Legacy Giving Campaign – A/B Testing & Optimization
Campaign Strategy | Case Study
Challenge
The client wanted to grow its Legacy Society by encouraging supporters to include the organization in their wills. Because legacy giving involves a significant long-term decision, the campaign needed to engage a warm, older audience with messaging that made estate planning feel meaningful and approachable.
Action
Audience Strategy
I developed the campaign around a custom audience of 47,415 warm leads who were active and engaged with the SF SPCA and age 60+.
Email 1: Testing the “New Beginnings” Theme
To align with the beginning of the year, I tested two creative approaches centered around the idea of new beginnings and creating a new chapter.
- Version A: Connected legacy giving to the idea of creating a new chapter and invited supporters to build their legacy by creating a free will.
- Version B: Framed estate planning as turning the page in their story/book, encouraging supporters to start the year with an up-to-date estate plan.
Version A generated more initial clicks (49 vs. 34), providing an early indication that the more direct estate-planning message resonated with the audience.
Newsletter Teaser
I also included a brief mention of FreeWill in the organization’s monthly newsletter, extending the campaign beyond the original segmented audience. This provided a lighter-touch introduction to legacy planning for supporters who were not part of the initial 47,400-person audience.
Email 2: Optimizing Based on Engagement
I then targeted supporters who had opened and clicked the first email, creating a more engaged audience for the next stage of the campaign.
For Email 2, I tested two related messaging concepts: “New Chapter” versus “Turn the Page.” The New Chapter version generated 152 clicks compared with 74 for the alternative, informing the messaging direction for the campaign.
Results
The campaign generated 8 bequests valued at more than $3 million, demonstrating the potential impact of targeted email engagement and iterative messaging optimization on legacy giving.