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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