Direct Mail answers for PR & Marketing Professionals, Nonprofits, and Small Business

What is a Business Reply Permit, and Who Should Get One?

Anyone looking to increase response rate for a solicitation, or R.S.V.P. should consider investing in a Business Reply Permit. Simply stated, a business reply mailer allows someone to respond to an offer without having to affix a stamp or spend any money on postage.

What kind of organizations should consider getting a Business Reply Permit? Nonprofit organizations are probably the best candidates for a Business Reply Permit, although businesses that routinely mail product offerings to existing clients or new prospects may be good candidates as well.

How exactly does it work? An organization that gets a Business Reply Permit only has to pay postage on mail pieces that are actually mailed back. For instance, if 10,000 pieces are sent out, and there is a 3% response rate then postage will be due for only the 300 pieces that were mailed back-not for the entire 10,000 pieces.

What are the benefits? Clearly, the largest benefit is an increased response rate. In the scenario where a person sincerely intends to mail in a charitable donation, but doesn’t have or cannot locate a stamp, using a Business Reply envelope makes a lot of sense. Statistics show that the challenge with direct mail is that response rate drops dramatically if people do not act shortly after opening their mail. Studies done using a control group with a Business Reply envelope consistently have higher response rates than those requiring respondents to affix a stamp.

Additionally, a business reply envelope facilitates a quicker response because of the fact that the address is already converted into a U.S. Post Office approved barcode.

How much does it cost? There are 2 types of Business Reply Mail: standard and high volume. The standard version has a much lower annual investment of $185 and is the appropriate choice for the majority of organizations, particularly for smaller organizations. The high volume version requires an annual investment of $770. The larger investment, however, leads to a substantially reduced per piece cost. While the high volume permit has a per piece cost of regular first class postage plus 8.3 cents, the standard permit has a per piece cost of regular first class postage plus 74 cents. This means that for a standard 1st class sized letter, postage using a standard business reply would be (44 cents + 74 cents) $1.18 a piece. Some quick math shows that organizations expecting to receive 890 or fewer responses in a calendar year should opt for standard Business Reply Mail.

Does a Business Reply Permit make sense for my organization? To determine if a Business Reply Permit is merited, the organization doing the mailing needs look at both the costs associated with using the permit and the dollar value attributed to the increased response rate.

How can I get a Business Reply Permit? A knowledgeable mailing industry professional or the Business Mail Unit of a local U.S. Post Office are resources for assistance with getting set up with a Business Reply Permit. A more detailed description of the costs and other details associated with getting a Business Reply Permit is listed on Form 507a . Additionally, the application can be printed directly from the official USPS website, and completed in advance or filled out with the assistance of the postal staff at a local Business Mail Unit.

How to Increase Responses from My Mail Appeal?

Guest post by Lori L. Jacobwith, communication & fundraising strategist who helped helped organizations generate nearly $90 million from individuals.

www.twitter.com/LJacobwith

www.lorijacobwith.com

It’s heading into the time of year when I receive LOTS of fundraising appeals via mail. I’m often asked about what to expect on the return from the mailing. I find it interesting that I am being asked that question just about the time the mailing is going out. What concerns me is that organizations don’t ask that question all year long. If we ask the question: What are we doing to keep our donors informed, connected and reminded about the impact of our work? I guarantee your annual appeal response rate will be much higher.  

I’ve heard Penelope Burke speak a few times over the years. She’s written the book Donor Centered Fundraising based on thousands of donor surveys and she recently released a new donor report, Philanthropy in A Turbulent Economy. The following are some stats she shares that stand out for me as you make the effort to increase your annual appeal response rates:  

From Penelope’s open-ended question research:

DONOR QUESTION: Once you’ve made a 1^st contribution – what would cause you to remain loyal and/or increase your giving?

1.   87% said whenever they give they wish to be acknowledged promptly and in a meaningful way. – THIS INSPIRES MORE GIVING!

2.   In the thank you letter, include some confirmation of where the gift is going. Specific child…program or service.

3.   Before you ask me again…I want a meaningful report on how you used the gift. So this ties into the specifics on where the gift went that you identified in the thank you letter.  

People are very sensitive to the period between when they first give and the next appeal. Donor attrition is approx. 60% in that space.

If donors don’t get what they want or need IMMEDIATELY then they move on or stop giving at all for awhile.

44% said promptness alone could inspire another gift. (Within 48 hrs they should receive the personal thank you call and within two weeks – the letter)

My recommendation is to develop an annual communication plan to keep donors connected and engaged and informed ALL YEAR LONG.

Suggested tasks for your communication plan:

·     Have your board of directors assist with making thank you phone calls as contributions arrive. Do this either at board meetings for just a few minutes each month or distribute calls to the board in between meetings.

·     Share information about the good news and the “not so good news” monthly at your organization via 250 word or less email messages that have been carefully crafted to inspire and inform. These should be sent from the executive director or board chair.

·     Share stories about the people you serve. Stories can be a few lines or a few paragraphs. Keep them short and interesting. And they don’t have to have a happy ending to be compelling.

·     Make sure to have personal (phone or in person) contacts with segments of your donors (donors who have given the longest, or largest gifts) annually and track this in your database.

Putting the time to stay connected and keep your donors informed the other 11 months of the year can and WILL increase the response rate for your direct mail appeals.

For more blog updates from Lori Jacobwith visit www.lorijacobwith.com/blog

Secrets to Cloning Your Best Customers

What if you could walk into your office tomorrow, press a button, and clone your best customers?  Does this sound far-fetched or impossible?  It’s actually much closer to reality than most small business owners and marketing professionals realize.

How can I clone my best customers?  The first step is to identify a trusted vendor who specializes in data modeling services, and then send them the customer list.  These services are offered both online and typically by local vendors.  Since customer information is extremely sensitive, interested parties should always ask for several references before engaging a vendor. 

What barriers exist?  Certain industries like health care or financial planning may have compliance barriers that need to be cleared before any information can be released to third parties.  This may mean privacy releases need to be signed, or it may prevent the exchange of data altogether.

What can I expect in return?

Valuable information about your existing customers: Reports identify common characteristics within the existing customer list-so why is this important?  This is important information because a savvy marketer can create campaigns with emotional appeals that correspond to the interests of the existing customers; this leads to a more engaged customer, and ultimately more business. 

For example, if the reports indicate that 70% of current customers enjoy opera, then a marketing campaign would scream for a new business pitch that includes 2 free opera tickets.  Similarly, high percentages of customers who enjoy golfing, fishing, boating, tennis or knitting may lead to the creation of marketing campaigns catering to these pastimes.  Remember, customers are always listening to “WII FM” (What’s In It For Me).  Leveraging customer information is the key to tuning into customers and their interests.

Additional data about specific members of the original customer list: This is extremely useful for executing a marketing campaign that resonates with a specific subset of the customer audience.  For instance, a group of specific customers could be targeted to launch a new product specifically designed for children.  Members of the existing customer audience who were flagged with the “presence of children” would certainly be more interested in these kid-oriented products.  Grandparents can often be identified when lists are analyzed, and they are another ideal target audience for children’s products.  There are many other valuable pieces of information that can be compiled from members of an existing customer list including marital status, income, assessed property value, favorite pastimes, etc.  Knowledge is power, and this information can be used to further segment customers, and to craft smaller campaigns that resonate with the appropriate segments.
 
Something very close to a cloned customer mailing list: One of the best ways to leverage information from an existing customer list is to have a modeled list created; a modeled list is a new list of customer prospects whose interests and demographics closely match those of the current customer database.  This is as close to “cloning” existing customers as possible, and is widely recognized as one of the most effective and efficient ways to grow a customer database.

What are the additional benefits?  When analysis is done, customers on an existing list who have relocated or passed away are identified.  Nobody wants to mail to customers who have passed away, so this information can be used to purge these customer records from the list.  Relocation information can be used to either update address information in the main database, or to purge records from a list completely for businesses with strictly locally based products or services.

The bottom line is that in any mailing campaign, the database is by far the most critical indicator of success. In fact, research from John M. Coe’s book, The Fundamentals of Business-to-Business Sales & Marketing indicates that 50% -70% of the success of a mailing campaign is based on the mailing list. This information can be used to grow the customer list and to assure the profitability of future campaigns.