10 Creative Strategies to Cut Through the Clutter

A few more examples to illustrate this concept:

• Instead of saying: “Give in honor of Mom this Mother’s Day,” say: “This Sunday”
• Instead of saying: “Stop the number one cause of cancer,” say: ”In case you were wondering”
• Instead of saying: “Help us fight back against The Right,” say: “What kind of dummies do they take us for?”

10. Don’t just reinstate, PREinstate.
Good direct-response membership programs put a great deal of effort into recapturing lapsed donors and constructing dedicated, and often complex, reinstatement programs — and for good reason. But for all the effort our programs put into saying “we want you back” to our donors when they’re practically gone, many don’t put the same effort into saying “stay” to the donors who are on the fence. Nor do many programs define what being on the fence is, for that matter.