In just a few short weeks, I’ll be giving a workshop at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention called Artificial Intelligence and Audience Building in Digital Fundraising.
In the workshop, I will be sharing a number of recent breakthroughs contributing to the growth of digital fundraising. If you are going to be at NRB, I would love to have you join us! See more information on the talk below.
Today, I would like to highlight a portion of the talk, where I’ll be sharing five different ways that artificial intelligence is transforming digital marketing and fundraising.
AI-assisted creative
One way that artificial intelligence is transforming digital marketing is through what we call “AI-assisted creative.” For example, AI provides a great opportunity to improve ad copy, especially for digital fundraising. AI-assisted creative enables us to automatically create many different versions of a particular ad or message and optimize those to specific audiences.
This is how it works: We take our best practice copy and generate a host of creative options automatically. They can then be put into a testing environment to see which message resonates with which audience.
One of the keys to effective digital fundraising is generating a huge variety of different approaches and versions of a particular ad or message — and optimizing those to specific audiences.
Artificial intelligence enables us to generate a huge number of variations, choose the best ones, and put those into a testing environment where each message can be validated and then tailored to the audience for which that message resonates (which is based on a whole other bit of AI, but that’s for later in the talk).
In our shop, we are privileged to work with some of the best creative minds, on both the copywriting and design sides. We also have an exceptionally talented group of digital media buyers who can help us understand what is working and why — within thousands of different emails, social media posts and other digital ads. Too often, our ideas come up short because we lack the manpower and expertise to test a multitude of different approaches.
By incorporating AI into our creative process, we’ve been able to expand the testing process exponentially, identify the best winning approaches, and validate them with a much wider audience.
Think of this like Mad Libs. But instead of filling in blanks, the AI identifies patterns in the language and understands how to write a variety of new statements based on those patterns. This results in many potential messages about products or causes that can be used to engage your audience.
Pretty cool sounding, huh? Don’t believe me? Would you believe me if I said that this blog post was AI-assisted?
I’ll show you. Below is the original copy I wrote to describe AI-assisted creative. From feeding these three short paragraphs into the tool, came the entire section above, after the headline AI-Assisted Creative:
One way that artificial intelligence is transforming digital marketing is through what we call AI-assisted creative. The way it works is we feed best-practice copy from an experienced writer into a tool, and that tool generates a wide array of creative options.
One of the keys to effective digital fundraising is generating a huge variety of different approaches and versions of a particular ad or message and optimizing those to specific audiences
Artificial intelligence enables us to generate a huge amount of variations, choose the best ones, and put those into a testing environment where each message can be validated and then tailored to the audience for which that message resonates (which is based on a whole other bit of AI, but that’s for later in the talk).
Pretty wild, huh?
If you are going to be at NRB in Nashville in March, I would love to see you. Come by our booth (448), and I would love to have you join one of the two talks we’ll be giving. More information on those talks is below.
Hope to see you there!
Dave Raley
EVP Strategic Innovation
NRB 2022
Gaylord Opryland, Nashville, Tennessee
March 8-11, 2022
Workshop
Artificial Intelligence and Audience Building in Digital Fundraising
Presented by Dave Raley, EVP Strategic Innovation, Masterworks
Wednesday, March 9, 10:15 am @ Ryman C – Workshop Stage
To achieve success in digital fundraising today is to stay on top of the latest technology and strategy, informed by timeless principles but applied in modern ways. Learn about recent breakthroughs in digital fundraising, donor acquisition, and revenue growth. Trends include flipping the funnel to engage and build audiences, leveraging artificial intelligence in finding new donors, using automation to maximize every opportunity, and the rapidly growing recurring giving programs online. Learn how one nonprofit ministry tapped into these trends to grow their new donor acquisition by five times in less than two years.
Exhibitor session
Growing Recurring Giving in Today’s Subscription Economy
Presented by Dave Raley, EVP Strategic Innovation, Masterworks
Wednesday, March 9, 1:00 pm @ Exhibitor Stage
Recurring giving is more important than it has ever been, and yet, it is changing. During this session, we’ll cover the major trends reshaping sustainer giving programs, the Subscription Economy, and seven keys to designing the sustainer program of the future. We’ll also provide practical examples of recurring giving programs that are growing explosively.