Everyone is different and may like/dislike channels for various reasons. My mom prefers the phone, I prefer Facebook, and my daughter prefers Instagram. Our job as marketers and blood donor recruiters is to understand which donors prefer which channels for each type of engagement so we can speak more relevantly to them.
Today, we're specifically going to look at DNC donors - those that have asked to be placed on the Do Not Call list.
Why Do Blood Donors DNC?
To some, tele-recruitment can be perceived as aggressive, inconvenient and even stressful. Cold calling perhaps could be worse since low relevancy makes the “intrusion” even more frustrating for the donor. The likelihood that the call comes at an inconvenient time is pretty high and it's this inconvenience and intrusiveness that cause some donors to request to be placed on the Do Not Call list.
You can also infer from this that even though a donor may ask to be placed on the Do Not Call list, it does not mean they want to break ties with your blood center altogether. It just means that they do not want the tele-recruitment channel to be the way they are communicated with.
Alternative Channels To Tele-Recruitment
Perhaps one of the reasons digital channels have more success (email, Facebook, PPC) is that usually the donor is already engaging in the channel. It does not mean that the message is welcome or not annoying but this is usually a function of relevancy instead of intrusiveness.
As individuals move into digital activities in their daily lives it has become acceptable and even desired to receive a relevant solicitation in various digital channels. Many individuals rely on emails or Facebook messages to hear about sales, offers or product releases from their favorite stores.
Testing Other Channels With DNC Blood Donors
There are individuals that absolutely want to be called to schedule a blood donation appointment. They want to have the person to person dialog and they want to ask questions or feel certain that a human has confirmed their appointment time.
But there are other individuals that want to set a blood donation appointment on their terms. They want to THINK about the decision when they have a minute to do so. Many times this can be as they are sitting down and committing time to social media engagement or checking emails.
We've found that many DNC donors actually make up this group of individuals. It's not that they don't want to donate - DNC donors are actually just as likely to donate blood as those that do not request to be put on the Do Not Call list. It's more that they want to be communicated with in a different way. Understanding that everyone has different preferences should hold true when it comes to communications, either outbound or inbound, personal or business.
What types of alternative channels will you be testing with your DNC blood donors this year?