By Alan Sharpe, CFRE
Do lift notes still lift response rates to fundraising letters? Yes, as long as they stand out.
A lift note, of course, is an extra component slipped into a direct mail package to lift response. It’s also called a lift letter. Publishers call it a publisher’s letter, because it’s usually signed by the publisher.
The classic lift note is a sheet of paper that folds in half. On the front is usually a teaser. And on the inside is a note, usually written by someone other than the person who signed the letter.
In the olden days, lift notes invariably lifted response. Direct mail marketer Harry Walsh says lift notes, usually reiterating the no-risk guarantee, used to boost response by around 11 percent no matter what copy was used. Amazing but true.
Not so today. Your prospects are much more savvy to the devices that direct mail marketers use to boost response. Their Phoniness Filters are on 24/7. So we have to do something different than simply enclose a note from Bono.
Direct mail marketer Barbara Harrison says the best rule for using lift notes today is to abandon the rules. For her client, the Tuft’s School of Veterinary Medicine, Barbara once wrote a lift note from a dog.
The lift note was one of two found in the package (which promoted the school’s newsletter, “Your Dog”). That’s one rule she broke. The first lift note was from the dean of the school, and drew attention to the expertise and credentials of its canine authorities.
The second lift note, the one written by the mutt, described why dogs hate the newsletter so. This newsletter, said the dog, makes its owners too smart, and teaches owners how to break dogs’ bad habits. This unique lift note “added significantly to the strength of this control,” says Barbara in the chapter on lift notes in 2,239 Tested Secrets for Direct Marketing Success, the book edited by Denny Hatch and Don Jackson.
Want to see good examples of lift notes? Read:
 Over 130 Sample Fundraising Letters. International, national and local charities share examples of their direct mail fundraising expertise. |
| You may also be interested in: |
 Handbook Number 153 Simple Ways to Raise More Money with Your Donor Newsletter. Learn how to strike the profitable balance between informing and asking. |
