# Christian Aid interactive marketer interviewed on e-consultancy.com

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2005/09/14/christian-aid-interactive-marketer-interviewed-econsultancycom/
- Published: 2005-09-14T23:00:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Nick Burne, interactive marketer at Christian Aid, has shared details of his activities
in an interview with e-consultancy.com.
In an interview with Chris Lake (no relation
to UK Fundraising’s Howard Lake), Nick explains his role at Christian Aid and his
approach to online marketing for the charity.

He reports that email has worked very well for the charity as a marketing and communications
tool. Although he already uses segmentation to send relevant messages to certain
supporters, there is room for improvement with the planned introduction of personalised
email communications. Viral microsites have also performed well for the charity 
in terms of bringing in new supporters.

Asked about organic v. paid-for search engine marketing, Nick explains that they
adopt both approaches. The main corporate Christian Aid site is well indexed by 
many search engines, but the charity makes use of the instant profile that paid-
for search offers. He cites the example of paying for the keyword “tsunami” after
the December 2004 south Asian tsunami disaster.

## Advertisement

 [⌊Posthub advert. You create the campaign. We'll handle the postal journey. Get started at post-hub.co.uk.⌉](https://fundraising.co.uk/ads/posthub-20261007-300x250/)

Nick admits that joining up online and offline marketing efforts is a real challenge
for Christian Aid, like other organisations. He says that the root solution to this
involves developing and applying a cohesive design, message and brand.

The charity uses agencies regularly for big projects such as creating a viral marketing
site, but at the moment its is handling paid-search and email in-house. These are“
functions that have to be performed month-in month-out so it makes sense to do these
in-house”, explains Nick.

Although Christian Aid doesn’t currently use affiliate marketing, Nick is looking
at launching one as part of the marketing of a new catalogue due to be launched 
before Christmas.

On SMS fundraising Nick is waiting for the network’s costs to come down. “The costs
of processing £5 online compared to £5 through a mobile network are incomparable.
As soon as the mobile networks sort it out I’m sure there will be large take up”,
he believes.

 * **[Two new appointments at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability](https://fundraising.co.uk/2005/09/24/two-new-appointments-royal-hospital-neurodisability/)**(
   24 September 2005)
 * **[10 top charity new media resources](https://fundraising.co.uk/2005/09/28/10-top-charity-new-media-resources/)**(
   28 September 2005)
 * **[New chair at the Legacy Promotion Campaign](https://fundraising.co.uk/2005/10/05/new-chair-legacy-promotion-campaign/)**(
   5 October 2005)