Direct Mail

Last week I focused on a powerful six-panel glossy pamphlet in a mailing from Planned Parenthood Federation of America. This week, it’s all about a six-page 8.25-inch-by-10.75-inch brochure in a Doctors Without Borders mailing. The brochure, like the PPFA pamphlet, is compelling in its combination of arresting design elements and text. In this case, the design elements are the colors used in the brochure — deep black and red — and black-and-white photographs. Headlines like “Saving Lives” and “Commitment: Answering the Call” in reverse type (white) literally jump off the page. Like the PPFA pamphlet, this brochure does a great job of putting the organization’s

The key strategy to turning direct-mail constituents into major-gift donors is stewardship, says Karen Osborne, president of full-service consulting firm The Osborne Group. Stewardship is “more than sending out a thank-you note,” Osborne says. It is an addition to the suite of things an organization does through direct mail -- such as adding impact statements in a post-thank-you touch that communicate the difference a donor’s gift made. “The thank-you is just, ‘this is what we promise to do with your money.’ Stewardship is, ‘this is in fact what we did with your money.’ It’s the delivery on the promise,” Osborne says. For

Sometimes all it takes is one element with one strong image that intertwines with and communicates a singular, strong message to give a direct-mail package response-driving impact. This mailing from Planned Parenthood Federation of America trying to rally support against pharmacists’ refusal to fill birth-control prescriptions achieves this with a six-panel, 4-inch-by-7-inch glossy pamphlet. The package is mailed in a white No. 10 envelope with faux red-stamp copy reading “Petition Enclosed” and includes an 8.5-inch-by-14-inch form with the reply device and three petitions, a four-page, 8.5-inch-by-11-inch letter and a BRE, in addition to the pamphlet. The letter does a good job of laying PPFA’s case, but

There are two aspects of this membership mailing from the Foundation for the National Archives worth noting. First, it is a very well branded piece that uses a red, white and blue color scheme to accentuate copy throughout the mailing, but most effectively on the outer envelope and reply device. This repeated, bold color scheme pulls all of the mailing’s elements together in a very strong way. This branding also comes through powerfully on the 3.5-inch-by-8.5-inch double-sided glossy insert. It features background colors of red and blue, images of the National Archives building, the Declaration of Independence and a colonial American soldier playing a whistle,

One of the goals of a direct-mail appeal should be a personal connection, says Dick Goldsmith, chairman of The Horah Group, a full-service direct-marketing agency. Appeals that refer to previous donations and unique ask strings based on previous donations can help add that personal connection. Using variable data is another way to connect with recipients, Goldsmith says. It can give a national organization the ability to, for example, overlay recipients’ geographic information into a direct-mail campaign to talk about how it’s helping people in the recipient’s local community. “If they can tell me that they help people who were hit by floods

For a mailing that comes through the mail looking rather small in its 4.5-inch-by-8-inch outer envelope, this campaign from the Servants of Mary has a slew of elements. Different ones, at that. First is the outer envelope, different enough in size from the usual No. 10s to get noticed. Stretched from end to end of the envelope’s face is a four-color photograph showing the silhouette of a person standing on top of a mountain, arms reaching up toward the sun as it breaks through the clouds. Above the address box is copy reading, “Celebrate Life.” Though small, the outer envelope shows some girth, packed as it

Lift notes and multiple poly windows are two direct-mail elements that, when done right, can boost response to a mailing. A lift note is “designed to be a more personal, intimate piece of communication,” says Steve Penn, chief executive officer and executive creative director at Penn Garritano Direct Response Marketing. Penn says most lift notes are “executive” sized (7-inch-by-10-inch) with “from the desk of,” giving it a more personal, one-on-one feel. Usually just a few paragraphs in length, lift notes should be signed by someone of high stature in the organization, and this person should be different than the letter signer. While

Nonprofit organizations face numerous challenges in today’s competitive environment, including limited operating budgets, particularly for marketing, and a flood of organizations vying for the public’s charitable dollars. Donors are extremely selective with their contributions and might only donate to one or two organizations annually that speak to their personal sentiments, interests and demographic.

Therefore, nonprofits can benefit from taking proactive measures to analyze the psychologies of their financial contributors and leverage this information to develop highly targeted marketing campaigns.

Here’s a good example of a simple mailing with strong branding. There’s no gloss or glitz or flashy graphics, just basic color branding. The WLIW21 logo in brown and light blue appears on each element, and this color scheme is used to highlight pull-out messages throughout the mailing. For example, on the face of the No. 10 outer next to a teaser announcing “New fall programs inside!” is an image of a brown, clip-art leaf. And in the top right corner on the first page of the two-page letter is a simple illustration of a flower, colored light blue, and below it, “Coming soon!”

This mailing by Colel Chabad, an umbrella philanthropy supporting a network of soup kitchens, day-care centers, dental and medical clinics, camp scholarships, senior centers and other social-welfare projects throughout Israel and the former Soviet Union, is a great example of jolting outer envelope design and copy that gets recipients inside. The No. 10 envelope is designed in black, red and white colors, with reverse type. The right half of the outer is white, its purity interrupted by vertical streaks of black encroaching from the envelope’s left side, which is designed as though it was haphazardly brushed black with a paint brush. A horizontal stroke of