| |
| |
|
Marketing Resource Center |
|
|
|
Dear Friend: Dont Start Your Non-For-Profit Fundraising Letters As A Stranger
Dear Friend: Don't do it. Don't start your fundraising letters with "Dear Friend." After all, when was the last time you received a letter from someone dear to you, addressing you as "Dear Friend?" Never, right? The days of the Dear Friend letter are dead. So let's bury the Dear Friend letter together. I heard recently of a chairman of the board of a national charity who has given his charity millions of dollars and hundreds of hours of his time, yet he still receives their fundraising appeals addressing him as "Dear Friend." Ouch. Your fundraising letters are intended to make friends as well as solicit funds. So don't send form letters to make friends. Friends write personal letters. Letters addressed to their friends by name. My wife never sends me a letter that begins, "Dear Friend." Neither do my friends. And neither should you when writing to your donors. I realize that personalization costs more. I know that you save money if you send everyone the same Dear Friend letter. You don't have to insert custom fields into your letter. You don't have to perform a time-consuming mail-merge. You don't have to match the addresses on your letters with the addresses on your reply cards and mailing envelopes (assuming you are using closed-face envelopes). You can compare your costs for mailing a personalized letter versus mailing a Dear Friend letter, and you'll also find that the Dear Friend letter is cheaper. But I'd like to suggest, and so I will, that you are measuring the wrong thing. Return on investment shouldn't be your only criteria for measuring the success of your fundraising letters. What about donor loyalty? What about donor attrition? What about the lifetime value of each donor? What about plain old courtesy? Donors stop giving for any number of reasons, but at the top of the list is feeling unappreciated. Think of that chairman of the board that I mentioned a minute ago. Can't you just hear him saying to himself, as he receives yet another Dear Friend appeal, "I have given this charity millions of dollars and hundreds of hours of my time, and they treat me as though they don't even know my name"? Yes, Dear Friend letters are expedient. But expedience is not your only aim in running a successful fundraising letter program. Robbing banks is also expedient, but it's not right. Using guilt as a motivator in your letters is also expedient. It raises funds in the short term. But it's not right. And starting every letter with Dear Friend is more expedient than customizing each letter, but it's not the right thing to do. You should bury the Dear Friend letter because it is impersonal and rude. It alienates perfectly nice donors, people who will continue to support your organization with their treasure, time and talents if you will only treat them as partners and not as automated bank machines. Addressing your donors by name makes them feel special and appreciated. At the Business Depot where I buy my office supplies, there is a store clerk who always remembers my name. She serves hundreds of customers. Yet when I approach the cash, she makes me feel like I'm a special customer. I feel a little flattered every time. Her name, by the way, is Allyson. Specialists in customer service have long known that remembering a customer's name-and using it-is one of the most effective ways (and free ways) to encourage repeat business, customer loyalty and free word-of-mouth advertising. The same is just as true in fundraising, although I have no empirical studies to back that up. Please don't start your letters with Dear Friend. Donors take it personally. About the author © 2005 Sharpe Copy Inc. You may reprint this article online and in print provided the links remain live and the content remains unaltered (including the "About the author" message).
MORE RESOURCES:
Marketing - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Creating Your Unique Selling Proposition or USP Creating Your Unique Selling Proposition"Don't tell them what you do. Tell them what you do for them. Are You Losing Business? As a small business owner, you are grateful for all of your clients or customers. But did you know that small business lose over 62% of sales because they don't follow up? You are caught up in the business of running your business you don't take the time to follow up with your clients. Principles of Marketing 101 Marketing results should be measured in only one way - increased sales. Marketing should not be considered an art form. The 3 Unknown Steps of Marketing Success To be your own marketing expert you first need to know where to begin. It's no good learning how to be a good copywriter, if you don't know what medium is best to promote your work through. PowerPositioning: WillYouAcceptThisRose.com Positioning is a powerful concept in marketing. To illustrate, have you ever visited a fast food restaurant, and, in a rush to complete your order asked for a coke when you "perhaps" meant to order some other soft drink? The Coke brand and its owners have achieved a top of mind awareness. Postcards - Picture Perfect Promotion There is a simple but almost mystical law which governs promotion and marketing and their relationship to the amount of business generated: business will come in to the degree that you get your message out, promote, let people know you are there, advertise, write to people, call people, e-mail people and generally communicate to existing or potential clients.It isn't a fact that registers easily and it almost takes faith to follow this dictum until you have seen it work over and over in all sorts of different businesses and organizations (as I have). Promotions That Build Profit Promotions are everything you do to let your customers know you exist. Good marketing techniques can help eliminate the "I didn't knows" from your clients and would-be clients. A Complaint? It's a Compliment! - 7 Tips for Dealing with Complaints at Trade Shows A Complaint? It's a Compliment!What made you mad last week?In the past week, how many times were you upset by something? What action did you take? Complain to the neighbors, make a snide remark to a co-worker, post it on a list or email a group? Did you just gossip or did you try to make it into a positive experience? They say we complain to ten people for every one compliment about a product or service.Did you call the manager of the company, write the company president, email a suggestion for improvement? Probably not. 10 Important Marketing Tips Each of the following Ten Marketing Tips is based on a highly effective but often overlooked marketing tactic. How many are you using? How many have you overlooked?Marketing Tip #1: Insulate yourself against the impact of change by increasing the number of products and services you offer . The Marketing Plan and the Four P's The Marketing Plan section of the business plan demonstrates how a company will penetrate the market with its products and services. The Marketing Plan should include "the four P's" - Product, Promotions, Price, and Place. Give It Away Now - The More You Share, the More You Sell! Give away your knowledge, and you'll make money. How does this work? Isn't this counter-intuitive? Let's think about this. Quick Postcard Design Tips TIP #1: Avoid the "Too Much Information" Syndrome I've seen many a marketing postcard that just has too much information on it. Too many words set in tiny type is an all too common problem. The Name Game Pop quiz! If you have to say goodbye to your hard earned money to purchase something you've always wanted, who would you rather trust: an unknown provider or one who has an established name in the industry?The answer to that question shows how important branding has become in recent years. And consequently, brand building has taken an equal significance. Slogans: Creating and Using Them In Life, Career and Business Information is coming at us from all directions nowadays. This pace requires us to demand that we receive it fast and predigested in order to inch ahead of the game. Direct Mail Response Rate Boosters (12 tips and ideas) 1. Mail to a different listYour list is the most important part of your direct mail campaign. Promotional Pen - A Pen by any other Name? Have you ever been among a group of people exchanging contact details? Notice the scramble for that good old-fashioned instrument, the pen. See the woman upturn her purse searching for one and the impatient expressions on the faces of the people with her. The Top 10 Marketing Tools to Grow Your Business in 2004 Looking to grow your business? Make sure you have these marketing tools in place:#10 A powerful taglineIn 10 words or less, a good tagline reinforces a company's reason for being. And smaller companies will find it to be one of the hardest working tools. Guerilla Marketing Lesson 2: Why Do People Call Me? Before we begin, I want you to think about how many times you actually sought out an advertisement. How did you know where to look for it? Why did you choose that one? Whether you know it or not, the number of times you were exposed to the message has a huge impact on you. Blowing Your Own Horn Opportunity Assistance Business Resource Center http://www.opportunityassistance. Making the Intangible Real How do you make the intangible real? How do you take an idea or concept, something that can't be seen or touched, and convey its essence to others, quickly and easily?That challenge faces many of us in this age of information and knowledge marketing. In advertising and other marketing communications, we have to convince prospects to respond to words and ideas.
|
| home | site map | Advertising Articles |
| © 2006 |
