Growing Your eBay Customer Base

The vast majority of members who buy things on eBay are customers. But as any successful eBay businessperson realises, they arent just buyers. You must remember that the customer is king, the key to maintaining a great feedback rating, and the key to ongoing business that can keep an eBay fundraising venture afloat. Cultivating ongoing relationships with satisfied buyers is the key to ongoing business.

To those who sell on eBay to benefit nonprofit causes, customers are even more special: they are donors as well as buyers. Theyre people who keep you going and make your activities possible. As anyone who has participated in one of eBays community forums can tell you, the internet is a wonderful place to develop close relationships with individuals who share a common goal or interest, in other words, develop relationships with a wide online community.

On eBay and the internet, caring for and feeding donors is as important as it is in the offline world. eBay gives you several options to maintain good relations with other members. The most important is eBays well-known feedback system, which rewards trustworthiness and punishes dishonesty.

You can also volunteer information that helps your donors providing them with the URLs of web sites they might like to visit, on eBay or elsewhere, or answering questions on the message boards. At the very least, youll gain the respect of your donors by responding quickly to e-mail inquiries, and making payment and shipping easy. Its all about helping people to do the right thing.

Donor Support
If youre affiliated with a charity, you already know about growing your donor base. It boils down to being nice to your donors: inviting them, nurturing them, rewarding them, and giving them special access and possibly other perks.

On the web (and by extension, on eBay), nurturing donors is the same as providing a high-Ievel of customer service. But customer service on the Web is different than in other venues.

Nonprofits, like other organizations that sell on eBay or online, need to take into account the special way online consumers behave. In the traditional offline world, customer service is a matter of answering questions and solving problems with orders. Customer service representatives make themselves available to field questions and problems as they arise.

Customer care on the internet isnt a matter of publishing a phone number or e-mail address and waiting for consumers to send you questions. Such basics are important, but its more a matter of making information proactively available to consumers. The customer is in charge on the web, not the seller. Customers choose to view your items for sale or visit your web site; they choose to make a bid or a donation, or go elsewhere with their money.

Many eBay sellers who receive questions from prospective bidders answer those questions quickly. But they go a step further, also. They also publish the questions and answers as additions to their sales descriptions. This reduces the number of similar questions you receive, which saves you some work; it also raises the level of customer service you provide, which makes prospective bidders more likely to purchase from you.

When you receive a question from a prospective buyer through eBays message system, you have the option of simply responding to the buyer privately, or adding the question and your response to the body of your sales description.

Goldstar Stationery is a great source of ideas for fundraising and fundraisers. For a variety of different and easy to manage school fundraising ideas visit http:/www.goldstar.net.au today.

Growing Your eBay Customer Base

The vast majority of members who buy things on eBay are customers. But as any successful eBay businessperson knows, they arent just buyers. You must remember that the customer is king, the key to maintaining a good feedback rating, and the key to ongoing business that can keep an eBay sales effort afloat. Cultivating ongoing relationships with satisfied customers is the key to ongoing business.

To those who sell on eBay to benefit charity causes, customers are even more special: they are donors as well as buyers. Theyre people who keep you going and make your activities possible. As anyone who has participated in one of eBays community forums can tell you, the internet is a wonderful place to develop close relationships with individuals who share a common goal or interest, in other words, develop relationships with an entire online community.

On eBay and the web, caring for and nurturing donors is as important as it is in the offline world. eBay gives you several options to maintain good relations with other members. The most important is eBays well-known feedback system, which rewards trustworthiness and punishes dishonesty.

You can also volunteer information that helps your donors providing them with the URLs of web sites they might like to visit, on eBay or elsewhere, or answering questions on the message boards. At the very least, youll gain the respect of your donors by responding quickly to e-mail inquiries, and making payment and shipping easy. Its all about helping people to do the right thing.

Donor Support
If youre affiliated with a charity, you already know about growing your donor base. It boils down to being nice to your donors: inviting them, feeding them, thanking them, and giving them special access and possibly other benefits.

On the web (and by extension, on eBay), nurturing donors is the same as providing a high-Ievel of customer service. But customer service on the Web is different than in other venues.

Nonprofits, like other organizations that sell on eBay or online, need to take into account the special way online consumers behave. In the traditional offline world, customer service is a matter of answering questions and solving problems with orders. Customer service representatives make themselves available to field questions and problems as they arise.

Customer care on the web isnt a matter of publishing a phone number or e-mail address and waiting for consumers to send you questions. Such basics are important, but its more a matter of making information proactively available to consumers. The customer is in charge on the web, not the seller. Customers choose to view your items for sale or visit your web site; they choose to make a bid or a donation, or go elsewhere with their money.

Many eBay sellers who receive questions from prospective bidders answer those questions quickly. But they go a step further, also. They also publish the questions and answers as additions to their sales descriptions. This reduces the number of similar questions you receive, which saves you some time; it also raises the level of customer support you provide, which makes prospective buyers more likely to purchase from you.

When you receive a question from a bidder through eBays message system, you have the option of simply responding to the buyer privately, or adding the question and your response to the body of your sales description.

Goldstar Stationery is a great source of ideas for fundraising and fundraising ideas. For a variety of different and easy to manage school fundraising ideas visit http:/www.goldstar.net.au today.

Fundraising Using Direct Mail

A direct mail campaign is often the most cost effective way to reach many donors. Sending letters also is a simple way to raise money. There is no need to recruit, train, manage and motivate a large group of volunteers. A few talented individuals can run the entire operation. And you will find you will get a lot more volunteers to fold and stuff envelopes than to cold-call potential contributors. That’s not to say all one must do is write a letter, post or e-mail it, and wait for the returns.

What makes mail solicitations difficult is that they are one-sided. No allowance exists for a campaign worker to personally motivate prospects. The most enthusiastic letter simply cannot match the conversation between a skilled fundraiser and an open-minded potential donor. Lacking aggressive salesmanship, only minimum gifts can be expected, no matter how well written the solicitation letter and enclosures may be.

Here’s another angle to think about. Assume that I’m a small-donation prospect with some interest in your charity. There’s a good chance that I’ll donate generously to your appeal if you knock on my door or phone because your enthusiasm and presentation will be hard to resist. And how many other organisations will solicit me in these ways? Very few. But send me a solicitation letter and you place your request in the midst of enormous competition for my same gift dollar. And because it’s a letter, I have little problem withstanding its impersonal nature. If your organisation is not among my very favorites, you won’t receive a contribution of any consequence.

You see, although I think highly of your cause, I have a table covered with fundraising letters, from the best known national charities to all sorts of noteworthy regional and local groups. I am saturated with mail appeals. After sorting through them and making my top-ranked selections, I find my charitable budget is about depleted. But I still care about your cause, so here’s two dollars to show you my heart’s in the right place.

With these factors as a downside, letter solicitations produce highly profitable income derived from small-gifts for organizations that plan and carry out meticulous programs. However, first-class mailing programs get extremely involved, both creatively and from a marketing standpoint. There are six elements to understand before considering a direct mail campaign:

1. Mail solicitation is an ongoing component of annual fundraising programs. In capital campaigning, letter writing is a tool for wrapping up an appeal and giving thanks.

2. Ongoing mail appeals focus equally on retaining and upgrading present contributors while discovering and cultivating new prospects to make up for donors lost to attrition and to enlarge the donor pool. Present givers won’t always be an available source of funding.

3. Donors via mail don’t come free. Depending on the package, to obtain a new contributor, you can spend from $1.30 to $1.60 (or more) for each initial dollar raised from that person.

4. Mail programs are long-term propositions and instant financial rewards are very rare.

5. Be clear who you designate as a donor and who you label a prospect. Donors are people currently contributing to your charity. Someone who gave you a gift two years ago or a person who once contributed a painting to your auction are prospects, not donors. Get used to thinking of three distinct groups: current donors, past donor prospects, and new prospects.

6. Some prospects have more interest in and knowledge about your organisation than others. Cultivated potential donors are first approached because they represent the highest rate of return. For instance, a past donor prospect is a better bet to send you a new donation than someone who once came to a special event that you held. The person who came to the special event is more likely to fund you than someone who never heard of your group.

In planning a full scale mail campaign, don’t lose sight of the fundamental fundraising requirements. Make sure your project has compelling goals, high visibility, specific, attractive, and timely needs.

Additionally, make sure your group has start-up funds on hand for what can become a relatively large investment to get the program rolling. For example, depending on the scale of your operation, you might want to engage a letter shop or mail house to provide the many functions necessary to get your direct mail package to recipients. This is an expensive proposition.

Or you might opt to subscribe to an online software provider to help drive your mail program. Since the highest percentage of return comes from current contributors, they are the first group to target. If a goal is reachable by only contacting these people, expenses will be minimal and your problems will be solved. If that’s not realistic, additional prospects who might fund your project would need to be reached. That’s fine so long as you realize that their percentage of return will be far less than supporters.

If your group, school or club is looking for fundraising ideas and easy fundraisers, have a look at Goldstar Gifts and Stationarys easy to manage ideas for fundraising.

Raising Donations Using Direct Mail

A mailing is often the most practical way to reach many prospects. Sending letters also is a simple way to raise money. There is no need to recruit, train, manage and motivate a large workforce. A handful of people can run the entire operation. And you will find you will get a lot more volunteers to fold and stuff envelopes than to cold-call potential contributors. Thats not to say all one must do is write a letter, post or e-mail it, and wait for the returns.

What makes mail fundraising campaigns difficult is that they are one-sided. No allowance exists for a campaign worker to personally motivate prospects. The most enthusiastic letter simply cannot match the give-and-take between a skilled fundraiser and an open-minded potential supporter. Lacking aggressive salesmanship, only minimum gifts can be expected, no matter how well written the solicitation letter and enclosures may be.

Heres another angle to think about. Assume that Im a small-donation prospect with some interest in your charity. Theres a good chance that Ill donate generously to your appeal if you knock on my door or phone because your enthusiasm and presentation will be hard to resist. And how many other organisations will solicit me in these ways? Very few. But send me a solicitation letter and you place your request in the midst of enormous competition for my same donation dollar. And because its a letter, I have little problem withstanding its impersonal nature. If your organisation is not among my very favorites, you wont receive a contribution of any consequence.

You see, although I think highly of your project, I have a table piled high with fundraising letters, from the best known national charities to all sorts of noteworthy school and local groups. I am overwhelmed with mail appeals. After sorting through them and making my top-ranked selections, I find my charitable budget is about depleted. But I still care about your cause, so heres ten dollars to show you my hearts in the right place.

With these factors as a downside, mail solicitations produce highly profitable income derived from small-gifts for organizations that plan and carry out meticulous programs. However, first-class mailing programs get extremely involved, both creatively and from a marketing standpoint. There are six elements to understand before considering a direct mail campaign:

1. Fundraising by mail is an ongoing component of annual fundraising programs. In capital campaigning, letter writing is a tool for wrapping up an appeal and giving thanks.

2. Ongoing mail appeals focus equally on retaining and upgrading present contributors while discovering and cultivating new prospects to make up for donors lost to attrition and to enlarge the group of donors. Present givers wont always be an available source of funding.

3. Donors via mail dont come free. Depending on the package, to obtain a new contributor, you can spend from $1.30 to $1.60 (or more) for each initial dollar raised from that person.

4. Mail programs are long-term propositions and instant financial rewards are very rare.

5. Be clear who you designate as a donor and who you label a prospect. Donors are people currently contributing to your campaign. Someone who gave you a gift two years ago or a person who once contributed a painting to your auction are prospects, not donors. Get used to thinking of three distinct groups: current donors, past donor prospects, and new prospects.

6. Some prospects have more interest in and knowledge about an organisation than others. Cultivated potential donors are first approached because they represent the highest rate of return. For instance, a past donor prospect is a better bet to send you a new donation than someone who once came to a special event that you held. The person who came to the special event is more likely to fund you than someone who never heard of your group.

In planning a full scale mail campaign, dont lose sight of the fundamental fundraising requirements. Make sure your project has compelling goals, high visibility, specific, attractive, and timely needs.

Additionally, make sure your group has start-up funds on hand for what can become a relatively large investment to get the program rolling. For example, depending on the scale of your operation, you might want to engage a letter shop or mail house to provide the many functions necessary to get your direct mail package to recipients. This is an expensive proposition.

Or you might opt to subscribe to an online software provider to help drive your mail program. Since the highest percentage of return comes from current contributors, they are the first group to target. If a goal is reachable by only contacting these people, expenses will be minimal and your problems will be solved. If thats not realistic, additional prospects who might fund your project would need to be reached. Thats fine so long as you realize that their percentage of return will be far less than supporters.

For instance, you send a letter to current donors and perhaps {30|40|50} percent of them respond with {donations|gifts}. A letter sent to brand-new {potential donors|prospects} typically yields responses of around 0.5 percent to 2 percent. Until youve won over a new potential {donor|giver}, dont expect relatively large {donations|contributions}. A return of 5 percent to 12 percent can be expected from present donors.

If your group, school or {sports club|club} is looking for fundraising ideas and easy fundraisers, have a look at Goldstar Gifts and Stationerys easy to manage ideas for fundraising.