# 10 ways to make your direct mail results unbeatable …

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/12/17/10-ways-make-your-direct-mail-results-unbeatable/
- Published: 2008-12-17T10:19:46+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

… by treating each of your supporters as an individual

How you apply what you know about your supporters – how you use data and targeting–
is key to everything you do in fundraising. It will have a greater impact on your
response rates, average donation levels and return on investment than any other 
factor.

So here’s your 10 point targeting check list – nine dos and one don’t:

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1. Do finesse your proposition with paragraphs of variable copy that match individual
supporters – if they’ve only supported your education programmes in India, leverage
India, if Africa, leverage Africa.

2. Do match each donation prompt or financial ‘ask’ to each supporter’s giving history.
E.g. a lapsed supporter needs a different message to a supporter who has given recently.

3. Do learn from outside the sector. Retail direct marketing, typified by mail order,
targets every customer’s own ‘price point’ – that’s how you can buy mail order lists
by value of last purchase, average purchase value or highest purchase etc. At TW
CAT we’ve identified over 10 subgroups of supporters who respond better when given
personalised prompts.

4. Do match your main financial prompt or ‘ask’ to how much a current supporter 
has most recently given by using a ‘previous gift plus’ formula to increase average
gifts.

5. Do match the main financial prompt or ‘ask’ to how much a lapsed supporter last

gave and ask for exactly the same amount.

6. Do choose whether you use recency, frequency or value as the basis for your

donation prompt. High value supporters typically respond more generously to a prompt
related to their highest-ever gift than to one related to their most recent donation.

7. Do acknowledge your supporters’ previous giving history by thanking them for 
the longevity of their support and the cumulative value of their gifts. To be exact
is to be correct.

8. Do use predictive lifetime value – LTV – models to identify supporters who will
give the most over time then resource the money.

9. Do use other information you hold about supporters to personalise their individual
mailing. Remember the man from the Pru – he always knew your dog’s name, and whether
its bark was worse than its bite.

10. Don’t stop testing – always remember that what has worked once won’t necessarily
work again.

NB. In head-to-head supporter mailing tests this approach has proven unbeatable.

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   24 December 2008)
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   2009)
 * **[Charities don't speak to donors too often](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/07/08/charities-don039t-speak-donors-too-often/)**(
   8 July 2009)