Recently I was leading a webinar on direct mail and a person asked this question:
“What should we include in our direct mail? Would a sticky note or brochure dramatically increase or decrease our money raised via appeals?”
This was at the end of the webinar, and I really did not know the answer to this one. But I asked some lovely people on Twitter, and Gayle Gifford of http://www.ceffect.com responded. Here’s what we came up with.
Adding things to your mailing can either help OR hurt you. Results are MIXED, according to both Mal Warwick and Stephen Hitchcock.
With all of the different things you can add to a mailing, (post it notes, pens, bookmarks, magnets, postcards) what is the most effective thing?
Try a yellow piece of paper, about a 3 1/2 x 8 1/2 sheet. This is called a Buck slip. You might want to include this when there’s an emergency or urgency around your appeal, like all of your arts funding is being cut from the government, or something. Here’s an example buck slip from Democracy NC.
You can include other things like postcards and bookmarks, but you have to test and see if these work for YOUR donors, not just take someone’s word that they work for ALL donors. It’s a case by case thing.
Creating a call to action aside from “Send Us Money” like, “Send this postcard to your representative and ask them to continue to fund the arts” can also work.
For example, several weeks ago I received an Amnesty International appeal in the mail, and it included a card to send to someone imprisoned, and a pen too. Did I use the pen to write on the card? You bet I did! Did I actually mail the card back? No… I got distracted. But it made me remember it, and maybe the next time I’ll give, right? Well, maybe. But give people too many choices of things to do, and you’ll won’t get as many donations.
What about using special paper or envelopes?
Believe it or not, using white paper and standard envelopes works better than anything else.
(@kathyhowrigan also responded, and she said it could go either way.) What is YOUR experience?
Want 43+ more tips on how to write successful appeal letters? Just go here!
Personally, in tough times like these, I’d rather know that the causes I give regularly to are using my donation toward staff or mission rather than buying pens or sticky notes for people who may not even donate.
I have avoided brochures for a long time now – lots of time and money, and they usually depressed results. So unless there’s a really compelling reason, (like a cold mailing to new prospects, perhaps), I don’t use them.
Buck slips, lift notes (an extra note from someone the reader would trust) – they can work, but as you said, there’s no absolute here. It really depends.
I like little sticky notes at times, too. Especially when they either are, or look, very real and personalized.
But for the most part, I like to have the appeal be the focus. And the response form echo that.
So I wouldn’t go nuts trying to think of things to add to an appeal. If there’s something that really makes the message’s point (like the Amnesty pen pack mailing – a classic!) that’s great. But without a lot of thought, too much stuff in the envelope is often just too much stuff!
I include a small photo collage when asking for any sort of donation, whether an item for a silent auction, or a year-end campaign. Pictures are so inexpensive, but really give the donor someone to connect to.
We’re still far too small to think much about buck slips, etc, but a picture in a request? Doable, with positive results (based on terribly informal results culled from mailings we’ve done without photos, because we’re scientific like that)
Personally, I like adding stuff to elevate the call to action. They are a great way to prevent the attitude of ‘I’ll put this mailer aside for another day’.
To understand the challenge of preventing this, is by asking fundraisers to draw the experiences that donors go through as they read the mailer. As they do, the emotional contexts that donors experience at the end of the mailer comes to the fore.
Understanding the challenge to minimise or maximise these experiences enables fundraisers to recognise the opportunities (the adding stuff).
Jensen Calleemootoo
Founder
LIFE Fundraising
jensen@lifefundraising.com
http://www.lifefundraising.com