I’m a true Direct mail junky! And I’ve been one for many years! Once I started working at Reader’s Digest, I got totally hooked.
There’s a lot more to it than we know. Psychology, who are you mailing to, checking how people read, where do we put the picture, what’s a good headline, what’s the best story? Who signs the letter? What are we doing with the ask amounts, and so much more…
But what I absolutely love love! love!! is that you can test virtually everything! You can see the results very soon. And, you can measure the Return on Investment.
That’s why I’d like to advocate for direct mail, especially for fundraising! Where else can you invest $ 1 and get $5 back?
Yes, that’s right. That’s the typical return on investment you get when you send an appeal letter to your existing donors! If you add your inactive and lapsed donors to the mix, the ROI will be a bit different, but you’re still looking at doubling or tripling your investment. You’ll not be able to do that in the stock market!
Just one last consideration, if you look at this great picture… with so many emails, tweets, posts etc. don’t we all love checking our mail box to find a great letter in the mail? I know I do and I know the many donors responding to our direct mail appeals still do too!
