bbcon summary: key insights from the US
03/10/2012
From my time here at the bbcon conference in Washington this week, there are a few key insights I’ve learnt that I felt useful to share for the UK charity sector.
- Digital is generally more grown up in the US. The amount of money invested is significant compared to the UK.
- Digital marketing is more integrated and cross channel; they have systems that talk to each other with personalisation and profiling of supporters making for much more effective fundraising campaigns.
- Email marketing wins hands down, US charities aren’t distracted by social media. This was a key revelation for me. In the UK we hear lots of sessions at conferences about social media. Here they see social as a channel not to be forgotten, but if you want to raise money, email marketing is the one that provides results!
- Big Data – the data available in this information age is massive. How can it be analysed and to your advantage? America is big, the data is big, and this is something US charities are reviewing and investing in.
- As Jeremy’s blog post said “It’s all about the content” as charities are starting to consider in the UK – having a content strategy is vital!
- We’ve not mentioned mobile in our blogs from the US – certainly it was discussed a lot, but it seems like the US are on a par with the UK in terms of progress and the need to shift focus to mobile.
- One final comment – after seeing a lot of US (some very big!) charity websites this week – the UK are definitely streets ahead on the design front – UK charity sites really stand out compared to their US equivalents.
Overall, a worthwhile trip to see the focus of the nonprofit sector (as they call themselves). Looking forward to bringing back the learning and helping our clients move forward with digital.
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