Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Is Anybody PURLing?

I’ve been doing some reading on the integration of direct mail (as simple as postcards) and online response — e.g., 8 Key Takeaways for Personalized URLs. As you probably know, the same data that you would use to personalize a direct mail package can be used to generate complementary web pages unique to each respondent. […]

Learn More May 5, 2011

Lesson In Higher Ed Marketing

This post isn’t about fundraising directly, but it does shed some light on marketing higher ed institutions via email. And The Agitator has a lot of higher ed (and other) readers trying to reach a younger demographic. When you think about it, with today’s youth being the ultimate wired (and wireless) population, it makes perfect […]

Learn More May 4, 2011

More Copywriting Lessons

Given that we’ve been commenting on copywriting lately, I’ll continue down that path with these two observations from How the Web Makes Direct Mail Better by Douglas Broward of Grizzard Communications, writing originally in Convio’s Connection Cafe. First, on direct mail copywriters learning from the web world … ” … reading — still the most […]

Learn More May 3, 2011

The Role Of Sex In Fundraising

Poor Tom. Battered by Agitator readers (rightfully!), all in response to his Direct Mail Package 101 post offering the healthy admonition to use good copy produced by good copywriters. Unfortunately, he neglected to cite any female copywriters. I know for a fact that Tom isn’t a copy misogynist. For the nearly 40 years we’ve worked […]

Learn More May 2, 2011

Direct Mail Package 101

An experienced direct mail copywriter, with a proven track record, can command thousands of dollars for creating a direct mail package. But of course that investment can — should — pay off in spades when the returns start piling up. Especially for prospecting packages that survive as controls … sometimes for years. [I’ve often wondered […]

Learn More April 29, 2011

Ghosts Of Fundraising Past And Future

Fundraisers, unlike practitioners in most other sectors, mostly navigate their way forward by steering through the rear view mirror. Off hand I can’t think of any other group, with their future so dependent on the economy and other key events, who live by the “past is prologue” mantra. In today’s world, that dependence can deliver […]

Learn More April 28, 2011