New Member Survey
The purpose of sending the New Member Survey is to get an idea of how new members are finding out about Vote Smart, how they stay updated with Vote Smart, and what compelled them to donate. DevComm sends this survey via email out every Wednesday to all of our new members from the past week. The survey is sent via an iContact message that includes a link to a Google Form and the answers are automatically compiled in a Google Sheet.
Google Form:
http://goo.gl/forms/vc9GT8D7Hz
Google Sheet: https://docs.google.com/a/votesmart.org/spreadsheets/d/1lZJFRa5WvugXGcBp3DncXd4dXxA-B3mkPSIrEdZQkUI/edit?usp=drive_web
How to Send the New Member Survey:
On the DevComm Tasks Sheet, keep track of the dates you have sent the survey through. Currently, we send the email on Wednesday to every new member who donated for the first time starting the previous Wednesday through the Tuesday of the week you are sending it.How to pull the list of New Members:
- In DonorPerfect, go to the "Report Center" under the "Reports" tab.
- In "Easy Reports," select "Email List"
- Under "Selection Filter," remove any filter that is there, then click "apply."
- In the "Default" filters, select the "New Member Survey" filter. Edit the filter so that you only pull new members from the past week. These are the "Criteria" that should be applied to this filter:
- Flag = MEM (DPFLAGS.FLAG = 'MEM')
- Email is not null (DP.EMAIL IS NOT NULL)
- First donation between the previous Wednesday and the Tuesday of the current week (you will always have to edit this criterion).
- For example when we pulled the list on Wednesday, April 4, 2018, the criterion read (DP.INITIAL_GIFT_DATE BETWEEN '03/28/2018' AND 04/03/2018').
- Export the list as a .csv file.
Sending the email via iContact:
Before uploading the spreadsheet of new members to iContact, make sure that nobody is currently subscribed to the "New Member Survey" list. On the left side menu, go to "Contacts." Scroll to the "New Member Survey" list. If there is a number other than 0 in the "Contacts Subscribed" section for this list, follow these steps to unsubscribe them:
- Click the number that indicates how many are subscribed to the list.
- On the bottom of the page, select "Unsubscribe."
- On the first drop-down menu select "all xx contacts" and make sure that the "from" drop-down menu says "New Member Survey."
- Then click "Unsubscribe Contacts from list."
Once you know that there are no subscribers in the "New Member Survey" list, you can upload the spreadsheet to this list:
- In the top menu, click "Add" then select "Upload Contacts from a File."
- In the "Choose a list to add or invite your contact to" make sure that only the "New Member Survey" list is selected.
- Click the "Choose file" button and choose the .csv file of new members that you previously created.
- Click the "Upload Contacts" button.
- Make sure that each field matches up with the fields on your spreadsheet. For instance, your "first name" field should match with the "fname" field on the drop-down list just above that column.
- Once all of the fields match up, click "Next."
- Enter your initials and click "Upload Contacts."
Since the New Member Survey is an automated message, once you receive an email indicating how many contacts were updated to the list it means that the survey email has been automatically sent out. Our automation is set to send anyone who does not open the first email a follow-up prompting them to take the survey after 4 days. Make sure you leave a full week between new member contact uploads so that this automated sequence has time to complete.
Reviewing New Member Survey Responses
After sending the survey, review the responses from the previous week in the New Member Survey Results sheet.
If enough information is given under the name/email section, find the member on DonorPerfect and add a contact note with the response. In the Contact Details choose "New Member Survey Responses" as the "Activity."
If someone gives us good positive feedback, add their quote to the Nice Things that People Say about VS sheet.
Once you have reviewed all of the recent responses, highlight the row in yellow to indicate that you have reviewed it.
Text for the email:
Hello!
First, let me say thank you for your recent online donation to Vote Smart. Individual contributions from citizens like you are what keeps Vote Smart running strong, providing comprehensive data through every election cycle.
We were hoping to get some feedback from you about how you came across Vote Smart. The survey is 3 quick questions that would go a long way in helping us organize our efforts to reach millions of voters.
To answer the questionnaire, just click here: http://goo.gl/forms/vc9GT8D7Hz
Any feedback you can provide would be greatly appreciated, and thank you again for your time and support!
All the best,
[sender’s name]
