The Little Words Mean the Most

from today's webby, for Pam Grow

 

 

murmur

 

THIS week I will deliver a, they-paid-$129-per-1.5 hour webby >>>  on direct mail appeals, year end.

 

It's selling well ... as such tend to, when panic season sets in. When you realize some board-member's yacht-club membership will not save the planet....

 

 

How to figure out the signatures for a printed case

so you're figuring out sequence; beginning, middle, end; dramatic high points; when to ask; and, of course, do you really need another sheet of paper

 

What's the true, deep, secret purpose of donor comms?

 

Are we trying to get people to READ? Or are we trying to get people to ACT?

You guessed right: ACTION is our real goal.

It doesn't have to be immediate action, by the way.

Great thanks and good newsletters foster warmth and can instill amongst your supporters a sense of accomplishment. Great thanks and good newsletters mostly do NOT ask for any immediate action (although offers and "soft asks" in newsletters are fine).

What are your thanks and newsletters supposed to be doing?

They're fostering retention (also known as "donor lifetime value"). And better retention simply means that your readers will ACT again.

 

Mission Possible:

 

Your DM or EM appeal's goal ... IF you choose to accept it...

... to be the most interesting arrival

in my mail box / in-box

that particular day...

 

[secondary goal? to make me happy to help]

 

"I don't want to manipulate anyone!"

 

Preparing a show....

You'll hear this from the earnest, after they've learned about the neuroscience behind flattery and other chump "tricks of the trade" > "I don't want to manipulate anyone into giving!"

I do. But good luck with that.

Let's be frank and statistical: most people you approach for a gift ignore you most of the time. Your "manipulation" success rate, on your best day, is going to be next to nothing. Effective acquisition DM (non-premium) might pull in a 1% response? E-appeals even worse?

Manipulation is the least of your problems. Awakening my marginal interest one teensy bit is far more important.