How your fundraising mail is designed may be more important than what is says.
You prepare a strong message to your targeted audience telling them of your need for their support in the form of volunteer workers and contributions, you target the group that you want to send the direct mailing to in hopes of raising mega dollars for your campaign, and now all you need to do is to have an artist or designer put together the physical component of your mailing . . . Right?
WRONG!
You have made one of the most common and dangerous mistakes of a campaign and that is to ignore what your mailing piece will look like when it reaches the door of the potential contributor.
Its importance is really common sense when you think about how you yourself examine your mail and decide before even opening it, what is a bill, personal or trash. The fact is, most fundraising letters may get inside the home of the potential contributor, but most go right into the trash, without every being opened. This sorting process in the hands of the recipient takes perhaps 10 to 30 seconds, which means you have to give him/her a reason to open that envelope. As in most things in life, the first impression is usually the key to success and perhaps even more so in direct mail.
So let's start work on your mailing piece's "FIRST IMPRESSION." If you start out by designing an envelope, you are limiting yourself from the start. You may think the standard white envelope is what you need, but don't limit your imagination. You can use things like Federal Express packages, mailing tubs, cardboard boxes or no envelope at all, just the folded up heavier paper secured by a small sticker.
As your one and only opportunity to make a "first impression" on the potential contributor, the design of your mailing piece must be driven by the message you want to convey to them. The lack of a return address and the use of a handwritten address in a greeting-card-type envelope, will give your mailing piece the look of a personal correspondence, instead of a mass mailing piece. The addition of a hand-written note from the candidate adds a personal touch to the inside piece. Also, the use of a off-white color of paper, instead of the generic stark white, will give the piece a warmer, more personal appearance. With the addition of a regular 32-cent postage stamp instead of a mass mailing bulk permit stamp, makes this piece very openable. I would open it, wouldn't you?
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