July 1, 2011 Judy Appeal Test

We’ve tested our first fundraising appeal from a Wikimedia donor. During the 2010 campaign, Judy Mollica left a story on our thank you page about how Wikipedia was her resource for critical information when her daughter was diagnosed with cancer. We tested two versions of her appeal (one US appeal and one appeal outside the US) against our control Jimmy appeal. We tested four variations of Judy's banner, with the titles of Wikipedia “reader,” “supporter,” “user,” and “donor.”

Results

There was not a big difference in click through rate between the banners, but “reader” and “user” seemed to perform slightly better than “supporter” or “donor”.
Judy’s banner and Jimmy’s banner had similar click through rates, but Jimmy’s written appeal brought in significantly more donations.

We think there are some key elements from our successful Jimmy and previous Brandon Harris appeal that we could include in Judy’s appeal to increase the effectiveness of her message. People definitely responded to Judy's letter. While Judy's appeal was running, a lot of readers wrote in really warm comments about how powerful her story was. But we think that because it didn't spend a lot of time pitching for donations, it didn't do as well as others from our previous tests. Keep in mind, Judy's appeal was just one example of the many many different kinds of donor stories we receive everyday. Even within Judy's appeal, there are numerous variations we could test.

Key Elements to Test

Relate Judy’s story more closely to Wikipedia to really emphasize the importance of Wikipedia.
Include more practical information about why Wikipedia needs money.
Include the importance of Wikipedia staying ad-free in the appeal.

Test Reports

US Test

File:C_JMvJD_Junetest_US.pdf
B_JMvJD_Junetest_JM_USL11_JMvJD_Junetest_JM = Jimmy Banner
B_JMvJD_Junetest_JD2_USL11_JMvJD_Junetest_JD2 = Judy "Reader" Banner
B_JMvJD_Junetest_JD1_USL11_JMvJD_Junetest_JD1 = Judy "Supporter" Banner

EN Test

File:C_JMvJD_Junetest_EN.pdf
B_JMvJD_Junetest_JM_ENL11_JMvJD_Junetest_JM = Jimmy Banner
B_JMvJD_Junetest_JD3_ENL11_JMvJD_Junetest_JD3= Judy "Donor" Banner
B_JMvJD_Junetest_JD4_ENL11_JMvJD_Junetest_JD4 = Judy "User" Banner