Nonprofit Mail – 3 Best Practices

When it comes to driving support for nonprofits and engaging donors, direct mail is still an effective strategy for allocating your marketing budget. A huge medium of communication, organizations and charities alike can raise money with direct mail and nonprofit mail. As the world becomes more digital and digital marketing rules the business world, fundraising remains very traditional. In fact, only 8.5% of all fundraising comes from online channels. At Automated Direct Mail (ADM), we specialize in fundraising and messaging through direct mail for hundreds of Palm Beach County nonprofit organizations. Let’s go over the best practices we use to ensure success.

Make it Personal with Variable Data Printing (VDP)

Adding a name and address to a letter can make your members or donors feel special. But that can only go so far. To grow your nonprofit outreach and fundraising, you need to give a personal touch to leave a lasting impression. With all the information or data that you gather about your members or donors, you can strengthen your relationship with them and build loyalty. With variable data printing (VDP), you can customize graphics, offers, copy, and calls to action for individuals in your mailing list. A common and effective method of this is offering a member to upgrade a higher level of donation by showing their previous donation amounts to match. ADM has streamlined and automated the entire process.

Utilize Emotions

Getting people to connect with your cause on an emotional level with your organization is what sets apart nonprofit mail from normal marketing mail. A nonprofit organization or charity is better suited to use emotions to gain traction with the performance of direct mail campaigns. You can utilize the outer envelope to tap into an emotional driver with an image or call to action about your cause. The goal is to get the reader to focus on the emotions they are feel and channel into action – which in this case is a donation.

Envelopes Can Help You Stand Out

Adding a teaser to the exterior of your envelope can invoke emotion and make the reader take action. Adding something about the benefit of your cause or an emotional copy driver can be very effective for your campaign. Sometimes it is not even the copy on the envelope but the elements of the design itself. Designing your envelopes to match your brand elements can make routine mailings give your recipients a feeling of association. Linking your brand with the mission when they see your mail in the mailbox can make all the difference and get them to open your piece and donate.  

ADM Can Handle Your Nonprofit Mail Campaigns

Automated Direct Mail is a West Palm Beach lettershop and mail house that specializes in automating direct mail campaigns for businesses and nonprofits alike. Local since 1984, we have been trusted by over 1000 local Palm Beach County businesses. We also specialize in nonprofit mail and do everything in-house at our 10,000 square foot warehouse. If you want to learn more about what we do, you can check out our website. Or to get started with a nonprofit mailing job you can find our contact page here.

To learn more about effective nonprofit mail practices, check out these other resources:

Resource 1 | Resource 2 | Resource 3

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