This falls into the “Passing along great information” category.

From the September 5th, Donor Power Blog posting:

7 surprising facts about direct-response fundraising:

1. Blank carrier envelopes usually out-perform envelopes with teasers.
2. Longer letters perform better. Usually. There are exceptions.
3. The most-read part of a fundraising letter is the P.S.
4. Typos improve response. I can’t prove this, but it seems to be true.
5. Mail recipients spend more time looking at the back of the envelope than the front.
6. Religious people give more to non-religious causes than non-religious people. Religious people give more to everything.
7. The most powerful predictor that a donor will give is the recency of her previous gift.

Here’s my two cents on these 7:
1. I think I’ve stated before how far too often, adding a teaser does absolutely nothing to entice the donor to open the envelope. If you can come up with a tagline that is appropriate and tells the donor that there is something inside that they really need to see/read – go for it.
2. Longer letters often do better – it’s true. Most often if it is a prospect piece. You need space to do more selling to that new donor, keep it focused on your mission. I’ve seen it tested – and again in prospecting tends to beat short letters. But I would bet if you were mailing a Renewal 3 mailing and it was 6 pages – a short one, 1 pager, would beat the pants off it.
3. The P.S. is your first/last chance to make that donor give – so reiterate the importance of the mailing and why you need their support.
4. Typo’s: I’ve never heard of this… would love to know if anyone has ever had the guts to test this. I, for one, can’t imagine trying to convince a charity that typos in their letter is ok…
5. I have always thought – if you have 2 sides to an envelope then you have 2 sides to convince the donor to open it. But back to point 1 – sometimes an “official” looking envelope with just a logo and return address or just a return address can do better for the mailing.
6. Sounds like common sense this one.
7. There are people in our sector who can tell you if there is such a thing as mailing someone too much or too often. But I think, if you have a need and you can express that need for a gift, then mail your donors. Do not mail for the sake of mailing. And I hate to say it – there are far too many charities mailing for the sake of mailing.

BACK TO YOU: I need your feedback. What are some topics you would like to see addressed here? Please send any comments you may have to jlepp@ideadesign.ca or post them here! Thanks.

Last week, I got my daily e-news from Donor Power blog. The subject was “To tease or not to tease“. I won’t totally re-iterate the findings (based on Mal Warwick’s own research) but the bottom line is – test it. OR if you don’t want to test it – ask your self this: Is it appropriate?

From my side of the desk, too often, I see teasers added for the sake of adding a teaser. There have been many packages where I have been asked to add a teaser and I would be willing to bet it hindered the response – made it seem to (excuse the expression) junk-maily…

Of course, I asked to test it – but as we know – often there isn’t the budget to do so.

Get out of the habit of adding a teaser for the sake of doing it. Trust your gut – if you have a great line that you know will make people want to tear open the package – use it, but if not – don’t.

Do you wonder if your donors ever feel this way?

First off, Happy Canada Day and Happy 4th of July for my American friends.

Today’s post shall be short and sweet. Here is a quick, FREE idea for a test for those of you who design, write or produce direct mail.

On your coupon, almost all contain a line that reads something like “Please turn over to give monthly…” or something like that. We tested setting it in a handwriting font verses using a font we were using everywhere else.

The handwriting version won. Speaking with a few others who tested it found the same result.

I would love to hear about your tests – especially the unusual ones – if you have any you would like to share, please pass it along.

Finally – please feel free to comment on any post, any time. I want this to be more of a forum for anyone who might be interested in adding their voice to the discussion. So please add your voice and thoughts.

John