Success Story
Building Better Engagement For Shelter UK
TAP CXM’s email marketing expertise is enabling Shelter UK to expand and deepen its supporter base by accessing new and important value streams.
Industry
Non-profit
Date delivered
Ongoing
Length of project
Since 2018
Solution provided
Understanding customers, Delivering personalisation, Connecting journeys, Measuring effectiveness, Managing operations
Technology
Adobe Campaign, MS Dynamics 365
The Project
Since 2018, we’ve been helping Shelter UK to further its work of providing housing support for 45k+ people. Our tech expertise and best-practice email marketing knowledge have enabled the charity to grow its supporter base, deepen engagement, and turn advocacy into action.
The Challenge
Our partnership with Shelter UK started in 2018 with a tech implementation. We were chosen to implement Adobe Campaign Standard and Microsoft Dynamics 365. That wasn’t the tricky part. Our challenge was to look across Shelter’s operations, data models, processes and supporter engagement requirements so the tech didn’t just work but enabled meaningful, measurable growth.
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- Understand the business: How do time, money and advocacy translate to value for Shelter, and what are the real-world applications?
- Design an outcome-focused data model: What data needs to be in the system to support operations and engage supporters?
- Implement and integrate martech: How can we ease Shelter’s transition to Adobe Campaign Standard and Microsoft Dynamics 365, and ensure user acceptance?
The solution
How can we summarise 6+ years of continuous support? Let’s try…
Step 1: Understand and align
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- In-depth consulting to clarify how Shelter generates impact and the “value” streams available
- Create a data model that aligns these value streams with the incoming tech platforms
- Map business and campaign processes to establish a base case for improvement
Step 2: Configure the tech
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- Build out Adobe Campaign Standard technical processes and Microsoft Dynamics process flows
- Integrate these platforms and other tech to improve business intelligence
- Migrate data from legacy systems
Step 3: Upskill the team
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- Provide tailored training
- Configure custom processes in Adobe Campaign and Microsoft Dynamics based on user requirements
- Build better reporting dashboards to help Shelter’s team understand the “why.”
Step 4: Build on success and add functionality
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- Integrate communication channels (email and SMS) to allow mixed campaigns
- Establish processes to transition from mass campaigns to 1:1 conversations
- Allow Adobe Campaign to engage people who come in via social media platforms
- Built complex recurring journeys to deepen engagement
If we can sum it up? Our work is focused on aligning process flows, team structure, data availability, and tech capabilities to create a system that supports Shelter’s mission.
Shelter taught us that time and advocacy can be just as valuable as money for a modern charity. Our job is to help them access that value. That has ranged from building data models to mapping business processes, building technical solutions, and implementing martech. We’re always focused on best-practice engagement that drives meaningful value.
Thomas Fordham, Founder & COO, Tap CXM
The Results
Shelter UK now has a more sophisticated, integrated, matured support engagement system. Adobe Campaign Standard is used for cross-channel engagement, handling everything from social media campaigns to signing petitions and sending SMS. Microsoft Dynamics CRM enables supporters to understand what they’re contributing to, and gives Shelter insights into supporter motivation. Shelter’s team is highly proficient in both platforms.
That’s led to impressive results – far exceeding our initial targets.
- 730k+ supporters in the database, up from 250k in 2018 and exceeding our 500k target
- 9M+ emails sent in the last 6 months, averaging 2.05 per supporter per month
- 30% average open rate across those emails
- Shelter’s supporters are providing more time, money and advocacy to help fight bad housing and homelessness. That’s meaningful value.
