Feathr's Super Pixel: The secret to year-round donations

What is a Super Pixel, you ask? Oh, it’s only the best way of learning everything there is to know about your ideal audience. It gives you the opportunity to meet them wherever they go online, reminding them of their commitment to the mission.

Okay, to be more exact, the Super Pixel is a piece of tracking code that when placed throughout your website, gives your team insights about the people interacting with your content.

This even includes your anonymous web visitors. Understanding what people are doing on your website is crucial — even those first-time visitors who haven’t yet decided their level of commitment. 

The reason why I call all these people your ideal audience is because they’re your current audience. The people you track with the Super Pixel are people who have already been to your website, so you know they are interested in your website. They didn’t get there by mistake.

In an era where it’s become increasingly difficult to compete for people’s attention, engaging with people who are looking for you is the key, and behavioral tracking is the way to do it. Hubspot has these two stats to keep in mind when you start thinking too much about that new donor:

1. “Acquiring new customers is five times more expensive than retaining existing customers.”
2. “There is a 60-70% chance of selling to an existing customer.”

Both of these facts may have been built with for-profits in mind, but the question remains: are you doing enough to serve your already all-in donor base? Do you spend as much time on the people who are committed to you as you do looking for the next new donor?

What is the Super Pixel?

This isn’t going to get too technical on the specific code and how it fires when someone types in your URL. But you can learn more of the technical details on how to track website visitors through this video from Feathr or you can see how nonprofits go about setting up the Super Pixel here.

There’s a lot of talk about cookies these days, and to be clear, the Super Pixel is not a cookie, although it does currently use cookies to retain key information about your website visitors. 

By following General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) guidelines, you’ll offer your community the opportunity to opt in or out of these cookies. This gives your website visitors the freedom to choose how their information is used, but it also allows you to learn about the people who are open to starting the conversation with you.

Why is the Super Pixel so important?

Effective marketing is built off the best data. The saying “knowledge is power” is just as true in the digital age. What you know about your audience should shape every initiative your organization takes.

And instead of overpaying for third-party data, you should build the data yourself directly from the people you want to engage with (first-party data). 

Now there is a time to buy third-party data – think audience expansion campaigns – but nearly every nonprofit would benefit from building their own data about their unique audiences through website visitor tracking.

What's the big deal with first-party data?

First-party data is gathered directly from the source. It can include almost anything: contact names, email or physical addresses, cell phone numbers, donation amounts and intervals, volunteering information, actions on your website, and survey responses.

Because it’s straight from the source, this data is pure gold. When you know how you got the info, you have much better reason to trust it's worth acting on.

And the info you have is about people who want to connect more with your organization. So the data is valuable, but the reason it’s so valuable is because it’s about the people that matter the most to your organization. They’re the engine that’s driving your mission forward.

But what about those people who opt out of sharing their data? That’s ok because the Super Pixel still learns the basics about these anonymous web visitors. What pages did they visit? How long did they spend on your blog post?

And in Feathr — even though you may not have their email address or first and last name — you can still serve them ads across the web, knowing that these anonymous visitors were interested enough to land on your site in the first place.

And that’s not even talking about the discount you’re going to get by collecting the data yourself. Not only is first-party data more valuable, it’s cheaper. And this means you can save the money to spend on the actual marketing campaigns. I think the technical term for this is a win-win.

How to Super Pixel?

Ok, the Super Pixel is a noun, but I think we should start using it as a verb too since it’s about to do a lot for your organization.

So how do you use it for gaining organization-changing donations? Now that you’ve heard the benefits of the Super Pixel, it’s time to see how easy it is to use for added impact.

1. Place the code throughout your webpages and confirm that the Super Pixel is firing on every page.
2. Learn about the people who are visiting your website.
3. Meet them wherever they go online with retargeting ads or automated emails.

Retargeting ads serve the people who are already interested in your organization anywhere they go online. And you likely already know the impact of email, but taking the guesswork out of the timing can ensure that they end up in the inbox when someone’s ready for it.

The best marketing happens only after you’ve taken the time to listen to your people. And the way to do that in a digital era is through paying close attention to the data that you have about their online activity. That’s what the Super Pixel is all about.

Putting the super back in Super Pixel 

Leveraging a tracking pixel on your website is necessary all year round, but it’s particularly powerful during seasons when your web traffic is likely to peak: Giving Tuesday and the last few weeks of the year.

This is when communities especially mobilize around your cause, and it would be such a missed opportunity not to greet them when they walk into your digital “storefront” and say “hey, what’s your name? Can we send you a short impact story through email?” Ok, you may not overtly be asking that in your cookie opt-in pop up, but it would be a great follow up on your part if they do give you their data.

These people who are researching your mission and organization on Giving Tuesday or during the year-end season may not be immediate major donors. But who knows what they could become with a little followup and a well-timed email?

Start Super Pixeling today!

Now that you know why and how to set up tracking code on your website, what’s keeping you from Super Pixeling this year-end?

Data is gold these days, and once that knowledge about your audience begins to trickle — and then stream in — you’re going to be in a position to better serve your community, which is going to lead to more donations, more momentum, and more positive impact! 

And that’s not to mention the conversion tracking you get with the Super Pixel. Once someone does make a donation, that’s a new data point you can leverage to serve more targeted messaging to that person moving forward. 

Whatever way you decide to begin the process of learning about your website visitors, we hope you start today. But if you do want to learn more about Feathr’s Super Pixel and how easy it is for your nonprofit to start collecting priceless first-person data, book a personalized demo to see the pixel in action.

But whatever you do, don’t let that super knowledge sit on the shelf for long. Get out there and remind your community about the incredible work you’re doing every day. And use that data to make the world just a little bit better!