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How Long Does A Successful Donor Letter Have to Be? - Duration: 9:40.
- Hello.
Joy Olson here of BlockBuster Fundraising.
We are visiting this week that question
that we fundraisers all have when it comes
to writing a letter to our donors.
Any of our direct mail appeals.
Should it be long?
Will a longer letter work?
Or will a shorter letter work?
So we've discussed a couple of experts
and today we're going to look at
what Michael Lawrence from InShare has to say about this.
I'll give you a link to his work,
but he has some really good ideas.
And you know there's a lot of interest
in this topic, whether it is a long or a short letter.
And so, this is a question we all have
and this is why we are tackling it this week. Okay.
Well he says the online profit
have to develop strong fundraising campaigns.
We know that for sure.
And like it or not, direct mail is still the key
to a good fundraising campaign.
Direct mail still rules.
Alright.
Social media is cheap, easy, fun
but it remains really still a small portion
of our a nonprofit revenue.
First question that many nonprofit ask when starting a
direct mail campaign is how long should the letter be?
So, for those experts that has been in the business
for decades, he says they know two things.
I've been in the business for two decades.
And I have a tendency to really agree with them,
that the letter should be long enough
to say what it has to say.
In other words, if your copywriter thinks
that he or she needs four, six or eight pages
to make the case, then it should be
four, six, or yes even eight pages.
I think that Ken Burnett on one his is Soffi letters,
he talks about a four or five page letter that he wrote
that was super successful.
So longer letters are especially effective in prospect mail
when you have to convince your donors
to make their first gift to your organization.
But, long copy almost always beat short copy, Michael says.
People who haven't been involved with
direct mail fundraising often say, "that letter's too long!
I would never read that!"
But the fact is in head to head testing,
testing they do this head to head testing,
long copy more often than not beats short.
And almost more importantly, what you think
for I think should matter in direct mail fundraising.
Or any direct marketing test, what the data shows
is what should matter.
And the data shows that long copy beats short.
In head to head test between a direct mail package
that contains a short one or two page letter,
and another package with a six or eight page letter,
the longer package wins time and time again.
Are you surprised?
Hey, they know to the cent he says, to the very cent,
what each package cost,
and the longer package will cost more so almost everybody
who comes to the table without previous knowledge
of direct mail, is gonna say,
"well I would rather mail that short letter.
I don't wanna spend more on a long letter that no one
is going to take the time to read."
So lets go with the shorter letter.
Michael says, "hey, well,
I am here to tell you that the chances
are overwhelming at the package with the longer letter
is going to be more successful despite the higher cost."
And there are multiple reasons and theories why.
So lets take a look.
Suppose you get a six or eight page letter.
Let's say from a religious charity that you have heard of.
If it is addressed to you by name, and for six, eight, ten
or even twelve pages, it tells you about a cause
and why that cause urgently requires attention from you.
It is attempting to position that charity as one that is
worthy of your support.
That's flattering.
Its flattering to someone to get a personal,
personal communication from the head of an organization,
that they are predisposed to think are doing good work
and that the leader of the cause has taken the time
and the trouble to the thoroughly lay out
the case for supporting the cause.
So that letter is going to come not as an annoyance
but as a compliment.
They say "wow! I got a letter from so and so.
I like his work.
Now I am going to learn a lot more about him
by reading this long letter he sent me."
Although Michael believes that people enjoy
getting long letters, he also doesn't think they diligently
read them with great care.
That every line, every paragraph, every sentence,
will not be read.
He thinks they skip around when they are reading.
They'll look at the top of the first page.
They'll get a sense of what the subject matter is.
And they'll either be grabbed or not grabbed
by the style of writing.
And then they'll scan the page.
And if there is a paragraph 2/3 of the way down the page
that's in bold face type and indented, there eye will be
caught by that, and they will read that paragraph.
And then they will skip over to the next page
and maybe they'll see a paragraph on the next page
that has handy brackets surrounding it.
They'll read that page.
Your getting the drift here, right?
When they see a paragraph that has a long sentence
that's completely underlined,
they'll read that underlined sentence.
And they'll go through the letter kind of skipping
to those passages, which in some graphic way
have been highlighted.
Important information there.
And then finally they will get to the P.S. and the one thing
that he says he knows, is that people will always read
an ature P.S.
Always have a P.S. at the end of your direct mail letters.
And the P.S. should not be an after thought.
The function of the P.S. is to summarize or capsulize
what you now want the reader of this letter to do.
Usually, to go to the enclosed reply form, sign it,
sign the petition that's there.
Do something.
It's a call to action.
Please send your contribution.
Or the most generous gift you can afford
for this great cause.
So, this person has an eight page letter,
he or she have scanned it,
they've skipped around.
They've skipped down the highlighted passages.
By the time the get to the last page,
they are absorbed in the gist of your message.
Then, they read the P.S.
And the P.S. is like marching orders.
This is what I want you to do now.
And, if it is well done,
and if the cause is one that appeals to this person,
which it probably is cause they wouldn't have kept reading,
your likely to get a contribution, a donation.
So to sum it up, he says
here is a few things to keep in mind.
Although, there is no perfect length,
longer is usually better than shorter.
Print graphically, that is to say underline,
bold, indent important parts of the letter.
And don't forget the P.S.
It's the marching orders your delivering to your supporters.
Okay, remember that this comes from lawrencedirect.com.
Michael Lawrence has lots of good tips for your direct mail
pieces, long or short.
You know longer is better.
Okay, Joy Olson here.
A Blockbuster Fundraising in joyolsongroup.com.
Here to hopefully to inspire you each and every time
you tune in to more exciting fundraising tips, ideas,
the latest, the greatest, the best of the classic ideas,
to make your fundraising a blockbuster success.
Hey, check out our Blockbuster Youtube channel.
Because we have nearly 300 free,
fundraising tips there for you.
Alright, see you again soon.
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Bye Bye.
Thanks for having been here.
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