16th February 2006
Your direct mail fundraising results never lie. But they mislead you if you let them.
I worked as Director of Development for a national charity that held a lavish fundraising banquet each year. The staff, from the executive director down to the recepti...
16th February 2006
Successful sales people dress their best when in front of prospects. And so do successful sales letters. Here are some tested sales letter design and layout tips, some of them from direct mail designer Ted Kikoler, and excerpted from The Lead Generation H...
14th February 2006
Don't ask me how I know, but in Alcoholics Anonymous meetings you'll sometimes hear a member mention "The Elephant in the Living Room." In AA circles, a family member's drinking problem is the elephant in the living room that everyone sees, that everyone ...
09th February 2006
Will your business-to-business direct mail package
ever produce a standing ovation? It might. When you
mail an effective invitation to a seminar, workshop,
awards show or other live event, you literally move
people—out of their seats and into your...
01st February 2006
I am doing what you do, sitting at my computer, trying to get my thoughts out of my head and into a written form that will help you make a decision. In this particular case, I am trying to write a few intelligent remarks about sounding conversational on p...
27th January 2006
Your donors read your donor newsletter to discover news about themselves. You are of secondary interest.
Like you, your donors and members read what interests them. They donate money to causes that interest them. They read about people that interest the...
25th January 2006
Yes, white papers are an effective way to generate leads with business buyers. But the tricky part is getting your white paper into the hands of those buyers in the first place.
The best place to start is the topic and title of your white paper. You ne...
20th January 2006
Your postscript is one of the most important parts of your fundraising letter. It usually stresses the point of your letter and asks for action. Some donors read it first. Some professional writers write it first.
Since the P.S. is one part of your le...
19th January 2006
Why do some sales letters put a smile on your face while others put a yawn in your throat?
Why are some sales letters harder to read than others?
Keeping your reader hooked right to the end of your letter is one of the hardest challenges in busines...
13th January 2006
Do you want your donors to give more, do you want them to give more often, or do you want more of your donors to give?
If your answer is "all of the above," here are some tested ways to increase the size of donor gifts using fundraising letters.
As...
11th January 2006
Can your business sell its products to other businesses using a mail-order catalog? Probably. And make a profit? Maybe, as long as you follow some proven guidelines. Here are a few of them.
Niche and grow rich
Your catalog needs to fill a specific vo...
07th January 2006
Fundraising letter reply devices—also known as reply coupons, donation coupons, reply slips, response forms and gift forms—are the instruments that conclude your request for funds. If your reply device doesn't work, your appeal letter doesn't work—and you...
04th January 2006
Premiums are an effective way to increase your direct mail response rates. Whether you are selling a product or service directly through the mail, or whether you are using a sales letter to generate leads, premiums can help you boost response, increase co...
04th January 2006
Your organization is doing well if 85 percent of your donors renew their support each year, according to Stanley Weinstein in his book The Complete Guide to Fundraising Management.
To put it another way, you are doing well if no more than 15 percent of...
24th December 2005
If you want to increase revenue using direct mail, you have two options: sell more to the customers you have, or find new customers and sell to them. The tricky part is knowing how to do that.
I recommend that you start by segmenting your house list. D...
