Growth through a Custom Email Program

The Salvation Army Southern California Division partnered with Altus Marketing and Moore Digital to move away from a templated, sterile email marketing program to a custom approach developed with their services and community in focus.

We began by planning for tent-pole campaigns such as Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Year-End, which are the largest revenue drivers of faith-based human services organizations. Then we layered in campaigns specifically focused on unique services, local messages and programs, and engagement opportunities. And we built in a healthy dose of testing and optimization that would yield learnings that could be applied within the same fiscal year to drive performance improvements. Throughout the program, we included versioning to specific audiences, including core donors, mid-level, lapsed, and sustainers, to provide a custom donor experience.

Our approach and collaboration have yielded fantastic results. Revenue through email in FY22 increased over 33% beyond FY21, the year that The Salvation Army Southern California Division and most other organizations saw their highest performance at the height of the pandemic. But we’re not stopping there. Further messaging customization, testing, and optimization throughout the email program are continually developed, and we expect further growth in FY23.