0 to 60 in 6060 direct marketing tips
in just 60 minutes!
Leah Eustace, ACFRE@LeahEustace
STRATEGY AND PLANNING
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Set The Right Goal
• Be clear on what you’re trying to do with your pyramid
• Stabilize the base
• Grow the base
• Grow the vertical
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Integrate Channels
• DM was a standalone tactic in the 1980s
• Not any more
• Multi-channel world
• Phone, online, face-to-face
• Seamless baby!
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Get Your Data House
In Order
• Your direct marketing program will only be as successful as your data allows it to be.
• Invest in proven fundraising software –and make sure someone is properly trained to get the most out of it.
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Offer Donor Choice
• Number of appeals
• Stewardship options
• Electronic vs. paper receipts, newsletters etc.
• Phoning okay
Greater choice =
greater loyalty!
Put Your Year On A
Spreadsheet
• Mail dates
• Mail types
• Costs
• Response rates
• Average gift
• Revenue – gross and net
• Key performance indicators
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Make A Creative Plan
• Themes
• Signatories
• Look and feel
• Length
• Inserts (if any)
• Info required
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Make A Critical Path
For Each Campaign
• Work dates ‘backwards’
• Include all key milestone dates
• Work from this document daily – or put reminders in your outlook calendar
• If the path is met, the mail drops on time!
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Line Up Your People
• Ensure everyone knows what’s expected of them – and when it’s expected
• Interviewing signatories
• Lining up suppliers
• Everyone who needs to sign off
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Create A Segmented
Fulfillment Grid
• Create ‘categories’ of thank you tactics
• Simple form letters to smaller gifts
• Personalized notes and/or phone calls to more generous gifts
• Use board members to call if you can!
STORYTELLING
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Tell Great Stories
Human beings communicate by telling stories
Donors Experience
Psychic Numbing
“If I think of the mass I will never act, if I think of the one, I will.”
Choose The Right Signatory
• It may not be your CEO
• Try:
o A client
o A patient
o A donor
o A researcher
o A volunteer
o And so on …
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Get Out Of Your
Storytelling Box
• Founding story
• Donor story
• Beneficiary story
• Impact story
• Vision story
• Your story
• Get creative
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Write Emotionally
• Human beings are emotional animals
• We decide based on emotion
• Strike the right chord to generate response
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Carrier Envelope
• Purpose: to be opened
• Simple often works best
• Use teasers only when they contribute
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Letter
• Purpose: to create the impulse to give
• Stay focused on purpose
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Meet Jacqueline
• Make sure your package design and letter copy speak to her
• Focus group a letter with an elderly neighbour rather than your communications staff
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Our Favourite
Fundraising Maxim
It’s all about connecting the donor with the beneficiary of the gift.
“The institution has no needs”
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Write As Long As It Takes
• Despite what your board members think, long letters outperform short ones
• Write as long as it takes to tell your story
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Count Your I’s And You’s
• The donor prefers to read ‘you’ to ‘I’
• Say ‘you’ twice for every time you say ‘I’
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It’s Direct Marketing, So
Be Direct!
• Don’t be afraid to ask
• Be as specific as you can with your ask
• Don’t be afraid to ask more than once
• Asking is why you’re writing
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Focus On Benefits –
Not Features
• A feature describes
• A benefit is an outcome
• Donors want to create the benefit with their gift
• It’s shorter emergency room wait times – not an enhanced intake system
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The Success Formula
problem
+
solution
+
credibility (yours)
+
ask
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Authentic Copy
• Make your letter sound like it REALLY comes from the person who signed it
• Capture the voice/personality
• Interviews work best
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Be Very Careful
Not to use jargon
“enhancing indigenous capacity-building among community-based non-governmental organizations”
or
“helping people help themselves”
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Appeal To The Senses
People’s
imaginations can
see, smell, taste
touch and hear.
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Don’t Crowd
• Short sentences
• Short paragraphs
• Leave lots of white space
• Make it easy to read
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Write Like You Speak
• Your grade four English teacher would be furious!
• Incomplete sentences
• Hyphens
• Write at a grade seven level
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Donors Are Starving
To See
• Their dollars at work
• Talk about how you’re using their gift
• Impact!
DESIGN
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Reply Coupon
• Purpose: to facilitate easy giving
• Make it easy to use!
• Don’t get complicated
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Business Reply Envelope
• Make sure you include one!
• Don’t send your donor looking for envelopes and stamps
• Make it easy!
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Remember That Older
Eyes Prefer…
big
fonts
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Ease Of Reading
• Black type on white background
• Lots of visual contrast
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Use A Serif Font
The preferred
font of direct mail
(older) donors
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Using Photos
• Photos can enhance your story and make your ask more compelling
• But no photo is better than a bad one
• Eyes should be looking at the reader
LEVERAGE
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Conversion
Call new donors simply to say thanks and welcome.
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Conversion
Send a welcome package to first-time donors
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Segment Mailings
Speak to donors where they’re at: recency, frequency, monetary value, etc.
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Donor Engagement
• Donor surveys are a great way to engage –and get valuable information
• We often use them with January renewal mail campaigns
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Donor Engagement
• Can you connect your donor directly to the recipient of the gift?
• Why do you think child sponsorship programs are so successful?
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Monthly Donor Conversion
• Monthly donor lifetime value four times greater
• Always include a monthly ask
• Target multi-givers
• Segment
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Set A Target
Most organizations can convert 5% to 10% of their donors to monthly if they do it right.
Get On The Phone
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Mail and phone work best to convert donors to monthly.
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The Legacy Gift Gold Mine
One-third of your direct mail donors have either left a charitable bequest or are considering one.
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Best Legacy
Prospects Include
• “Miss”
• Loyal
• Monthly (mail or phone sourced)
• Large single gift
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Integrate!
• Mail both annual giving appeals with legacy mailings throughout the year
• Take the time to bring the silos down
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Your Direct Mail Donors
Are Open To Being Cultivated
• But they want to hear from you by mail
• Don’t phone or visit
• Let them control the relationship
• They don’t want to feel pressured!
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Best Cultivation Packages
• Testimonial from a living donor
• Vision piece from CEO
• Legacy-specific newsletter
• Testimonial from surviving loved one
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It’s Time To Start
A Mid-level Giving Program
• 17% of your direct mail donors have made single gifts of $500 or more to charity
• You want a share of that market
• Make a plan – and execute it
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Two Keys For Success
• Make the offer as specific as possible (quasi-designated if you will)
• Promise added value re: stewardship
Anchor!
$47.33
$87.35
$318.65
LOGISTICS
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Test In Each Mailing!
• Lists – acquisition
• Personalization
• Packages
• Carrier envelopes
• Reply devices
• The list is endless!
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Production
• Tender elements of production process to a number of suppliers
• Give them the specs and hold an auction
• Keep them competing for your business
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Guinea Pig?
• Sometimes a supplier will give you a big discount if you’ll test drive a new product or service
• Hand addressing for a nickel
Your Website Matters
• The fewer clicks, the better
• Tell the ‘why’ not the ‘how’
• Be a secret donor
• Keep it simple
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ANALYSIS
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Key Performance IndicatorsDONOR ACQUISITION COST
• Gross revenue minus expenditure
• Divided by number of new donors
• Typical DAQ is $35 to $75, but …
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• Rate at which first time donors make a second gift
• Repeat donors divided by once-only donors
• Sector average is 30-35%
Key Performance IndicatorsCONVERSION RATE
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Gross revenue divided by number of gifts
Key Performance IndicatorsAVERAGE GIFT
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• Average number of gifts per active donor per year
• Total gifts divided by total number of active donors
• Sector average is about 1.3
Key Performance IndicatorsGIFT FREQUENCY
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• Rate at which active donors renew their giving in subsequent year
• Number of this years renewers divided by all last year’s active donors
Key Performance IndicatorsRENEWAL RATE
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Whew! I’m done!
www.goodworksco.ca
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