Campaign of the Month

Oxfam got a fundraising head start with an automated welcome email

They used advanced personalization and marketing automation, achieving a 44% click-to-open rate.

Oxfam turned their running volunteers’ enthusiasm into action using advanced personalization and marketing automation, achieving a 44% click-to-open rate.

Company name: Oxfam
Developed by: Shabnam Makee
Website: www.oxfam.org.uk

Campaign details

Subject line: Welcome to Oxfam’s team!
Open: 76%
Clicks: 44% of opened

Context

What data was used?

An automatically generated list based on people who sign up to run for Oxfam.

Objective

  • Persuade volunteers to secure their place by paying the entry fee
  • Provide volunteers with resources to get started

What makes this a performing campaign?

The Oxfam running events are just one of the ways in which the charity fundraises every year. The funds come from:

  • an entry fee to secure a place in the race
  • an individual fundraising pledge gathered as sponsorship

As these volunteers are most excited about their contribution when they sign up, it’s crucial for Oxfam to take advantage of that momentum. To do this, Oxfam used Adestra’s automation capabilities to send a welcome email within the first 24 hours of the registration.

In order to make the volunteers feel welcome and supported, Oxfam also used personalization. They automatically pulled through the volunteer’s:

  • first name
  • event name
  • fundraising pledge amount

By pulling in the event name they could reuse the same campaign for multiple races. This reduced the amount of time Oxfam’s marketing team needed to spend on creating different campaigns.

The first call-to-action encouraged recipients to pay the entry fee to make their commitment official. The email also provided resources to help the volunteers get started on training and fundraising.

The results

The precise timing of the email coupled with a clear subject line resulted in a huge 76% open rate.

The click-through rate didn’t disappoint either. By using advanced personalization, Oxfam encouraged the recipients to pay attention to the message. Providing recipients with useful next steps ensured their enthusiasm is turned into action. Indeed, the Links Report showed that the majority of those clicks were generated by the training and fundraising calls-to-action.