GO RIGHT – GO BIG ● Blog Post #47

WHAT IF THEY DON’T OPEN MY ENVELOPE?

Post #47

February 6, 2024

You’re running hard.

You’re at third base.

And the third base coach is excitedly waiving for you to keep going to home plate.

Let’s pause now and go back to when you stepped up to the plate with the excited thought of hitting a DIRECT MAIL GRAND SLAM HOME RUN.

You connected solidly with the ball and began to run the bases.

First BASE.  You’re confident you selected the correct names/lists.

Second BASE.  You have a strong BRAND, you own a category, you have a hole in the marketplace, you’re a purple cow.

Third BASE.  You’ve identified a major problem that’s of great concern to those on your list and you’ve developed a project that will solve the problem.

However, you’re left with one big concern.

What if the potential donor doesn’t…

…open my letter.

…read my great copy.

…read that I want to help her solve a major concern of hers.

…read about my “can’t fail” solution to the problem.

That’s a potential problem—actually a huge potential problem.

Here’s how I learned to deal with this important issue.

When I began my study of direct mail/direct marketing in the early 1960s, I noticed that a high percent of the mailings I saw over and over both in commercial and in nonprofit mail had what I began calling an involvement technique, such as a sweepstakes, a small pencil in the envelope, gift cards, a keychain with my car license number on it (DAV), name and address labels, etc.

I began to experiment with ideas that I could use for my nonprofit clients.

One idea was to involve potential donors by asking their opinion in a survey, ballot, or poll.

Today my idea is the most widely used involvement technique in ideological/political communications (postal mail, email, digital ads, TV and radio ads) on the left and the right.

People on your mailing list are inundated daily with dozens of postal, email, phone, and TV asks for donations.

How do you break through the daily onslaught of requests to donate or buy?

Here’s a partial list that our company American Target Advertising has used successfully since the 1960s to get our envelopes opened and read:

·         Surveys, polls, ballots

·         9x12 carrier envelopes

·         7 ¼, 7 ¾, #8 carrier envelopes

·         Lumpy mail

·         Colored carrier envelopes (yellow, bag kraft, black, etc.)

·         A check (real or faux) showing through the window of the carrier envelope

·         A coin or coins showing through the window of the carrier envelope

·         Sweepstakes

·         Full-size calendar

·         Front-end free book/booklet

·         8x10 photograph

I have many more ideas that will improve the results of your mailing, which I’ll discuss in the coming weeks.

We’ve now covered the four most important elements for a fundraising DIRECT MAIL GRAND SLAM HOME RUN.

The four we’ve discussed in the last four weeks are absolutely, positively key to having a successful fundraising mailing.

And by the way, these ideas apply to any mass mailings, not just fundraising.  They apply to commercial mailings, voter mail, mailings to brand you/your opponent/competitors/your nonprofit, candidates, etc., etc.

Your feedback is helpful, appreciated, and needed.  Please email me at rviguerie@americantarget.com with any thoughts or comments you may have.

This free post is brought to you by American Target Advertising™ (ATA) and American Mailing List Corporation™—“ConservativeListsRUs.”  ATA was the world’s first conservative direct marketing agency and still is the largest with over 85 team members (increasing to 135 by 2024) that will mail over 300,000,000 postal letters in the 2023-2024 election cycle for 40+ clients who will receive over 7,000,000 donations from over 2,500,000 unique donors.

​Much of the information in GoRightGoBig.com is from Richard A. Viguerie’s new book, GO BIG – The Marketing “Secrets” of Richard A. Viguerie. Copies for yourself or as a gift can be ordered at GoBigConservatives.com or GoRightGoBig.com, or at your favorite online bookstore.

If you wish to buy copies to be given free to high school or college students to encourage them to seek a career in conservative politics/marketing, go to GoBigConservatives.com.

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