We’ve all been there: you go to troubleshoot a technology problem, and the voice on the other end isn’t a voice at all—it’s an automated messaging system. After many “hit X number for [name of department]” interactions, you find yourself asking to speak with a representative instead. Or maybe, you’ve been inundated with automated text messages from voter outreach groups.

The truth is, automated messaging has a controversial reputation. However, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t incorporate it into your nonprofit’s communications strategy heading into 2022.

From increased capacity to increased control over the supporter experience, there are a variety of ways that modern automated messaging can improve your nonprofit’s communications strategy. Whether you use social media messaging, email automation, or another online outreach method, modern automated messaging has grown far beyond the robotic bots of years past.

Your nonprofit is already using video-conferencing to go virtual and social media for peer-to-peer efforts. Why not use innovative messaging automation as well? Here are four arguments for why you should consider embracing automated messaging: 

• Automated communications solve the problem of low staff resources.

• Communications can be optimized using data.

• You can decrease variability in the supporter experience.

• Automation no longer equates to robotic and stale. 

GoodUnited’s expertise in automated communications focuses on Facebook fundraisers, so this guide will discuss using automated messaging primarily on social media. However, these same arguments apply to all sorts of communications channels, including email, text messaging, and even website chat boxes.

As you read, consider the many communications channels your nonprofit uses to reach out to donors, volunteers, advocates, and more, and how automated messaging can improve your strategy. Let’s dive in.

Automated communications solve the problem of low staff resources.

As the internet grows increasingly intertwined with your nonprofit’s outreach, you’re able to communicate with a significantly larger audience than ever before. Consider when you were marketing solely to regional supporters via direct mail. Now, you can have virtual event attendees joining from continents away. In the past few years, we’d guess that your supporter base has increased exponentially.

The possibilities are endless. Unfortunately, your staff’s time is not.

Of course, it’s not like you’re asking staff members to hand-write thousands of letters and mail them one by one (though a resource like fundraising letters can help if you are). By nature, sending an email, commenting a thank-you note on a Facebook fundraiser, and answering questions that come through via Facebook Messenger are all fairly quick tasks.

However, let’s say each of those tasks takes approximately one minute to complete. Multiply that by the thousands of (or more) supporters that you’re able to connect with on the internet, and your team simply won’t have the capacity to keep up.

That’s where automated communications step up to the plate. The last thing you want to do is allow supporters to fall through the cracks and not receive the responses they deserve.

For example, let’s say you have an influx of supporters starting Facebook fundraisers on behalf of your nonprofit. With automated communications, you can post a comment on 100% of those fundraisers thanking the individual user for their contributions. This drastically improves their experience supporting your nonprofit and therefore, increases the likelihood that they will continue doing so.

Communications can be optimized using data.

Think about when you were interviewing for your first job. We’d guess that for every one interview that extended an offer, there were 10 (or more) that didn’t go quite as successfully. Why did some interviews go wrong? Why did the successful interviews go right?

In this scenario, there are simply too many moving parts to answer those questions. The interview questions, the mood of the interviewer and interviewee, the company’s expectations—these variables are different in each and every conference room you walked into, making it impossible to understand what, exactly, was the equation for success.

The same holds true for non-automated communications. The specific phrasing that a staff member uses when communicating with a donor, the pacing of their responses (for example, quick responses versus hours-long delays), and even the tone conveyed can not only have a major impact on the communication’s success, but can vary drastically across team members and volunteers.

This variation makes it impossible to tune into your donor communications and understand what works and what doesn’t. However, with automated communications, you can adjust one variable at a time to find the right answer.

Let’s say you want to increase the number of users who started Facebook fundraisers on your behalf that are later added as full contacts into your CRM. So, you test two messaging variations:

• Variation A: “Thank you for starting a fundraiser on behalf of [Name of Nonprofit]! Want to learn more about future opportunities? Fill out this contact survey: [Link to Survey].”

• Variation B: “Thank you for starting a fundraiser on behalf of “Name of Nonprofit]! Supporters like you are integral to advancing [Mission], and we’d love to keep you around. To learn more about future opportunities, chat with us here: [Link to Survey]!”

Some supporters receive variation “A,” while others receive variation ”B.” Regardless of the variation, the supporter receives the note exactly 15-minutes after starting their Facebook fundraiser. The note is left as a comment on the fundraiser itself.

With this, you can test just the impact of the message and no other variables. Collect data on your marketing strategy to learn what’s making it successful and what could be improved, and then make adjustments accordingly. Plus, the “successful” variations can be used immediately, rather than waiting for them to filter through your team and get slowly rolled out across staff members’ individual processes.

You can decrease variability in the supporter experience.

We’ve discussed how automated messaging allows you to control all variables in a communication and therefore, measure the success of changes to your strategy. However, this control also allows you to ensure each and every supporter has a positive, routine experience with your nonprofit.

For each supporter:

• The initial script can be the same

• Communications can be sent within the same interval of time

• The same questions and resources can be shared

Let’s say one of your staff members is having an uncharacteristically tough day (we’ve all been there!). This staff member is tasked with posting thank-you notes to your social media supporters. However, their bad day is leaking into their messaging, leading to comments that are downtrodden at worst and unenthusiastic at best.

With automated messaging, you don’t need to worry about the impact of cloudy days. Instead, you can use a template for thanking donors on Facebook (GoodUnited has a variety available here), and ensure that every supporter has a positive interaction with your nonprofit. This reputation of proven positive experiences can increase your supporter retention.

Automation no longer equates to robotic and stale.

Even if you have read all of these arguments and largely agree with them, you may still hesitate to use automated communications. The reasoning is simple—many people have had bad experiences with automation! Whether you’ve had issues with a robotic customer service recording when trying to set up your cable and internet, or a website chatbot that was a little too unhelpful, automated communications have a somewhat bad reputation.

In nonprofit fundraising, which relies on the foundation of positive relationships with donors, the last thing you want is to strike out on the communications front. However, the automated communications of modern nonprofit fundraising are far different from what you may be familiar with—robotic, stale, impersonal conversations are a thing of the past.

Let’s take the example of automated messaging via Facebook Messenger. There are now turnkey social fundraising solutions that allow you to have one-on-one conversations with each and every social supporter. The messaging sequences are not only customized to your nonprofit’s branding and values, but they also can adjust depending on a supporter’s responses.

So for example, let’s say you want to target matching gift programs in your next social fundraising push. Your automated messaging sequence can ask fundraisers who they’re employed by. If it’s a company that has a matching gift program, you can share educational resources about that company’s program.

This is just one example of how the messaging can be tailored to both your nonprofit and the supporter alike. Essentially, you can now employ automated messaging that feels like a conversation for the supporters you’re contacting.

Automated communications have come a long way from the bland, robotic messages that you may have encountered in the past. Now, you can improve your communications using data, reduce variability in the supporter experience, and provide an engaging experience for all. Perhaps most importantly, automation solves the challenge of low staff capacity, meaning you can do more for your mission with the team you already have.

It’s time to embrace automation and innovate your nonprofit’s communications strategy.