It’s no secret that giving is declining, forcing nonprofits to revamp their strategies and renew their focus on donor retention. But, how exactly can organizations reach donors effectively and earn their long-term support?
While many nonprofits are focused on digital strategies—and for good reason—direct mail can provide a personalized, tangible touchpoint with your nonprofit that engages supporters. After all, direct mail has an open rate of 80-90%, making it a viable channel for reaching your audience.
This guide will explore tips for effectively leveraging direct mail to increase donor retention and loyalty. That way, you can bolster your marketing efforts, strengthen supporter relationships, and develop sustainable revenue streams simultaneously.
1. Personalize communications.
Start by tailoring your direct mail materials to your donors. Adding a personal touch goes a long way toward making supporters feel like part of your community rather than just monetary contributors.
Customization relies on good and clean donor data. By using accurate information about your supporters, you can better personalize your messaging. Review your database for relevant data you can leverage to personalize your communications, and if you need to learn more about your donors, consider enriching your database.
Data enrichment is the process of supplementing your database with third-party information that can broaden your understanding of your supporters. For example, you may append the following data types:
- Contact information like phone number or email address (make sure to follow guidelines and permissions as specified by the company providing you with the information)
- Demographics like date of birth
- Education
- Marital status
- Homeownership and property data
- Presence of children in the home
- Pet ownership
- Income
- Net worth
- Lifestyle information
Then, you can combine your first-party data with this additional information to:
- Segment donors. Group donors by similar characteristics so you can send them relevant communications efficiently. For example, you may segment donors by giving frequency and levels with groups for new, one-time, recurring, and lapsed donors. Alternatively, you may use appended information to segment donors by income and target potential major donors with relevant appeals.
- Input details about engagement history. Let donors know you acknowledge and appreciate their other contributions to your community. Use your constituent relationship management platform (CRM) to reference donor event attendance, social media engagement, or volunteerism details.
- Send mail based on donor behavior. When donors take certain actions, you may automatically send them direct mail to further engage them. For example, you should send new recurring donors a welcome letter that provides tips for how they can get the most out of the program and whom to contact if they have questions.
Additionally, use surveys to directly ask supporters what they’d like to see and hear about in your direct mail materials to hone your strategy.
2. Express gratitude.
One of the hallmarks of donor stewardship is appreciation. Showing gratitude for your donor base in your direct mail materials will confirm that your nonprofit cares about them as individuals and will subsequently boost loyalty.
Thank donors immediately after they give by mailing them thank-you notes, ideally within 24 to 48 hours of their gifts. This timeliness demonstrates your commitment to an excellent donor experience and keeps your organization top of mind.
However, don’t forget to show appreciation between gifts for donors’ other contributions to your community. For instance, you may send donors a thank-you letter on their anniversary of joining your recurring giving program, or after they volunteer at an event.
Additionally, you may add notes of gratitude to other direct mail communications to show that even when appreciation isn’t the focus, it’s always on your team’s mind. Your donors will appreciate that you thank them “just because” with no special occasion needed!
3. Detail impact.
Demonstrating concrete impact on tangible marketing materials like direct mail maximizes the power of this communication channel. When donors know the exact difference they’re making, they’ll be more likely to continue giving to keep increasing their impact.
UpMetrics recommends creating an impact report or newsletter you can send to donors. In this report, you may describe supporter impact by:
- Incorporating statistics. Data and statistics allow you to quantify your impact. Compile various metrics on different programs, initiatives, and projects to give supporters a holistic view of how your work and their contributions make a true difference.
- Telling stories. Pair quantitative data with qualitative impact information via storytelling. Interview beneficiaries so donors can get insight into how your organization changes lives.
- Leveraging testimonials. You may also interview donors, volunteers, and staff members to understand why they enjoy working with your organization and what it means to them. Include notable quotes in your impact report highlighting stakeholders’ positive experiences with your nonprofit.
While you may send a general impact report to your donor base, consider sharing tailored impact updates via direct mail throughout the year to inform donors about specific programs or projects they’ve supported.
4. Introduce additional engagement opportunities.
Keeping donors around doesn’t just involve soliciting donations. Retaining supporters as members of your community is just as important. Use direct mail as a way to introduce donors to additional engagement opportunities by:
- Inviting them to events. Send mailings detailing your upcoming events with photos of past events that give donors an idea of what to expect. Add a QR code that sends donors directly to your event registration page so they can easily sign up after receiving your mail.
- Allowing them to register for volunteer outings. You may also send materials that describe the benefits of volunteering, such as a sense of fulfillment, a deeper connection to your mission, and the ability to earn funds for your nonprofit through volunteer grants. Inform donors of available volunteer opportunities and how they can sign up.
- Equipping them with advocacy tools. Leverage direct mail to power advocacy. Send donors a blank postcard branded to your nonprofit that they can fill out and send to family or friends to spread the word about your mission. Let them know where they can find other advocacy tools on your website.
Track which direct mail recipients sign up for which engagement opportunities and record this data in your CRM. That way, you can learn more about your supporters’ interests and send them other relevant content.
5. Enable cross-channel data activation.
While direct mail is powerful, it’s even more impactful when combined with online marketing channels. According to a study by the USPS, respondents experienced 40% conversion rates when combining digital and direct mail. Cross-channel activation involves using a dataset to target the same audience across multiple channels, allowing you to boost response and conversion rates by:
- Reaching a broader audience
- Developing consistent messaging that raises awareness
- Creating a variety of touchpoints
One way to enable cross-channel data activation is to invest in identity resolution. Deep Sync defines identity resolution as “the practice of combining disparate identifiers into a single customer identity.” The identity resolution process allows you to integrate offline and online data for better cross-channel marketing.
For instance, you may work with a data provider to meld offline identifiers (like name, postal address, phone number, and email address) with online identifiers (like Mobile Ad ID, UID2, Hashed Email, and IP address) to develop comprehensive, accurate donor profiles that you can leverage to target supporters across channels. That way, you can maximize the potential of your first-party data to create consistent campaigns that engage your audience via direct mail and digital strategies.
While combining these strategies will improve your direct mail approach, every audience responds to communications differently. Fine-tune your approach over time by tracking metrics like response and conversion rates and surveying donors to understand which mailings resonate with them and why.
