Is your email list spread out over a bunch of Excel files? Do you only guess about the number of donors who follow you on Twitter? Are you volunteers cold calling groups of people with no background information?
If so, it might be time to get all your data in one place!
By merging all of your data together, you get a 360 degree view of your community members. You can see your donors, volunteers, followers and members. You'll be able to learn about your supporters to personalize your organization’s interactions.
To learn about how to create rich and detailed profiles of each person in your database, read on.
1. Email contacts
Email contacts are the basic building block of your data and give you the power to send email blasts and track engagement.
NationBuilder Match will pull in associated social media accounts and information, including bios, photos and locations. Overlay your email contacts with the other types of data and do advanced segmenting including “one-time donors who have also volunteered” or “Twitter followers who live within 20 miles of my next event.”
Email lists are simple to import or you can use Tectonica’s free import tools for your Gmail, Constant Contact, and MailChimp contacts.
2. Voter file
Importing your area’s voter file can be valuable if you are a campaign or advocacy organization. Pull in people from your district with phone numbers and election histories. Plus, depending on your area, you may be able to import party information and demographics.
Once you have the voter file in your nation, view your target universe on a map, cut turf in key precincts, and print canvassing and phone banking sheets straight from your control panel.
Get the voter file from your local city or county clerk or, request it directly from NationBuilder.
3. Social media contacts
Social media data can tell you what your supporters like and care about – even if you haven’t met them yet! With social data, each profile becomes a person rather than just a line in a spreadsheet. When you call up a potential voter or long-time donor, you’ll know if they are a big environmentalist, a doctor, or even a space enthusiast.
With social data into your nation, discover the Facebook posts and content your supporters engaged with most. Import the Twitter followers of another candidate, brand, or organization and search the followers’ Twitter bios for keywords to find top prospects. Uncover your top influencers and leverage their networks to expand your reach. Make a bigger impact by overlaying your social media information onto the voter file and take phone banking to the next level with tweet banking.
Pull in social media information using NationBuilder Match, connecting your social media accounts to your nation, or importing the Twitter followers of another account.
4. Donors
Import the information of anyone who has donated to your organization, the amount, and frequency. Track each of your fundraisers and how many new donors they are recruiting.
With all your donor data in NationBuilder, you can make more personal asks at scale by targeting different types of donors. Everyone’s gotten an email from a campaign or organization asking them for money. Most are pretty generic and don’t take into account how you’ve given to the organization already.
Instead, use your data as a guide to personalize email blasts to show each donor much they have contributed in the past year. Ask them to match the amount, or even donate at a higher level. Treating donation asks like a conversation will make your donors feel like you know them and appreciate their giving.
5. Memberships
Membership tracking is often siloed into a system separated from social media, donation and email engagement. Import your members and set up automatic renewal reminders. Track your supporters’ membership level, dates, and associated dues.
Combine this information with your other data and see how members are engaging with your organization. Members are the backbone of your thriving organization and now your outreach to them can respond to their engagement and deepen their commitment to you.
The strength of diverse data
When you merge all of your data together, you can communicate with people in a way that would be impossible otherwise.
For example, I requested my local voter file, imported my email list, and pulled in anyone who follows me on Twitter. When the time comes to host a local event I’m going to quickly pull up a list of anyone who is an active voter, follows me on Twitter and lives within 20 miles of the event. I can add the list to an email blast to send out invitations.
Consolidating my data provides advanced targeting accomplished with maximum efficiency. It broadens my outreach possibilities and gives me real context when speaking with my supporters.
Watch this video to learn more about the types of data you can pull into your nation and get started with an import. Don’t forget that you own any data you put into your nation!
