Jan
08
If your organization does any amount of direct mail, you should be using seed lists. A seed list is an extra set of addresses that are added to your mailing. The seed list names are added to the mailing regardless of whether they match the target criteria used to develop your list. They generally include …
Nov
30
I recently received a fund raising letter from my son’s college. It was well written and formatted, and if tuition wasn’t due in another month, I may have even opened my wallet. One common flow in this otherwise excellent appeal was how the reader was taken from the end of page one to the top …
Mar
15
In direct mail work there are various ways to increase opening rates such as envelope design, teasers, live postage stamps rather than bulk indicia, and so forth. One technique of special interest to those in fund development is hand addressing of envelopes. RightOnResults.com offers a number of reasons why hand addressing makes sense: Higher opening …
Mar
08
Marketers often ask what type of response rates they should expect from their direct mail efforts. The answer is actually quite simple: it depends. Response rates from one half of one percent (0.5%) to two percent are often mentioned within the industry. But in reality, direct mail response rates are highly variable. In my experience, …
Feb
28
Every once in a while you come across a really cool mailing package. A colleague (who surely isn’t old enough to receive AARP literature) passed along the one pictured below. The design is simple and straightforward, and the pop-up section that you see when you open this CD mailer puts the key message point right …
