The 7 Fastest Ways to Increase Direct Mail Response (Part 1)

By Wayne Gurley
President & Creative Director

Part 1: Mail to the right audience

Your audience is the single most important element for success in any direct mail appeal.

At the risk of sounding obvious, the best audience for a direct mail appeal is your Active Donors. Next best is Lapsed Donors (those who haven’t given in at least a year), plus those as far back as five years.

(It is possible to successfully solicit Deep Lapsed Donors (from as far back as 10 years) with something called “Deep Lapsed DonorScores.” For more information on this, contact us at: welcome@allegiantdirect.com

Keep in mind, the further in time you get away from a donor’s last gift you get, the worse your response will be.

Ideally, you’re going to want to acquire new donors while at the same time soliciting current donors. So your prospects should be more than just “suspects.”

A good prospect list will include people who are the correct age for fundraising (average is 62) and have more than a casual relationship with your organization - either that or match up closely with your existing donor base (as in the case of an affinity-oriented rented list).

Hopefully, they also will be philanthropically inclined and direct mail responsive.

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