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Don't include website address in direct mail appeals?
Howard Lake | 31 October 2007 | Blogs
This week’s ‘Fundraising Tip of The Week’ from DRF Group Ltd/EuroDM Ltd features an intriguing recommendation. “When writing a fundraising letter”, they adcise, “give second thoughts to mentioning the fact that you have a web site in your direct mail appeals. Simply including a web address on your letterhead has repeatedly been shown to lower response to a gift request. No one knows why.”
You can understand that the website address might serve to dilute the response because it gives the recipient an opportunity for distraction. ‘Stop reading this appeal and go and explore our website’ might well result in fewer people reading the appeal and responding via the prepaid envelope.
But does it really hit income? Many charities report, anecdotally alas, that their online income goes up following a direct mail appeal. For some donors, online is their favoured method of giving.
My guess is that adding a website address doesn’t reduce income, but rather causes the income to be received by at least one more channel. Of course, this can make tracking response more difficult, but a dedicated URL or landing page for mailings would help address that.
But what is your experience? Does including a website address on a direct mail appeal reduce income?
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.