Posts Tagged ‘Direct Marketing’
In Support of Direct Mail
Blogs “Direct mail is outdated! Who responds to mail anymore?” “Direct mail acquisition costs too much.” “Digital is the future of fundraising.” For anyone who has spent time in the direct mail space, these criticisms of direct mail are familiar. To be honest, even I had some of these thoughts before I joined the direct…
Read MoreHow to Forecast and Reforecast During Coronavirus
Blogs Before you begin reforecasting or budgeting for the next fiscal year, make sure your plan is as comprehensive and detailed as possible. A budget by donor type, program, campaign, and channel is an essential tool to help manage unpredictability and provide a framework when revenue or expenses need to change. Note that cost per…
Read MoreThe Right to (Data) Privacy: How the Federal and State Legislation Are Addressing Data Privacy Concerns
Blogs The Right to (Data) Privacy: How the Federal and State Legislation Are Addressing Data Privacy Concerns The right to privacy has been a hotly debated issue for over a century in the United States. As far back as 1890, future Associate Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, along with attorney Samuel D. Warren, wrote that…
Read MoreCrisis Communications for Nonprofits in the Digital Age
Blogs If you’re like me you might have wondered why at the Annual Business Meeting of the Direct Marketing Association of Washington, our keynote speakers were speaking on crisis communications as opposed to, one might be forgiven for assuming, direct marketing. But, when you dig into the outcomes of a crisis – it is clear…
Read MoreMail Plans – Are They Really Just for Direct Mail and Do I Really Need One?
No and Yes, according to Jessica Harrington of the Harrington Agency during her recent DMAW webinar. She is also a planner at heart as the detailed webinar revealed. When you take a trip, a GPS-enabled device is a must, but you might also print or download a map. In other words, you bring tools to…
Read MoreHow to Prioritize and Maximize Your Testing
Direct marketers love testing. It’s how we establish causality and know with certainty that results can be repeated across campaigns. It’s how we mitigate risk across our programs before rolling out with new ideas. It’s how we gain insights about donor and customer behavior that allow us to build effective communication strategies that yield results.…
Read MoreDM 201: Stop Getting Comfortable and Start Innovating
DM 201 is an intermediate-level course that’s perfect for anyone who already has some direct marketing experience under their belt—whether at an agency, nonprofit, list broker, production company, or analytics firm—and wants to go beyond the basics. Somewhere between being a total newbie and seasoned vet things start to fall into place. We get comfortable…
Read MoreMiddle donors and the White House
Are your middle donors suffering from middle child syndrome? Do they feel excluded, ignored, overshadowed by the over-indulged major donors and the high volume, attention-stealing low dollar donors? Organizations are starting to shine the spotlight on middle donors, and rightly so. The reality is middle donors account for less than 2% of all donors in…
Read MoreReaching donors when you don’t have an “Aunt Bertha”
I had the pleasure of attending the DMAW Annual Meeting and hearing from keynote speaker Nancy Harhut about how to hack the brains of donors, members, and other humans. It was fascinating! Nancy shared a story about where her interest in fundraising began – at age eight when, incentivized by a banana-seat bike prize, she…
Read MoreA mail donor and a digital donor walked into a bar…
If your first reaction to the title above is, “I don’t get it, is that a joke?”, then you likely were not among fortunate, dedicated marketers, who braved the region’s first snow dusting of the season to attend this month’s DMAW Lunch and Learn, “Digital First: Why Translating DM Content Just Won’t Cut It!” While…
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