And, the envelope please…
What makes your appeal stand out in a crowd?
When asked what my favorite carrier envelope is for a fundraising appeal, my standard answer is:
One that screams “open me!”
Of course, there are a variety of reasons an envelope may beg to be opened.
And an equal number of reasons why it may scream “dump me in the trash.”
Today I want to help you avoid the trash bin.
And, good news – it’s not that difficult.
You don’t need to be a direct mail expert.
You don’t need to run a zillion A/B tests.
You just need to exercise some good old-fashioned common sense.
First, think about what gets you to open an envelope.
I’d love for you to do some noodling on this now – before you read further.
In fact, if you want to do something really helpful, STOP reading this article, convene a few colleagues, and do a little group brainstorming. Ideally, get your answers up on a whiteboard or other group memory so you can piggyback off of each other’s ideas. [Go do this now; come back to this article later.]
If you’re not prepared to play along (I get it, you’re busy), here’s a sample I’m sharing from a brainstorm I did with another nonprofit:
Details