Direct Mail Appeal + Online Response
It must be National Infographic Week. After two infographics yesterday pertaining to email, today another one pushed into my e-mailbox, this time on direct mail.
No earth-shaking factoids in this one, but one of its opening assertions is what caused me to scan through it. Simply: “…consumers prefer responding to direct mail via online means.”
As it turns out, the statement wasn’t supported with any specific data, but I’ll admit that it’s true for my focus group of me.
And I suspect for many Agitator readers.
So I’m wondering what the broader experience of our sector is at this stage. I would think the proportion of online response to direct mail appeals is growing — via simple dedicated URLs or, for the more adventurous, PURLs and QR codes — even amongst our older donors and members.
Please, would any Agitator readers care to share your response data on this? Hopefully, you are tracking online response to your mail appeals!
Tom
P.S. For you infographic addicts, here from UnitedMail is today’s pitch for direct mail …
8 responses to “Direct Mail Appeal + Online Response”
Behavioral Science Q & A
Integrating an individual giving appeal with other communications from a charity can have both positive and negative effects, and the outcome largely depends on how it’s executed. Advantages of Integration Brand Consistency: Maintaining a consistent appearance and messaging across all communications can reinforce the org’s brand identity and strengthen brand recognition and trust among your […]
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I’m not aware of any in-market tests specifically comparing recurring vs. gift frequency language. I suspect the answer might not be the same with all gift frequencies, nor with all people. It sounds like a great opportunity for you to test and find out what works for your audience. Based on the literature, here’s a couple […]
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Based on what we know from existing data, those renewal notices can actually be pretty effective in getting people to donate. They tap into our psychology – creating a sense of urgency, reminding us of past support, and using personalization to make the message hit home. They’re playing on our natural tendencies to feel obligated […]
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Interesting question. I had a quick look at the testing done on this topic. On the positive side, in all cases, over half of donors decide to cover the fee. In some cases, it goes as high as 65%. Not a negligible percentage at all. Here’s another test from iRaiser showing consistent results (see point […]
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There’s just one thing to consider when designing a supporter journey: the supporter. More specifically, you need to take into account: Who the supporter is i.e. their identity, which is the reason they support this cause, and their personality, which describes the way they “see” and process the world. These will determine the kind of […]
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I’m not an expert in this but a quick search surfaced this article on the effect of tax reforms on 2019’s charitable giving. The researchers didn’t find a reduction. Actually, they observed an “increase in charitable contributions in 2019, even with the lower tax rates and the dramatically smaller number of taxpayers who itemize their […]
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Here is another Infographic based on the latest insights from Grizzard’s DonorGraphics™ media usage study.
http://donorgraphics.com/
Our clients’ primary audience is age 60+, and direct mail rules with the following response rates:
12 month donors:5-15%
1-3 year lapsed donors:3-5%
acquisition:1-4%
We combine renewals with acquisition and most clients acquire new donors and generate net income simultaneously. Unfortunately, there is very poor stewardship of new donors, so the attrition rate ranges from 60%-70%. Event donors and memorial donors are extremely difficult to renew via mail.
There is no one media channel that is better than any other. It all depends on your goals and your strategies.
Frankly, the fundraising industry gets all whacked-out about “the death of direct mail.”
No one is trying to kill direct mail. If it works, it will be used. If it doesn’t, it won’t. The industry doesn’t need to jump up and down so much about this.
Unless…
Unless there’s a hidden agenda.
Some people jumping up and down screaming about the value of direct mail have something to protect. They are printers, mail houses, and direct marketing firms that have not put enough effort into learning how to generate results for less money.
“Consumers prefer responding to direct mail”? Are you kidding? I already responded to 2 emails on my smart phone today. My wife looks at our mail. I don’t. But that’s anecdotal. Just like that quote.
At MarketSmart we use so many channels, I lost count. Digital, direct mail, telephone, social media, growth hacking…. the list goes on.
Bottom line:
Don’t be afraid to test channels. Look at response rates in relation to cost per response and long-term value of the response. Follow trends by measuring everything. Be smart, not defensive.
How about an Agitator Raise for Greg? He got the channel piece right.
But Greg and others, the conversion channel means nothing … NOTHING … if people aren’t engaging with you. That starts with: Content Marketing!
Push messaging is over … it’s all about Pull.
this is good stuff
I work for a direct response fundraising agency, and our clients tend to receive 20-25% of their direct mail campaign responses online. However, we find that the quality of the client’s donation page is definitely correlated with this figure.
Organizations with poorly designed donation pages can get as low as 10% of direct mail campaign responses being received online.
Organizations with the best donation pages (mobile-responsive, designed to match the mail campaign, single page/click to complete, zero interruptors) get up to 40% of direct mail campaign responses received online!
I can’t say whether the clients with better pages receive MORE responses overall…or whether the responses are simply SHIFTED between channels. But it seems likely they are getting more responses thanks to the better donation page.
Great intel and interpretation, Anonymous. Much appreciated.
Yes, in line with what Anonymous says, clients with well-designed landing pages and websites get good responses when we do email campaigns. Say up to 30% of the campaign result (although this seems to be increasing in the last year or so but this tends to be when the clients also uses other channels as well as DM to push people to donate on the website).
In fact, responses to email campaigns where the clients’ websites are terrible are so bad that I’ve advised clients to stop email appeals until they’ve fixed their website ie. design for users, be focused on audience not internally, make it easy to donate, have appeal specific pages, be mobile-friendly, etc. That tends to be for clients with smaller databases – you can get away with a bad website if your database is large enough although of course, the response tends to be closer to 10% or less of campaign results.