Direct Mail Lives On

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Direct mail is far from dead. I have spent an amazing amount of time in the past few weeks working with clients on direct mail campaigns and issues like:

• Is it worthwhile to use brokered lists?
• Who is the best person in the organization to sign the letter?
• One page or more?
• Will the incremental costs of segmenting bring results?

These are real life issues that organizations are grappling with. The answers aren’t always simple, but here are a couple of things that I strongly recommend:

• Invest in the tools and resources that will maximize the value of your database. The more you know about your donors and prospective donors, the more effective your direct mail campaign will be. Can you segment your list geographically, by donation amount, by dates of donations or asks? Whether it means acquiring/updating software or providing the manpower to ensure that data is entered and kept current - do it.

• Segment and target - however you are able. This doesn’t have to be difficult. Different letters can be variations on a theme. There are probably 2-4 paragraphs that can be the same in each letter. But a letter that for example acknowledges and speaks to a recipient as an alumnus of an institution or as a member of a profession or as a previous donor will undoubtedly be more successful.

• Test. If you are trying to decide what will be more effective (like who signs the letter), do some one way and some the other. Just make sure you have a way of tracking results - like a code on a pledge card. It’s not perfect because there are other factors that may be at play, but if the results sway dramatically in one direction, you’ve probably proved something.

Most studies say that direct mail is still a tremendously effective fundraising tool. You can maximize its value through forethought, planning and preparation.