It’s 40% About The Offer
Effective fundraising appeals require the convergence of right audience/prospect, strong and clear offer, and compelling creative.
You’ve probably heard the ’40/40/20′ direct marketing adage that attributes the contribution each of these elements makes thusly:
- 40% of success due to right mailing list (proper targeting)
- 40% due to offer (you are asking your prospect to do something, after all)
- 20% due to creative (copywriters and designers don’t like to hear this!)
My personal version of this formula is more like ’80/10/10′.
Why?
My view is that if your message is in front of the right prospect (i.e., someone already well-disposed toward your proposition because you’ve done smart targeting homework), then the hardest part of the job is done in today’s cluttered communications environment. The main battle is for attention, and the best path to attention is relevance.
If you’re in front of the right prospect, all your offer and creative need to do is NOT drive the prospect away!
And certainly poorly conceived offers and creative can do just that. But it’s VERY rare that clever offers and creative will lead to an epiphany for the wrong prospect. Fundraising is not about converting.
Anyway, whatever your formula, of course it pays to present a strong offer, and present it well.
And Claire Axelrad has very sound advice on how to do that. Check out her 7 fundraising offer essentials as published via Network for Good.
Tom
P.S. Pushback on the formula welcome!
3 responses to “It’s 40% About The Offer”
Behavioral Science Q & A
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Thanks for sharing this Tom. Even though I authored the article, I’d probably push back on the formula myself based on personal experience (but who am I to argue with legions of direct mail experts)?
I’ve seen countless appeals fail for want of a proper list. SO… yes! What you said!
At the same time, sending the right list the wrong offer won’t get you very far either. And if your offer really, truly can’t be refused, then… who knows?
A tricky formula: Without delivery of the message/appeal/solicitation there can be NO impact. Thus, delivery is 100% important. On the other hand, many people receive direct mail solicitations for which they fail to open, or open and do not donate. So what explains the difference between those who open and donate versus those who do not? Now the answer is 100% based on the creative content/messaging/emotions/rationale/etc. – In the for-profit corporate world, with sophisticated econometric market mix modeling, ‘creative’ is felt to represent 75+% of the variance in determining the impact (sales) of the ad campaign (25% for the media). Thus, although it is important to solicit, it is likely the price of entry or hurdle to be overcome…And then success or failure hinges on the quality of the creative execution + content. We are just wrapping up a summary of a study in the USA and Canada (real empirical evidence) on the key characteristics of donor solicitation which drives stronger donation intention. Let’s keep in touch since the data will be released in early September.
Thanks for this input John. I’d be VERY interested in seeing the results of your study.