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Red Cross exec claims mobile traffic reaches tipping point

NEW YORK ? An American Red Cross executive speaking at Mobile Commerce Daily's fourth annual Nonprofit Mobile Day said that traffic from mobile devices recently reached a tipping point, topping out around 40 percent during the organization?s efforts around the recent Oklahoma tornado disaster.

Mobile is a way for people to remember that the Red Cross is out there providing relief during disasters, the executive said during the presentation titled ?American Red Cross: How the Nation?s Default National Responder Takes a Multifaceted Mobile Approach.? The Red Cross responds to 70,000 national disasters a year and is leveraging mobile as a key part of its strategy to raise funds for disaster relief.

?During Oklahoma, we hit this tipping point where most of our traffic was coming from some kind of mobile device, around 40 percent,? said Craig Oldham, vice president of digital engagement of the American Red Cross, Washington. ?It is radically changing, and I think it is changing even faster than we thought it was.

?As people are coming and experiencing the Red Cross, they are not doing it on their desktop anymore,? he said. ?Mobile is really an imperative for us - we can?t not think about it anymore.?

?If you are not in somebody?s pocket, you are irrelevant at this point.?

Nonprofit Mobile Day, a conference owned by Mobile Commerce Daily parent Napean LLC, was co-presented with the Direct Marketing Association.

Text-to-give
The significant potential in text-to-donate first became clear with the relief efforts around the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 when the Red Cross gave mobile users a way to easily donate $10 by texting a keyword to a short code. The campaign raised $32 million.

In the time since, the organization has continued to see text-to-give play an important role for some of the bigger disasters that have taken place.

One of the challenges with text to give that has become apparent with its success is being able to only donate $10 at time, a limitation put in place by the wireless carriers. The Red Cross? experience suggests that users want to be able to give more via mobile.

Going forward, the Red Cross will focus more heavily on using mobile to deliver information in real-time when users need it via alerts. The nonprofit delivered one million alerts via mobile before a massive tornado recently hit in Oklahoma.

The organization has also started to do some testing around blood donations and texting users in a specific geographic area when there is a blood drive in their area.

?When we use alerts effectively, we are finding it is much more efficient than calling or emailing someone,? Mr. Oldham said.

The Red Cross has also found that mobile and social media can be leading indicators of how big of a fundraising event a specific disaster is going to be, with social media giving picking up within the first 24 hours and then mobile giving picking up after that and sustaining donations going forward.

The nonprofit has also tried to leverage text-to-give efforts at live sporting events, but has seen only around $500 raised per event from this strategy.

Mobile Web
With the number of smartphones outselling the number of desktops, Mr. Oldham recommends that nonprofits design their Web site with a mobile-first strategy, something that the Red Cross did not do with a recent redesign. As a result, the organization is retrofitting some assets to optimize them for mobile using responsive design.

The mobile Web also enables the organization to reach a wider audience than it can via its app, which only reaches iPhone and Android users.

When it comes to design, Mr. Oldham encourages nonprofits to not think about their Web site in terms of device but rather as different screen sizes: small, medium and large. 

To address its Web site from this framework, the Red Cross is taking a close look at responsive design and has begun some A/B testing that is showing significant upticks when buttons are made bigger and easier to use on small screens.

In general, the organization is doing a lot of A/B and multivariate testing on the site to accelerate its learning in this space as rapidly as it can, with mobile Web donations at the top of the list of what it is trying to figure out.

App happy
Mobile applications also make up a key part of the organization?s mobile strategy.

The Red Cross focuses on figuring out which apps would mean the most around delivering part of the mission that people need when there is little or no connectivity.

The first app launched by the organization was the First Aid App, which provides information for handling common first aid emergencies. The app was promoted by Apple on the front page of the app store, which has helped drive 1.5 million downloads for the app.

The nonprofit also offers apps designed to help people prepare for a hurricane or tornado. These apps are promoted to users when and where a hurricane or tornado is expected.

Additional apps that the Red Cross is working on include a disaster app and an app for volunteers.

The strength in apps for the Red Cross lies more in building awareness and spreading the organization?s mission than fundraising, per Mr. Oldham.

?Apps stink for fundraising,? Mr. Oldham said. ?We try our hardest to get people to donate through apps ? they are horrible.?

?It is very effective in changing the way people view our organization,? he said. ?We have found some really positive brand engagement that has come from our apps.

?The perception is that we are more contemporary and that we are with it.?

In terms of whether to build one overarching app or several more focused apps, the Red Cross went with the latter strategy following the recommendations from Google, Apple and others.

?If you have an uber Red Cross app, because our mission is so broad, there is no need to download it,? Mr. Oldham said. ?The tornado app, there is a reason to download it if you are in an area where one is expected.

?It is a lot less about the Red Cross than the person that is looking for information,? he said.

To promote an app, Mr. Oldham recommends organizations ensure apps are referenced in any communication similar to how Web site URLs are showcased.

Building awareness
Outside of disasters, the Red Cross is focused on leveraging mobile to deliver information that people are interested in.

For example, the nonprofit is investigating how mobile can be used to maximize moments that people have when they touch the brand, putting this into compelling information that touches people on an emotional level and spreading that around.

Leveraging social media can be an important way to help accomplish, with mobile playing a key role as mobile use of social sites is significant.

For example, the organization used Facebook to encourage users to tell their Red Cross story and then sent cameras to 300 people, asking them to record their story and send it back to the organization. The content was edited into compelling public service announcements.

We got all of these amazing stories that we turned into content on our Web site and in our PSAs.

?What we realized is that it is really about capturing those moments that you touch people every day and being able to bring them out,? Mr. Oldham said. ?This is one of the most amazing things that I?ve seen come out of social and mobile.?

The Red Cross is also leveraging mobile and social to drive awareness when it has emergency response vehicles present in specific locations that are handing out food and supplies during a disaster.

The nonprofit investigated putting a GPS dish on the top of these trucks and found that this strategy would be cost prohibitive.

Recognizing that most volunteers now have a smartphone, the organization will soon launch a shelter app that will showcase when a volunteer checks-in at a specific location similar to what happens with foursquare. This will enable users to see where a specific response location is.

Results by device
While the amount that users are donating to give is virtually the same by device for the Red Cross, Mr. Oldham reports that are significant differences in conversions by device.

The conversion rate for tablets following an effort to optimize content for touch screens is roughly the same as on desktop.

However, as the screen gets smaller, conversion rates drop-off dramatically, with a 95 to 96 percent drop-off rate for a four-inch screen.

The low conversion rates on smartphones is because users who want to make a donation via mobile have little tolerance for a bad experience more so than any security concerns they may have, per Mr. Oldham.

The drop-off typically happens when users get to the point where they need to input their credit card information.

To address this issue, Red Cross is partnering with mobile payments companies to streamline the donation process. For example, users can complete a donation using PayPal, which accounts for approximately 10 percent of the nonprofit?s donations.

Mobile advertising
With search one of the most popular activities on mobile devices and the cost of a mobile search still relatively low, mobile search is an important part of the Red Cross? mobile strategy.

However, Mr. Oldham sees some problems with Google?s new Enhanced Campaigns strategy ? which limits marketers? ability to do standalone mobile campaigns.

In terms of display ads, Mr. Oldham sees a problem with LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter in that that they do not currently offer mature targeting tools. As a result, it is difficult to get a good ROI on ads.

?My problem is not that they are doing that but that my conversion rates are low,? Mr. Oldham said. ?If I can fix this and get the mobile conversions up, I will be happy to buy more mobile terms.?

?We are not going to stop trying social media advertising but it s not where we spend our first dollar or second dollar,? he said.

Final Take
Craig Oldham is vice president of digital engagement at the American Red Cross, Washington