Weekly lottery is one of the fastest growing fundraising products within the third sector - and now with ready-to-go platforms like Affinity Lottery making setting up a weekly lottery easier than ever, the real challenge is in recruiting the right players for your programme.
Of course, your approach to acquisition will very much depend on your fundraising objectives, but to get the most out of your programme, it’s crucial to think about the long term – which is where our lottery management expertise comes in!
Acquisition should not just be about the volume of players recruited, but also about subscribing the right type of players to the lottery. Over time, this will increase return on investment (ROI) and lifetime value (LTV) as they will keep giving to your charity for longer.
With that in mind, in this blog we will look at four top tips for weekly lottery acquisition that will help deliver the best LTV for your charity.
Oh, and if you're a charity fundraiser working in raffles and weekly lottery, you might also find our Prize-Led Fundraising Benchmarking and Trends webinar of interest - which is now available on-demand!
4 top tips for weekly lottery acquisition
1. Acquire the best players
First things first, you need to think about how you want to approach building your weekly lottery player base. Consider things such as:
Your existing supporter base
You can both cross-sell to your existing supporters and use their profile to target new supporters in similar demographic areas.
By offering your existing supporters an additional -and different - way to give, you’re not only increasing their lifetime value as a donor to your charity, but you’re also helping build a stronger relationship with them.
Not only that, but using the profile of your existing loyal base to target new players means you will reach those more likely to be open to your cause or to giving, so youcan efficiently grow your supporter base.
Targeting new supporter demographics
Weekly lottery is an effective way to build support for your charity in different demographic segments.
By testing acquisition campaigns to different segments and identifying which are the most responsive, you can start to build a new data set of supporters for your charity. It’s worth noting that the message/script/channel may need to be different for these segments, too.
When you’re looking at lifetime value, re-target the segments for acquisition which have proven to have the lowest no-show or early attrition levels, and which go on to support your charity in other ways.
Find players with a cause connection
Players with a cause connection will probably deliver a higher lifetime value for your charity as they will be more disposed to support you in additional ways once you build a relationship with them.
It’s worth identifying which players have a direct or indirect connection to your cause and test a supporter journey with them that signposts additional support opportunities.
2. Make winning feel possible
We all want to feel like the chance of winning is realistic when we play a lottery, so it’s essential to think about how you can make winning feel more tangible for your target audiences. Some potential ideas include:
Evidence winners
In times of recession, prize-led fundraising has often remained stable because of the perceived chance of winning something in return for support.
This hope is a powerful motivator to play – so you should be sure to not only show what can be won but show who has won in the past.
Include photos, quotes, maps of winners, or even the total paid out in prize fund – basically, it’s about. making winning tangible and something that feels achievable in order to encourage play.
Increase opportunities to win
It’s also a good idea to increase the number of opportunities to win by increasing the number of runner up prizes.
Don’t worry, though: these don’t need to be big prizes, and they don’t need to be cash prizes. However, as more charities are offering lotteries, players are perhaps comparing which will offer the best win-rate.
Therefore, making that increased opportunity to win more obvious could help make their decision to play your lottery clearer and easier.
3. One campaign, multiple channels
Another way to make the most of your fundraising efforts is by running a single campaign across multiple media.
We are all consumers of multi-media touchpoints each day, from F2F, DRTV, mail, social media, on-site and so on – and by having a single message, you can make each and every one of those touchpoints work harder.
4. Test to improve
That’s not to say you can’t test within your campaign. By continuously testing your acquisition programme you can keep improving and making your budget work harder. Some areas to test might include:
- Cause vs prize focus
- Payment method focus
- Channel
- Alternative target segments/demographics
- Case studies and stories used
- F2F or call script
- Simultaneous survey (to find out motivation for donating)
- Canvasser engagement
Investing in your weekly lottery acquisition approach will deliver longer term value
Although it’s tempting to just start recruiting, it is worth planning who you’re targeting, how you’re going to go about it, what you are going to say and when you’re going to do it.
You need to start with your objectives and use the tools you have to hand to get you started – and working with a lottery management expert like Woods Valldata offers you access to specialist strategic support to help you get started and build your programme over time.
When you work with us on your weekly lottery, we can work together to:
- Review your data, profile your audience and make segment targeting recommendations
- Create a comprehensive testing programme looking at how best to meet your weekly lottery objectives
Plus, our response handling for weekly lottery is second to none, working seamlessly with your third-party suppliers to get your new lottery subscribers signed up and playing as fast as possible.
Sound like a winning combination? Let’s do it together! Drop us a line to set up a meeting today.
Alternatively, if you’d like to see our work in action, discover how our strategic partnership with Guide Dogs as their weekly lottery partner has helped them consistently grow their weekly lottery.
