Jonathan Jacques talks to Jenny Ramage about achieving and measuring success in legacy marketing for the British Red Cross
You came across to legacy marketing from the agency side. What stands out for you about making that type of transition?
One of the most exciting things about working in an agency is developing compelling propositions for clients. I had been concerned that perhaps I would be somewhat divorced from the creative side, but at the British Red Cross we are very close to the process. I can drive products in a much fuller, more rounded way, understanding all the implications and pressures beyond just the creative, and yet without relinquishing control of that.
What are the major challenges that the British Red Cross is facing with legacies today?
Historically supporters who have left us gifts in wills have been quite generation-specific: those who had been touched personally by our work during World War II especially from POW food parcels, as well as their families. It’s very important for us to make the next generation – the baby boomers – aware of the impact that we make both here in the UK and around the world, despite the fact that they may not have been touched personally by the cause in quite the same way as previous generations.
What has been your strategy to date when it comes to reaching these [new] audiences?
In the past our legacy marketing programme has mainly been driven through mail packs, but in the last two years we’ve seen a real step change: we’ve focused a lot more of our budget on telemarketing so that we can have a two-way discussion about gifts in wills with our warm supporters. In 2011, 70 per cent of the supporters we added to our legacy prospect pool came from telemarketing, and in the last two years we’ve increased the size of the overall prospect pool by 62 per cent.
What sort of conversation do you have with them?
It’s a much, much softer conversation than the traditional perception of upgrade or conversion telemarketing. Often it will start with a caller asking what inspired them to support Red Cross, then asking if they were aware of the work we are involved in here in the UK. We find most of the time that people don’t know too much about our UK emergency work – like helping the injured and bereaved in 7/7, and more generally about our care in the home and emergency services support. So it’s first and foremost about generating awareness about the importance of gifts in wills in delivering these vital services.
What can you tell me about your legacy marketing plan for the year ahead?
We’ve got our legacy programme really ticking over nicely now with our warm audience; engaging with the colder audiences is now the challenge. Our strategy this year is about making a much stronger case for leaving a gift to the Red Cross, very much targeted at the baby boomers. We aim to raise awareness of how important and relevant our work is to that generation, not least through events run by our fantastic team of Community Legacy Managers.
Legacy marketers often don’t see the results of their marketing for many years, and so arguably this makes performance evaluation difficult. Is this necessarily a problem, as you see it?
Not really. We can track the number of supporters who would like more information about leaving a gift, and subsequently how many then become ‘intenders’ – those who say they will but haven’t got around to it yet. And we are seeing significant upgrades in those legacy statuses each year. This year, 2.7 per cent of those in the pool who had requested further information in 2011 told us they now intended to include us in their wills. Of the number of people who died with the status ‘intender’, 20 per cent left a gift to us, which is comparable to what they tell us in status checks calls. So it is measurable.
You’ve done some work with the various consortia involved in Will Aid, which takes place in November. What opportunities does this bring for the charities involved?
Will Aid is very important to Red Cross, we are very proud to be part of it, and it’s generating significantly greater amounts year on year. It allows all nine charities involved to talk to their supporter base directly about wills and make them aware that a solicitor will write theirs in return for a charitable donation. It’s a philanthropic gesture that allows people, actually, to make a double gift to charity.
What are the key challenges you’ve encountered here?
The challenge is to keep solicitors interested. Will Aid appeals to their professional pride and to their philanthropic nature, but we need to give them as much feedback as possible about how using their skills delivers a return in terms of the care of beneficiaries. But any challenges encountered are far outweighed by the huge benefits for legacy marketing and ultimately for our beneficiaries.
How do you spread your passion about legacies to non-legacy marketing colleagues, and inspire them?
A lot of it comes down to energy and dynamism and not making things so incredibly serious – legacies are not about death, they’re about life, they help ensure that the things you really value in life continue after you’ve gone. It’s about promoting long-term engagement with the organisation, touching the heritage of a wonderful organisation and making every aspect of legacy marketing fun.
Jonathan Jacques is direct marketing manager (legacies) at British Red Cross
This article first appeared in The Fundraiser magazine, Issue 18, June 2012
