Very interesting and timely post for me as I have been exploring the idea of hiring a fractional CMO for my EA-adjacent org to address these very concepts.
You talk about conversions and growing a marketing list, but I find it difficult to define a framework for applying standard conversion metrics to what ultimately amounts to impact. For example, I run a coaching program that helps people align their financial plans with their giving goals. My aim isn’t to coach as many people as possible, but rather to coach the most impactful people. E.g. those who will donate regularly or make career changes that lead to greater impact.
It’s challenging to design a marketing strategy that optimizes for that kind of outcome, since traditional metrics like leads, clicks, or sign-ups don’t necessarily reflect meaningful impact. I’d be curious if you (or others here) have thoughts on adapting marketing frameworks to measure or predict impact-oriented conversions rather than purely volume-based ones?
P.S. I also made a huge attempt to run ads and found it to be a total failure for same reasons you listed above.
In that case, the best approach is to build a lead scoring system that assigns a value to each trait/behavior you believe translates into the impact you want to drive—of course, it will never be a perfect translation, but that’s okay as long as it makes sense. Then, with a good CRM, you can assign each lead a score (originated from your lead scoring logic) and plug this info into your analytics, so it becomes part of your reports, conversion tracking, etc. This is pretty much what businesses that optimize for lifetime value (instead of immediate ROI), like investment banks and subscription-based services, do nowadays.
Of course, all of this requires a good amount of work and investment in a good CRM and Analytics. If you can’t afford this sort of complexity/cost for now, I’d simply recommend picking a conversion which is as close as possible to the impact you want to create, and be at peace with the fact that this is better than doing nothing. :)
Very interesting and timely post for me as I have been exploring the idea of hiring a fractional CMO for my EA-adjacent org to address these very concepts.
You talk about conversions and growing a marketing list, but I find it difficult to define a framework for applying standard conversion metrics to what ultimately amounts to impact. For example, I run a coaching program that helps people align their financial plans with their giving goals. My aim isn’t to coach as many people as possible, but rather to coach the most impactful people. E.g. those who will donate regularly or make career changes that lead to greater impact.
It’s challenging to design a marketing strategy that optimizes for that kind of outcome, since traditional metrics like leads, clicks, or sign-ups don’t necessarily reflect meaningful impact. I’d be curious if you (or others here) have thoughts on adapting marketing frameworks to measure or predict impact-oriented conversions rather than purely volume-based ones?
P.S. I also made a huge attempt to run ads and found it to be a total failure for same reasons you listed above.
In that case, the best approach is to build a lead scoring system that assigns a value to each trait/behavior you believe translates into the impact you want to drive—of course, it will never be a perfect translation, but that’s okay as long as it makes sense. Then, with a good CRM, you can assign each lead a score (originated from your lead scoring logic) and plug this info into your analytics, so it becomes part of your reports, conversion tracking, etc. This is pretty much what businesses that optimize for lifetime value (instead of immediate ROI), like investment banks and subscription-based services, do nowadays.
Of course, all of this requires a good amount of work and investment in a good CRM and Analytics. If you can’t afford this sort of complexity/cost for now, I’d simply recommend picking a conversion which is as close as possible to the impact you want to create, and be at peace with the fact that this is better than doing nothing. :)