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| Path: Main Street : Resources & Library : Research Articles : Feature Article |
Penny-wise and pound foolish -- ignoring the basicsby Jim Bannister
December 16, 1998; Canadian FundRaiserNonprofit organizations generally don't have a lot of money to spend on direct marketing. Even when they do, they don't want to make that obvious. If fundraisers look as if they don't need money, then people won't give!
However, skimping on the direct mail package, to the point of eliminating some of the essentials, is a false economy. Certain things have been proven over the years to be critical to response; underdoing or even skipping the basics will lead to underperformance, perhaps outright failure, as surely as day follows night.
Reviewing the fundraising mailings that cross my desk, I am still taken aback, regularly, to see incomplete packages, not just from new groups, but from established organizations who should know better. For decades, there has been no serious challenge to the proposition that an envelope package must comprise at least four elements.
Outer envelope
Absent this, your mailout isn't really an envelope package at all. The outer envelope encloses the elements which do the selling. All you have to worry about is getting people to open the envelope. You don't have to make it do double duty as the reply envelope, yet people spend extra money on so-called "two-way envelopes", which can actually inhibit response.
Letter
The letter presents your message in its most complete form. You only have one chance to tell your story, and, as Raymond Rubicam said years ago, the more you tell the reader, the better your chances of success. Yet some fundraisers try to save money by condensing what should be a four-page pitch to two pages (both sides of one 8 1/2 x 11 sheet), and in doing so omit or underdo key points of their argument - another response-limiting decision.
Brochure
The brochure presents the same message, in full, in a more visual form. Finding good visuals is a challenge in fundraising, and of course printing pictures costs money, particularly in full colour on quality stock. So, the foolish fundraiser says, maybe we can just skip the brochure. Wrong! There are lots of people who don't like to read, but will gladly look at pictures and read a headline and captions. If all you give them is a letter, you lose them.
Reply envelope
People will not struggle to give money to your worthy cause. You have to make it as easy as possible for them to respond. Even if you hope for significant non-mail response (by phone or in-person canvass), you must enclose a BRE. Some people will actually use it! Offering to pay the postage is proven to increase response. To reduce the cost, ask them, right on the BRE, to make their contribution go farther by putting on their own stamp.Other things you can put in the envelope include: lift letters, value symbols, action involvers, secondary brochures, etc. But be sure to cover the basic elements. Do all four right and succeed. Do them wrong, or do fewer than four...and fail. The choice is yours.
James Bannister is a consultant in direct response marketing and communications, based in Toronto. Readers may contact him through Canadian FundRaiser.
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