Quality control and testing are essential components in the success of your marketing effort implementation and ongoing management. For many organizations, it may be hard to know where to start. But with a few strategic processes, you can be well on your way to ensuring your appeals are reaching your intended audience.

There are two types of testing required. First, implementation level testing is conducted pre go-live, focusing on data conversion and design (e.g. is a new gift falling into the correct letter process, are we able to match exclusion counts between systems, did major donors convert as expected, etc). This testing (which is tempting to delay when timelines get tight) is the foundation; its importance cannot be overstated.

The second level of testing, and the focus of this post, are items that should be checked on a regular and ongoing basis after initial setup and testing has occurred. This checklist should be completed for each marketing effort to ensure the accuracy of effort level settings, segments and more before an effort drops.

The Essential Checklist: In-House Efforts

1. Set-up Marketing Effort including Universe and all Exclusions

2. Add Segments

• Test 1: Compare Segment Counts to Last Run of Same or Similar Effort

1. Export effort

2. Select 10-20 test records (inc. at least one per unique Segment group/type)

3. Set up an audit query

• Filter: Constituent LookupID = X

• Output: Name, IDs + other unique identifiers, all smart fields used in the effort (including those used in ask ladder)

1. Compare exported test records to results in audit query

• Test 2: Did record belong in Universe?

• Test 3: Should record have been excluded?

• Test 4: Did record fall into correct segment based on RFM?

• Test 5: Ask Ladder calculation correct?

• Test 6: Did the record receive the right package based on the segment code?

• Test 7: Did the export contain the intended name format (especially organization records)?

1. Review file for data hygiene at large

• Test 8: Are there any Blank Addresses, Zip Codes, etc.

• Test 9: Are there International Addresses in a US file?

• Test 10: Other “unique to your organization” checks as appropriate

Complete these 10 tests, every time, and you will go a long way in ensuring the integrity of your marketing efforts.

If you manage numerous marketing efforts, you might have found the refresh process to be an onerous task. To help reduce the manual nature of the process, we've built a free Marketing Effort Refresh Process - a custom queue process that automatically refreshes marketing efforts with new revenue. This means no more manually adding your efforts to a queue, and significant improvement to the processing time of your refreshes since efforts with no new gifts can be skipped altogether. If you'd like this free - yes, we said free, customization, please contact us today.

For more info about Marketing Efforts, check out our blog or connect today.