In real estate it’s location, location, location. In fundraising it’s list, list, list.

You can have brilliant copy and design but if you use the “wrong” list your mailing will bomb. On the other hand, you can have mediocre copy and design, but if you use the right list, you can still have great results.

It is impossible to overstate the importance of the list. Choosing the list should be the first thing you do for an acquisition mailing. The list you use should influence the nature of the creative. Strategy, copy and design should be tailored to the list. For example, if your list has a lot of seniors, the type size should be larger than average.

Here’s how the right list can generate a great response, with virtually no copy or design. A fishing lodge sends out a postcard to its best customers with just two words: “They’re biting!” The mailing gets a 100% response.

Your best list and the one you can truly rely on is of course your own donor/member list. But there’s a limit as to how many times you can ask your loyal donors for money in a year. Plus no matter how effective your donor retention strategy, some attrition is inevitable. You will lose donors each year, so you must have an ongoing program to replenish and add to your donor base. Also a strategy for lapsed-donor reactivation will usually pay large dividends, even if it has been years since their last gift.

Building and replenishing your list should be an ongoing high-priority project. The goal of gathering names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses must be top-of-mind at every opportunity and whenever there is an interaction with the public. And remember, every name you collect is valuable until proven otherwise. You never know where your next major donor is coming from.

There are various ways that you can amass a list of names. You can create some kind of a special event and invite the public to attend. You can advertise and offer a free newsletter on your website and on any print materials you produce. You can ask your donor/members, your board members and your staff and volunteers to supply prospect names and/or to recruit members.

In other words, use every method you can to get the names, addresses, etc. of potential donors. And be sure to promise that you will respect their privacy and that you will never sell their information.

Donor lists generally do best. While carefully selected compiled lists can do well, donor lists generally do best.And that makes sense. Someone who already gives to a charity will have a “propensity” to give. That means they will be more likely to give to your charity than someone who does not already give to charity.

Back in an earlier newsletter (#4) the notion of “writing to responders” was discussed as a way to get better response. Mailing to a donor list is doing exactly that – writing/mailing to responders.

And if you can find donor lists that are targeted, they will usually work even better. That’s why you should have an accurate profile of your typical donor – so your list broker or agency can better target.

A good list is an investment that may take time to pay off

Response rates these days can be quite low – anywhere from ½% to 1%. If you can do better than 1% you are doing well. With response rates that low, it is very possible that you will not receive enough revenue in the first mailing to pay the total costs of the mailing. The better your list, the better chance you have of receiving enough funds to cover the cost of the mailing.

But your primary goal in an acquisition mailing should not be to cover the cost of the mailing, If you do, wonderful! If you don’t, no problem. You should view that acquisition mailing as an investment in future revenue. Remember – all those who responded are now your donors. You earned those names and you can mail to them as often as you like.

Each one of those newly acquired donors represents a stream of revenue for your organization – a Lifetime Donor Value. The LDV is important because it gives you revenue parameters to use when you’re evaluating acquisition costs.

Ideally, a list should be tested before rolling out with a large mailing. If you’re a smaller fundraising organization this can be hard to do. To have a reasonably reliable result – a number you can count on when you roll out – the rule of thumb is to have around 50 responses. That means if you’re response rate is in the typical 1% area, you’d need to mail at least 5,000 pieces.

Smaller mailers sometimes try testing smaller amounts. Trouble is, you just can’t rely on the result to repeat on a rollout. Using a small statistically invalid test to make a decision is not much better than flipping a coin. And flipping a coin is a lot easier.

1. Every fundraising package must have one: THE OUTER ENVELOPE

Your outer envelope is critical. No matter how heart-warming your story or compelling your letter or noble your cause, it is all to no avail if the envelope doesn’t get opened. That decision – to open or not to open – is made in just 2 or 3 seconds. And sadly, most direct mail envelopes lose that decision. They get tossed without even being opened. And that includes fundraising envelopes.

Of course if you are mailing to existing donors, this is not the case. Your donors will open just about anything you send them. But when you are doing an acquisition mailing, your envelope is the vital first step in getting a new donor. In fact, your envelope strategy is so important we’ll soon be devoting a newsletter entirely to it.

The two workhorse outers for fundraising are the #10 (9 1/2 x 4 1/8) and the #8 (6 1/2  x 3  5/8) window envelopes. Sometimes, if the situation calls for it, another approach, such as a 6 x 9, a 9 x 12 or invitation type of envelope can be effective.

The big question is, should your envelope have teaser copy on it? This is one of those situations that can be answered only through testing. The only thing you can assume with reasonable certainty is that a plain envelope will probably work better than an envelope with “lame” teaser copy. Simply, no teaser is usually better than a lousy teaser.

2. You have to offer them an easy way to give you their gift: the REPLY FORM

It is critical to personalize the reply form so the person merely has to fill in their credit card number or enclose a check. This is far more important than personalizing the letter because it makes responding so much easier.

If you want to personalize both the letter and the reply form, you can it do it economically by using 8 ½  x 14 paper and creating a perfed 8 ½ x 3 reply form at the bottom of the letter. Letter and reply form can then be personalized and printed at the same time. Just be sure to design it so that the address shows through your outer envelope window.

3. You have to give them an easy way to send their gift: the BRE and CRE

You want to make it easy to respond so a reply envelope should always be included. It’s worth testing whether you should use a BRE with postage paid or a CRE where the responder has to use their own stamp. If the response with the CRE is close to that with the BRE, it will likely pay to use the CRE, considering you have to pay first-class postage plus a handling fee for each envelope you receive back.

Two extra steps you can take with the reply envelope are . . .

Print on the front of the BRE or CRE “To the attention of . . ” or “Please forward to . .” [the person who signed the letter]. It adds a touch of immediacy and urgency.

On the BRE, the words “Your stamp will save us money” under the postage-paid indicia, will motivate some responders to apply their own stamp.

Two common non-essentials: the BROCHURE and LIFT LETTER

When do you need a brochure? Certainly not all the time. Tests have shown that a brochure can actually depress response because it can take readership away from the letter. A person will spend only so much time with a direct mail package. If too much time is spent with a brochure, that takes time away from the letter. And since the letter is the strongest sales tool, response can fall. In fundraising, the old adage “the brochure tells, the letter sells” is particularly true. The key to response is to appeal to emotion, and the letter format does that better than a brochure.

An effective brochure could be a report printed on inexpensive paper showing how funds raised are spent. Or if your cause has been written about in the media, articles reprinted on newsprint add big impact and cost little. Your brochure solution may be as simple as adding a photocopied article into the package with a handwritten blurb at the top.

There are some situations where a brochure may be necessary. For example . . .

• If you have to teach the reader
• If you have too much necessary information for a letter
• If there are photos or visuals that will help your case

Bottom line – you should probably test to see if you need it.

And finally, the other common component is the lift letter. Unlike the brochure, the lift letter can be used to appeal to emotion and it usually works to lift response. My experience has been that a well-crafted lift letter with an effective message and signed by the right person (different from the person who signed the mail letter) can add valuable impact and increase response far beyond the cost. In fact, it’s one of the few things you can confidently do in this direct mail business without testing. It’s almost a sure thing.

1. If you have an element in your package with a photo or illustration, always use a caption with it. The visual will attract attention so you should take advantage of that by having a caption that relates to the photo or illustration plus builds the case for a donation. Simply, a photo or illustration without a caption is an opportunity lost.

2. Do not make the mistake of running a headline or even worse, running body copy across photos or illustrations. It reduces the effectiveness of the visual and makes the copy hard to read.  Usually best to have the headline above the visual with a caption below.

3. And speaking of a lost opportunity for copy, most mailers don’t use the back of the envelope. Think about it. In order to open the envelope, you have to turn it over to get under the flap, so you spend a fair bit of time on the back. It’s a good place to write some extra copy.

4. Here’s a small tip that will help get the letter read in its entirety. It’s a tactic that takes a bit of effort but should help get the reader to turn to page two. What you do is, ensure that the first page of your letter ends in the middle of a sentence and if possible in the middle of an important thought. This forces the person to turn the page to find out how the sentence ends. One problem is that the “board” or others who must approve the letter will tell you that you shouldn’t do this. But they are the same people who tell you not to begin a sentence with “and” or “but”. And they must be reminded that they are not professional copywriters.

5. Usually we want the reader to read the letter first because it is the most powerful selling tool in the package. One way to help that to happen is to repeat the envelope copy at the top of the letter. That way, especially if the letter is nested in the envelope properly, the first thing the reader sees when they open the envelope is something familiar. They go to it and read from there as a continuation of the process that enticed them to open the envelope.

6. Here’s something that is not a “must” but is almost sure to increase response. If your budget can afford an involvement device, like a sticker, use it. It almost invariably will increase response. But it does add cost so you have to test to be sure that the increase in response pays for the increased cost.

7. Here is something to avoid – setting type in reverse (white type on a black or coloured background) when there is more than just a sentence or two. More than that and reading is too difficult. Readers hate copy set in reverse but unfortunately, designers love it and continue to use it.

8. And another thing to avoid – not having enough contrast between the type and the background. Setting blue type on a 20% blue screen background may look nice but it won’t get read. You need to have lots of contrast and best of course is black type on a white background.

9. Do not put a period at the end of a headline, even if it is a sentence. The purpose of a headline is to attract attention and motivate the reader to read more. A period is a subconscious message that says “the end” so the reader is getting a mixed message. Granted this is a very small thing but all the small things can add up to make a difference.

10. Avoid numerous type-styles and faces within your package. Some people are still smitten with the ability to use various faces and then reverse, bold, italicize or outline each one of them. Remember, the best typesetting is never noticed by the reader.

11. And finally, avoid using too small a type face in the letter or in the brochure. This is absolutely critical when your audience is older. And if you absolutely must use a small typeface because of space limitations, use a sans serif face – it is easier to read when small.

In general, design plays a very secondary role in fundraising. When you’re asking for money to support your cause, expensive looking packages may seem wasteful to the reader and convey the wrong impression.

On the whole, most of the same design rules that apply to all direct mail apply to fundraising. One major difference is that the format and the components are not as variable as in other direct mail. You will rarely see self-mailers, postcards, catalogs, magalogs or the like. They don’t work in fundraising because they don’t have the personal feeling and can’t trigger the emotional reaction that only an envelope mailing can provide.

And that’s why in fundraising the format is generally the traditional direct mail package – an outer envelope containing a letter, a reply device and a BRE (business reply envelope – postage paid) or CRE (courtesy reply envelope – postage not paid). Here are a few basic design guidelines for these components that will help maximize response:

White space: How to make your letter look easy to read

As in all direct mail, the letter is by far the most important element. It does the main job of selling. You have to design your letter so that it looks like it will be easy to read. And that means for starters, your letter should have lots of white space. Nothing turns a reader off like staring at a page that is dense with type. It looks like a challenge and hard work so they don’t even begin to read.

To create that spacious look your letter should follow the same basic rules as in other direct mail letters, such as:

• Short sentences and short paragraphs. Long sentences and long paragraphs will give you that dense look you want to avoid. I try to keep my paragraphs no longer than 3 lines, 5 at most. And sometimes for emphasis, the paragraph may be only 1 line.
• Indented paragraphs. Again, this will give you a little more of that vital white space.
• At least a 1.25″ margin on the sides of an 8 ½ x 11 page. Again, more white space
• Double space between paragraphs. This again creates more white space for easier readability.

7 design tips for your fundraising letter

• Use black ink. Blue ink may be pretty but black ink is easier to read and it is what people are used to.
• Use a serif typeface. Designers often like to use a sans-serif face because it is cleaner and more modern. And that may be true but a serif face is more readable. Case closed.
• Underlining is good but don’t use color, especially don’t use red – it’s too much like “junk” mail. And don’t underline whole paragraphs – just key sentences and phrases. Remember, too much emphasis is no emphasis.
• One tactic worth testing is to use handwritten notes in the margin of the letter. Just make sure they’re in the same handwriting and the same ink color as the signature (preferably blue). And as with underlining, be careful not to overdo – use a maximum of 2 or 3 notes in a letter.
• Avoid all caps in the letter. All caps screams your message and screaming is not what you want to do in fundraising.
• Remember that people who give to non-profits are usually older, so keep type sizes a bit larger – no smaller than 11 point Times Roman, better is 12 or 13.
• Be careful not to look too expensive, especially with your choice of paper. Stick with inexpensive bond in white or near white color.

Or do you make the mistake of always writing short copy, regardless of the situation? There’s a knee-jerk reaction by many marketers against long copy and it’s entirely based on personal opinion, not on testing in the market place. The reason given by those against long copy is simply that no one has time to read it. Right. Just like no one has time to watch a 30-minute infomercial on TV. In fact, the success of the 30-minute infomercial is a testament to the strategy of long copy, a strategy that buys into the topic of the last newsletter, the notion of writing to the responder.

Infomercials do get less viewership and long copy does get less readership. But the people who choose to watch and who choose to read long copy are the ones who are interested. They are the responders. They have chosen to read your story. These are people who will respond if you give them sufficient reason. Long copy lets you tell them the whole story. It lets you describe all the key facts and benefits. It gives you a much better chance at making the sale or securing the donation.

There is a very old saying which goes, “the more you tell, the more you sell”. And although that may be a tired worn cliché, it’s also a proven fact. Because when tested, long copy almost always wins: 6 and 8 page letters beat 4 pages, 4 page letters outpull 2 pages, 2 pages outpull 1 page. Just look at the classic direct mail packages over the years. Almost all of the letters have been 4 pagers.

Of course for long copy to work, it has to be good.

It has to be concise and well written with no puffery and no wasted words. It has to be loaded with facts and benefits that are important to the reader. It should be scannable, with subheads and graphic emphasis devices. And it has to flow. One paragraph should lead naturally into the next so that once the reader begins, they’re hooked. In short, it should be a compelling read.

And to create a compelling read in fundraising, nothing works better than a gripping story. But writing a gripping story is hard to do when you must work under the conventional wisdom that says to keep the copy short. An unfortunately there are all too many misguided voices out there to inform you that no one has the time to read all that copy.

There are definitely situations in which short copy will do better. For example, if your goal is to generate a lead, then usually the less you tell the better. Or if you are raising funds for an emergency, why complicate things? Let the KISS principle apply and keep your copy short. Or if your target audience is very young, shorter copy may work better because today’s young people don’t read as much.

According to a study recently published in The Guardian, people over 60 are twice as likely to donate to a charity than people under 30. And people over 60 are more inclined to read long copy than people under 30. That means if you think your audience tends toward the 50′s and 60′s or older, you should definitely use a long copy approach.

Many marketers believe that if you’re writing for the web or email, you should keep your copy shorter than for print. Maybe. On the other hand, some of the longest sales letters you’ll ever see are on the web. And they seem to be working. Agora Publishing is one of the most successful marketers on the web – with hundreds of books and dozens of paid newsletters – and they are masters of the art of long copy. Some of their web sales letters run dozens of pages.

Discover more about why long copy works better . . .

There’s just not enough room here to properly extol the virtues of long copy. So here’s an offer. Send me an email – publisher@expertfundraiser.org – with the subject line “long copy please” and I’ll send you a great article on long copy by BC copywriter George Demmer. He wrote it years ago because he was tired of explaining the merits of long copy to his clients. To build his case he quotes DM notables like David Ogilvy, John Caples, Claude Hopkins, Bob Stone, Robert W. Bly, Gary C. Halbert, Jay Abraham and others. The best thinkers and writers in the business. If these marketing legends don’t convince you that long copy works, nothing will.

I tried googling ‘write to responders’ and ‘writing to responders’ but got no relevant results, which is surprising considering the importance of this notion.

The idea of writing to responders is a nugget of advice I was given many years ago by a true wizard in direct mail. He told me that when writing copy for response, I should not write to everyone in the audience but rather I should write to responders.

So what does it mean to write to responders?

It means you should write your copy for those in your audience who have a propensity to respond. Your copy should not try to convince everyone in your audience. It should be aimed at those most likely to respond.

Before we look at how to do this, let’s first consider why you should do this because you may rightly be thinking: “Why not try to convince everyone?” The answer is very simple. It’s because the printed word – direct mail or any kind of direct response copy – has a limited power to persuade.

Let’s take an example.

Let’s say you want to solicit support for a political party. If you could speak to your prospects in person or even over the phone, you could be forceful and control the conversation. You could deal with objections and use your personal charisma. And you might be able to change a few minds and persuade some people from other parties to switch. But you can’t do that with direct mail copy. You can’t deal with objections. You can’t use your charisma. In fact you can’t even be sure that anyone will even read your copy.

People will only read your message if they want to. And they will want to only if they have an interest in your message. In just about any audience, there will be many who will be indifferent or even hostile to your message and copy will not do well at turning these people around.

The bottom line – written copy doesn’t have the persuasive power to change minds.

But it does have the power to tickle the interest that is already there. If there’s a tiny spark, copy can kindle it into a flame. Back to the political fundraising example. Copy is great for getting people who are already members or supporters to continue their support but would not do well at getting people to switch parties. In short, the best use of DM copy is to preach to the converted.

So how do you ensure that you are preaching to the converted? Just make sure that you choose the right lists. The better the list, the stronger the predisposition to your offer. With the right list, you don’t so much have to create interest as to arouse and capitalize on the latent interest that is already there. As in all direct mail, the list is the most important determinant of response.

There are several ways to aim your efforts at those who might have a propensity to respond.

For one thing, you have to get to the point early in your copy. Your message is competing with many other messages. Plus people don’t have time to waste. If you believe your audience will want to know about your mesage, don’t hide it. Put a strong statement on the envelope or in the headline. This will allow people to quickly recognize: “This is something I’m interested in. I should read this”.

Another way to write to responders is to take a more assumptive attitude. Use a more forceful tone in your copy as opposed to less forceful. Some copywriters take a lowest common denominator approach and weaken their copy down for all readers.

And another example of writing to responders is to use long copy.

If you want everyone to read your copy you could write very short copy. You will get higher readership but less response. The length of copy – why long copy usually works best – is the subject a future newsletter. For now, please accept the notion that long copy works better. It will get less readership but higher response.

So quick recap:

For best response get to the point quickly, be forceful in your tone, don’t be afraid of longer copy and last and most important, use the right lists.

Whatever you’re selling, whatever media you’re using, your ability to persuade someone to respond or to buy is based on your ability to show them how they will benefit from the transaction. People will read your copy and respond because of a very simple principle called WIIFM – “what’s in it for me”. In other words, how do I benefit?

People don’t buy products or services. They buy the benefits the products or services bring them. A benefit is how the product will make me better off, how it will improve my life. Make me money, make me healthy, save me time, save me energy, make me smarter, thinner, stronger, taller, prettier, more handsome, etc.

Benefits result from product features. For example: A mutual fund offers a 20% annual return. That’s a feature. As a result, I’ll have more money to spend. That’s a benefit. A tire is guaranteed never to blow out. That’s a feature. I can enjoy peace-of-mind when I drive and never worry about changing a tire. These are benefits. A golf jacket is waterproof, Gore-Tex lined and weighs only 5 ounces. These are features. It will keep me dry in the rain, with Gore-Tex I won’t sweat and it’s light enough to carry all the time. These are benefits.

So how do we identify the features and benefits in the fundraising sector?

Let’s start with the features. There is no perfect analogy but it would seem in a fundraising situation, the features would be the “good things” that the fundraising organization does with the money they raise. Saving animals. Helping children. Finding a cure for a disease. Simply stated, the features are the ways the organization will make a difference. The benefits that the donor will enjoy will generally flow from these features. So part of the task of the fundraiser/copywriter is to ensure that these features are made clear and prominent in the copy.

We don’t usually talk of the benefits of giving but rather the motivations for giving. Identifying the benefits or motivations of giving is difficult because they are based on individual perceptions and feelings. The benefits of a tire or jacket described above are universal. That is not the case in fundraising. People donate to any specific cause for a variety of reasons and in most cases, stem from personal experiences. Some of them are:

• A desire to make a difference. This could be based on altruism or compassion or both.
• They care about a specific issue and want to take a stand. This could be idealistic and/or could be politically motivated.
• They may want to keep up to date on a specific issue or cause and donating may accomplish that.
• Some people may give because donations are tax deductible.
• Many people give for spiritual or religious reasons. There could be a sense of obligation here.

But the overriding motivation for giving is that it feels good to give and that good feeling is instantaneous. And in this busy stressful world we live in opportunities to feel good about one self may be rare. So the challenge for the copywriter is to somehow capitalize on this. To remind the reader of the wonderful sense of joy they will experience by putting that cheque in the envelope.

But you say, “Hey I’ve been doing this for years and I think I know what should and shouldn’t be done in direct mail.”

And I say, think about a professional golfer. Years of experience. Got the basics down pat. But just about every one of them has a coach who is forever watching their swing because just one little variation from the basics, one little mistake, can mean the difference between winning or losing. And it’s the same in direct mail. Make just one mistake, one slip-up and it can mean the difference between success or failure in a campaign.

Want an example? Let’s say you’re an animal rescue organization and you’re sitting around the table discussing the direction of your next direct mail package. One very logical person wants to talk about how effective your organization is and wants to show how the money is being spent so wisely. Another person wants to tell the story of one specific animal who is alive today because of your organization.

When you know the basics, you know that the story approach will raise more money than the “look how we’re spending your money wisely” approach. When you know the basics, you know that emotion wins over logic just about every time. It’s been tested time and time again and emotion wins. In for-profit direct mail, in TV ads, in print advertising, in virtually any kind of marketing or advertising, emotion wins over logic.

We have a huge advantage in direct mail

One of the wonderful things about direct mail is that it is a great medium for testing. There are dozens of strategies and tactics that have been tested over and over and over by thousands of mailers. As a result, we know with virtual certainty some things that work and some things that don’t work. Lift letters work. Short paragraphs work. Simple language works. Donor lists work. A prompt thank you letter to donors works. Specifics work better than generalities. Suggesting the size of a gift works.

On the other hand, there are many things we know don’t work in direct mail:

And the lists go on and on. Things you should do and things you shouldn’t do. These are the things we’re going to be talking about. And remember, no matter how much experience you have, it never hurts to be reminded that you’re doing things right.

There is no doubt – email, web sites, social media and all the other tools of the electronic world have great potential.
And any nonprofit organization that ignores them would be making a huge mistake. Money raised through these means continues to grow every year and will likely grow significantly over the next decade.

But the lions share of donations to nonprofits has been and will continue to be raised by the tried and proven workhorses of fundraising –the telephone and direct mail. They are more reliable, more predictable and provide a better return on investment than other methods. This may eventually change and the phone and mail may give way to more effective approaches but for now and the foreseeable future, if you’re not using both mail and phone, you are missing out.

The most powerful way to convince someone to donate is to meet with them face-to-face. And some organizations do run door-to-door campaigns. But when you compare the number of people you can reach door-to-door in a week to the number you can reach by telephone, the phone is a hands down winner.  If you want to speak with thousands of people in a short period of time, the telephone is the only way to do it. It is the most effective way to raise a large amount of donations in the shortest possible time.

The telephone can also greatly improve the results of a direct mail campaign. A properly timed call with the right message can convert a surprising number of non-responders into donors.  But getting people to donate is just one of the ways the telephone can be used. There are other important benefits you can gain with the telephone other than the traditional “ask”.

For Example:

• Use it to welcome new donors and thank them for their support.
• Use it to discover why lapsed donors stopped giving
• Use it as part of a donor development campaign – to encourage monthly giving, major donor support programs, planned giving programs and other donor upgrade programs
• Use it to gather key information that you may not have, for example email addresses and cell phone numbers
• Use it to get referrals from existing donors

And perhaps one of the most important benefits of the telephone is that it gives you valuable feedback on your organization. Whether you’re calling prospects, donors or former donors, each telephone call is an opportunity to discover how people view your organization and the work you do. Plus you get to understand your audience better so you shape your communication strategy accordingly.