A Nonprofit’s Best Friend is Direct Mail
Most nonprofit organizations are beginning to understand why direct mail marketing should form a vital component of their marketing mix and they are in fact inculcating it already. Although we are at a time when lots of marketers are trusting the reach offered by e-mail and social media, traditional direct marketing still has a lot of very significant benefits that you may not even know.
One of the most popular benefits of direct mail its provision of something tangible to prospects. People get access to a lot of marketing materials on a daily basis, but their is the increased attention they pay when it’s something they can hold with their hands. You already know that email marketing fails when it comes to this as prospects are most probably going to ignore or delete alongside other trashes. Sending something that can be held brings a personal touch to your add, almost forcing them to open and read.
In addition, direct mail comes in as the best to be used when you are looking to narrow your target. This will particularly help you as you segment your market based on the criteria of your choice.
You’re now probably thinking of how to get started with your first direct mail campaign. Don’t worry, this post has identified and explained six key areas that make up the process of direct mail.
- Mailing List
This is the first part of it. It is important to ensure that you have the right contacts on your mailing list. You don’t want to land your carefully thought appeal in the wrong hands. Normally, we’ll advice you to target your mail list based on location, giving pattern, closeness and all other attributes that further help you properly profile your donor base. This is particularly important to help you only target your mail campaigns to people who have higher potential of becoming eventual donors.
- Message
Apart from having the right mailing list, the message you are communicating also counts a lot to determine if you can convert your potential donors to actual donors. Even if you get the other steps rightly but fail to communicate properly with the content of your mail, you will never get donors to give anything to your firm. You should segment your target and write what will appeal to each of them based on who they are.
You know what this means right? You have to create messages that will specifically communicate to your target. We recommend that you aim for a message that is concise, straight to the point and appealing, so that it will provide just the right information and prompt immediate action.
- Printing
You have the right mailing list and great message, you have to make sure that it is appealing enough for your prospects not to just the mail before reading it. It has to be big, bold and beautiful to be able to grab attention without stress. It can get really expensive sometimes, so you’ll have to know how to leverage on what best suits your budget and make it appealing enough to get your donors to read.
- Mailing Timeline
This is very important for any nonprofit organization looking to get donations. You must strategically target what time you can get the best of your donors. Are they presently experiencing financial surplus? Do they tend to give better during the holiday time or when they are in the company of other influential donors. By knowing all these, you can easily determine the best time to send your direct mail to each segment and be guaranteed of prompt response.
- Follow–up
Don’t just leave your donors like that. Follow-up is important if you will ever want them to donate again in the future. Even if you don’t, a simple thank you can make them feel appreciated. When they donate, they are doing your organization a favor and all all favors deserve appreciation. If they are yet to make donations and you think they are still contemplating or might have forgotten, you can send them a friendly reminder to get them thinking about your organization again.
- Cost
Finally, you ought to consider cost when planning your direct mail. Go for everything that will help you keep cost low while offering effective direct mails. Sit back and evaluate what aspects take the most cost. Think up ways you can reduce costs and implement them. Where ever necessary, consider changing to an agency that will offer good direct mail services at reduced cost.
