not so easy to do. Let’s break it down into bite-sized pieces.

Pay – It starts with identifying your ideal prospect so that you don’t end up shouting “GIVE ME MONEY” all the time to a public already bombarded by nearly 1500 messages daily. They’re deaf to it. By messaging only those that will resonate with you, you must be very specific about whom you are targeting. Think of it like this. Say you’re a coach for speakers, and you target speakers nationwide.

We know there are +/- 3500 registered speakers in the National Speakers Association, but that’s just a tiny fraction of those in the game. As a guess for this example, let’s say there are 35,000 speakers in your market (probably more like 350,000).

This process I refer to as external marketing because you are seeking donors, sponsors, customers, or clients from outside your organization. Get it?

If your message is crafted so well and your offer is beautiful, you’ll only resonate with 2% at most. Why? Because only a tiny fraction of them might be ready for your message now. 35,000 speakers aren’t hanging around the email inbox hoping to get an invitation from you. None of them are. But you might catch the attention of a fragment of them with your well-written copy, or your heavily practiced pitch.

Then what?

You have to nurture those who raise their hand to signify they have some interest. It’s a dating ritual. You caught their attention, now you have to romance them a little and build a relationship. If you do everything right, they might pony up with your fee and dance. That’s the easy part. The fun is just getting started.

You’re successful enough to receive funding for your services, but for how long? If you only have one pitch, one service, what happens once you’ve delivered it? Best to have more than just a lead magnet and a tripwire to capture them as a client. Your main mission (or even operating capital) is what you’ve sold them on, but what else can you offer to keep them engaged and interested in supporting you further?

Stay – This is the point when your marketing switches from external to internal. You’ll be doing a lot of marketing to your public, your donors and sponsors to keep them interested in you and what you offer for as long as possible.

Believe it or not, there is a formula to calculate donor lifetime value. This is the number you want to continue to grow, and it will as long as you retain the donor or sponsor and said funding sources continue to support your missions. That means you are going to make certain you treat them you treat them like the Kings and Queens they are.

It’s similar to the private club industry, where I spent a lifetime. Kings and Queens, Princes and Princesses. These folks enjoy being called by name and are never weary of embellishing them with accolades and publicity. They also crave gratitude.

Could you keep them informed of the successes their funded project is experiencing? No one appreciates being treated like little more than a checkbook.

Sure, there are many checkbook philanthropists, but they should be something other than your primary focus. Please pay close attention to those that have agreed to invest their time, talents, and treasure (along with their reputations) into your organization.

As I mentioned, at my last club before leaving the business, we knew we had $ 4 million a year coming in before we opened the doors. As long as we paid attention to them, kept them active in the offerings, and included them in our messaging, they would stay with us.

Refer – This is the big payoff. This is what you’ve been working so hard for. If you’ve done your job by creating happy and satisfied donors and sponsors, you should encourage them to refer their friends, work associates, and church friends to your cause.

Consider the facts. You’ve worked hard and spent resources acquiring and nurturing your donor base, so any new referrals cost you bupkis. You are literally being handed a gift on a silver platter when someone refers a new donor or sponsor. Your precious funds remain

they are safely tucked away in your bank account.

And, these new donors and sponsors will be easier to work with because they act on the relationship their referee has already established. They will get more involved sooner because trust-by-proxy works in your favor.

Donor Lifetime Value Formula

Earlier in this article I mentioned Lifetime Value of a Donor or Sponsor. This should be part of your overall metrics of evaluation on whether or not you are successful managing your most important assets – donors and sponsors.