Nobody likes to fail. But when it comes to direct-mail efforts, lessons that arise from stunning failures often can lead to stunning success

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

An Overly Spear-ited Effort
Submitted by Jeff Brooks, Merkle

The Campaign: It takes some doing to actually lose money in a direct-mail piece to current donors. You’re pretty much going to come out ahead no matter how bad your work is. But I once managed to lose money in this situation.

It was for a religious organization, one that was known mainly for its work in Communist and former Communist nations, though it worked all over the world, including among “newly discovered” tribal groups in places like the Amazon and New Guinea.