Put Your Donor In The Chair

June 17, 2015      Admin

Many Agitator readers deal regularly with the crafting of direct mail appeals — either writing themselves or commissioning and approving the copywriting work of others. And there’s plenty of advice out there on what makes for effective fundraising letters … length, formatting, structure, signers, etc.

But let me suggest that at the core is the voice of the letter … what does the reader hear as he or she reads?

Recently, master copywriter and direct marketer Denny Hatch paid tribute to his own mentor, copywriter Malcolm Decker. He quoted Decker at length on the subject of crafting a great letter. You might find the advice helpful …

“The letter itself is the pen-and-ink embodiment of a salesperson who is speaking personally and directly to the prospect on a one-to-one basis.

The letter is the most powerful selling force in direct marketing, once the product, price and offer are set. The letter is likely to be the only ‘person’ your market will ever meet, at least on the front-end of the sale. Don’t make him highbrow if your market is lowbrow and vice versa. Make sure he speaks your prospect’s language. If he’s a Tiffany salesman, he writes in one style; if he’s a grapefruit or pecan farmer, or a beef grower, he writes differently.

I develop as clear a profile of my prospect as the available research offers and then try to match it up with someone I know and ‘put him in a chair’ across from me. Then I write to him more or less as though I were talking with him. The salesperson in the letter is doing the job he obviously loves and is good at. He knows the product inside and out and is totally confident in and at ease with its values and benefits—even its inconsequential shortcomings—and wants to get his prospect in on a good thing.”

I love the comment that, to paraphrase, the letter is the only ‘person’ your prospect will ever meet.

As Decker recommended, put that prospect in a chair across from you and then ‘talk’ to her in her own voice. Capture that conversation in your letter.

If you can’t imagine that conversation, you don’t yet know your donor or your cause well enough to write.

If you can’t hear it in a letter written for you, reject it.

Think of the letter as what you would say if you could be there yourself, delivering your message one-to-one, face-to face.

Do that and I’m sure your fundraising letters will be more effective.

Tom

One response to “Put Your Donor In The Chair”

  1. Lisa Sargent says:
    June 17, 2015 at 5:33 am

    It’s no coincidence that one of Denny Hatch’s greatest books ever, from 1995, is called “Method Marketing.”

    In presentations and on countless client calls, I describe the writing part of which you speak, Tom, as “method copywriting” (homage to hero Denny and to method acting): You’re not just speaking TO the donor, you must BE the donor… step inside their skin and walk around for awhile. Feel their feelings. Think their thoughts. Dream their dreams. Talk their inner talk. Live their day. Give them something beautiful.

    And if you’re doing direct mail, then you better also see as they see, which means think about the design of your pack, and whether your donor can read it (my designer and I like to do the “low light/no cheaters” test). Do those things, and your fundraising will be better by far.

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