What makes a REALLY great letter

I happen to receive a significant number of mail from non-profit organizations every month. However, rather than tossing them into the recycle bin in the mail room where so many like them end up, I always take them up to my apartment and give them a read. I have read some really compelling letters and some that are, to be blunt, crap. But most of them fall somewhere in between...in this safe zone where they follow all the 'rules' of DM, often confusing, and rarely convincing me to give.

Its a shame that as a sector we still haven't mastered the art of letter writing. Instead we send organizationally focused appeals that don't really communicate to the individual who will be reading it. If you are in charge of DM for your organization or for your clients, I urge to write a letter that actually SOUNDS like a letter - a communication between the individual who is writing and the individual (donor or prospect) who will be receiving it. Write with passion and make your message clear and compelling. And before you even put pen to paper, as yourself these three simple questions:

1. Why am I sending this letter?
2. Why do I need the money now?
3. What am I going to do with the money when I get it?

If you can answer these questions for your donor they are much more likely to give. Add to that a strong human case study and you have the great beginnings of a powerful letter. I say beginnings because there is a lot more that goes into a great DM piece, but shouldn't we at least get the foundations right?

Powerful TV spot from UNICEF

With a background in DRTV, it shouldn't suprise you that I get excited when I see a powerful TV spot. I can't say enough about the spot below done by UNICEF as part of their Tap Project.

Direct Mail isn't dead...

I finally got around to catching up on some blog reading today, and read a fantastic post on The Agitator in response to a paper written by Chuck Prewitt of A.B. Data. Chuck believes, and I agree, that the predictions of the death of direct mail are groundless. And he’s angry they seem to get so much attention.

To give you an idea of who Chuck is, his firm directed the direct mail fundraising efforts of the Obama campaign. That's right - Obama's campaign didn't rely solely on social media - it included a DM campaign that brought in $103 million through the mail.

In his paper, Chuck argues 3 facts, all supported with evidence.

1. The direct mail donor universe is alive and well and actually shows little signs of rapidly diminishing - at least in the next decade.
2. The growth of online fundraising is happening but it is happening much more slowly than many predicted.
3. There are enormous multi-channel marketing opportunities out there for smart people with open minds.

The Internet, and now social media, have certainly produced a valuable new marketing tool, but one that cannot yet replace Direct Mail. This is not the time for non profits to be abandoning this medium...for many of them it makes up to big of a chunk of income. Instead, organisations need to look at how they can do direct mail better.

You can read Chucks entire paper here.