I'm a big fan of Keela (Doug)
Hi. My name's Doug and I lead a small nonprofit of 350 full-time employees working in 50 countries doing everything from refugee resettlement to water projects. We've been using Keela for around 6 weeks, so I'm still a newbie, but we've grown our database to over 16,000 contacts and we're just getting ready to do our first email blast to 15,000 people. Please wish us luck!
-
Hi Doug! Your "small" nonprofit is legendary around Keela these days! I hope your email blast went well. If you have any feedback for us, compliments, or just want to talk email marketing, you can email me at any time at samantha.lego@keela.com.
0 -
Sam Lego , you're golden to take time to comment like this! Thanks!
I should report back what happened. We actually ended up culling the list down a bit:
9,766: The number of people we emailed
829 or 9%: The emails that weren't deliverable (It was a new list that we assembled from every last source we could find in our office. We got this idea from some of the Keela training videos we watched explaining that we ought to try to "lump together" everyone into Keela so we could get rid of all the disconnected lists and spreadsheets. My first entire WEEK was filled with importing! Yes - I messed up a few of the imports, but your customer support team was sooooo filled with grace, thankfully.)
8,920 or 91%: The number of emails which WERE delivered! This was incredible. The fact that we didn't have to rely on Mailchimp to do this, I'm sure, frustrated the monkeys at Mailchimp to no end. (In one single month, our MailChimp bill went from $200/month down to just $15. We kept the $15 service going until you complete the programming on your new automated sequence email module. : ) )
Now -- get this: [drum roll]
2,745 or 28%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!: The number of emails that Keela reported were opened. We understand that the AVERAGE for existing lists for non-profits is about 25%... so even though our list was brand new, we still exceeded the average. Keela made it so easy!
183 (2%): Click-throughs! We understand this is typically 1 or 2% - so again, for a new list, we were extremely happy. We had never written MANY of these people before!
And get THIS:
17: The number of people who unsubscribed. Out of 8,920 emails, only 17 people declined to receive additional messages from us! We were amazed!!!!!!!!
And finally, the best news of all:
$75,708.11: The number of dollars so far received from this campaign. I was being super-honest: We're a small non-profit. This is the largest result we've ever seen from a fundraising campaign. Most of our email/fundraising campaigns prior to this were in the $11,000 to $12,000 range. You TOLD us in your marketing literature the income would go up. I'm so very sorry that I ever thought that that was just marketing literature. So because of all this, and because of Keela, wells will be drilled in West Africa. People who have never had water in their village before will have fresh, safe water to drink. They'll find hope. Children will grow up with a positive view toward the future. And ALL of it was made possible by Keela!!!
You made it quick and easy to create, send, and track the results.
You know that I'm very honest about the features we'd like to see developed and improved. So I thought I should also be honest with my gratitude. THANK you Keela!!!!!!! You've made a friend for life!!!
Doug
(Please thank Maggie Dubyk for a terrific job relating to a customer. She actually ANSWERS me. On most occasions, she's answering me within 3 hours. Amazing stuff.)
0 -
Holy heck, Doug, those stats are AMAZING!!! Also, Maggie Dubyk and I are definitely having a little tear up at work today from your kind words, so thank you.
This is so motivating, and such a wonderful way to round out a Monday. It is so exciting to hear that your campaign performed better than you expected and EVEN MORE exciting to see you smash through industry benchmarks. Based on the data we have, fundraising emails result in a 17% open rate and a 0.56% click-through rate. This means, not only were you above industry average, but you were so far above expected metrics that you were practically on the moon! And this makes me over the moon.I'm in awe of what you managed to raise, and even more in awe of knowing the implications of how that money will be spent. This is why we love to work at Keela - to help build something that will further your mission. And honestly, your views help shape the future of Keela too. We want you to succeed because when you do, the world changes, and I can't think of anything that would be more gratifying.
If you ever want to talk more about how Keela has helped, we're always looking to build use studies which help us better show Keela's impact, but also helps future iterations of our product.
I hope you're having a fantastic day.
Sam
0 -
Sam Lego, you are so kind to encourage your customers. But honestly, it feels like you guys treat us like friends. And we love that. Thanks for all you do!
0 -
Thanks so much for sharing Doug and a huge congratulations on your successful campaign! We love it when customers share their successes with us - it's a win for everyone here at Keela :)
0 -
Agreed, Laura. And -- the fun part is - the campaign isn't over. Just like our appreciation for Keela isn't over. : ) Some of our team think we will still hit $100K before it's done. Visionary types. : ) Thanks again for making this possible.
0 -
Hi Doug,
My name is Sue and if yours is a 'small nonprofit' then ours is 'teenie', just 12 staff.
We work in the prevention of suicide through early intervention and are also new to Keela this year.
Everything you have written here about the staff, the support and the Keela system has been our experience too! Amazing.
We have been focusing on the membership side of things, but your success in the fundraising has sparked enthusiasm and interest. There is so much knowledge shared through Keela and that makes it so much easier to step out and try new initiatives.
I thank you for sharing such a powerful story of success.
Sue
0 -
Sue, great to hear from you. 12 people on staff is a GREAT team! (That's how many Jesus had. And just think - only ONE of those turned out to be not-so-productive. : ) )
Glad to hear your Keela experience parallels ours.
Oh - and by the way, we have hit $100,000 with this campaign. For real. And we have one more major pledge that we're praying will still come through.
Here's the funny thing: The more honest I am about rough edges in Keela, the more it seems they appreciate me. That's just the craziest part ever. In spite of my extremely... "forthright" attitude (sharing humbly but honestly when there are pieces of the platform that bug us - (like... when we're looking at the contact record for someone who is clearly an "Associated Contact" of a Company, why on earth is there not one single way to click to go to the company??? What in the world? hahaha ), it just seems like they love us all the more! : ) hahaha. They messaged last week and asked if I'd like to write a review for them on Capterra -- knowing full well that I'd be so bummed by the rough edges. It almost seems like they LIKE us being honest with them. So now, Capterra is asking me to do a VIDEO review. For real. Hahaha. If I had a weak spot (and I do for sure!), I would try to hide it (oops). Not Keela. They WANT the truth to come out. They just seem to take it as a dare. We love it. : ) So radically different from any other platform I've ever used. RUTHLESS self-evaluation. It's what makes us better.
Great to 'meet' you, Sue.
0
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
8 comments