1: Know Your Goal
The first tip of the top five tips for nonprofit direct mail success is to ask yourself: what is
the goal of your nonprofit direct mail campaign? How much money do you want to fundraise? How many donors do you want to attract? Knowing your specific goals will help you decide which format is best for your campaign. Personal letters, for example, are a great way to keep your current donors feeling directly involved in your non-profit’s success, but they won’t necessarily attract prospective donors. So before you send out anything, make sure that you clearly define your goals.
2: Do Your Research
The second tip for nonprofit direct mail success is to do your research. Direct mail is one of the most effective ways to attract prospective donors or keep current donors up to date about new fundraisers and campaign opportunities. E-mails are too impersonal and too easy to “delete”. But before you invest money in a direct mail campaign, make sure you do your research first. Creating a successful direct mail campaign is so much more than just sending a letter; it involves planning all the aspects of the design, print, production and mailing of the operation.
3: You Get What You Pay For
Part of creating a successful direct mail campaign is to strike a balance in the design and production of your materials between “flashy” and “shoddy.” Many places will offer quantity over quality and print off high quantities of cheap and unprofessional looking materials. This might save you some pennies in your pocket, but it won’t be bringing any dollars in to your nonprofit. On the other hand, don’t go overboard and spend a pile of money on flashy, top-of-the-line advertising , you’ll end up detracting donors, as they’ll wonder (rightly so!) how much money your nonprofit really needs (or worse, where you’re spending it). Tip 3 for nonprofit direct mail success is to economize, but don’t go cheap or too expensive.
4: Don’t Look Like Junk
Simply put, if your advertising material looks like junk mail then it is going straight into the garbage (or recycling!). That’s why the fourth tip for nonprofit direct mail success is to work with professionals who can help you design a direct mail campaign that will get people’s attention, but won’t end up in the trash.
5: (Don’t) Shop Around
The easiest and most economical way to execute your non-profit’s direct mail marketing campaign is to use a “one stop shop”. Hiring multiple organizations for multiple jobs will only confuse and complicate matters, and will end up costing you more time and money in the long run. That’s why the final tip for nonprofit direct mail success is to trust your marketing with a direct mailing service provider that specializes in quality and makes sure that every aspect of your campaign is taken care of from the first to the last step.