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

Case Study: Nonprofit Direct Mail Marketing: Why Simple Is Better

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Are you sincere about reducing marketing costs for your nonprofit? Then you'll want to read this short post.

Right now, I'm reading the biography of Steve Jobs, and one of the reasons that Apple was so successful under his leadership was his obsession with simplifying things. People love Apple products because they're easy to use.

With marketing, it's often difficult to embrace simplicity, yet in my experience, campaigns that are both simple and less expensive, often outperform complex campaigns that require larger budgets. With this in mind, I wanted to shine a light on a very simple nonprofit direct mail marketing campaign that got so many of the subtle, yet critically important elements exactly right.


As a vendor who works closely with the nonprofit community to process direct mail marketing campaigns, I feel pressure every day to pinch pennies for charitable organizations so that they can get more out of their limited marketing dollars. The challenge is that many of my cost-saving suggestions fall on deaf ears, so when I see someone who gets it right, I feel obligated to share.

So what's so special about this simple campaign?

1) Single-color ink: Just about everyone has a color printer in their office or home, so the default mindset is that everything should be printed in color-right? The reality is that for quantities fewer than 2,000 pieces, single-color printing can save substantial amounts of money-this is especially true with envelopes.

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida actually has a 3-color logo, but they also have an alternate single-color version that was used for this mailing project.

What about your organization? How many colors are in your logo? Do you have a single-color version? How would it impact the response of donors or volunteers if you started using a single-color version of your logo on some of your marketing? My suspicion is that it wouldn't have any impact at all to use a single-color version.

If you have board members who are obsessed about always printing a full-color version of your logo, this may be a good conversation to have. Before you raise the topic, do your homework and investigate how much money you could save and then share your arguments.

2) Nonprofit postage: Is your organization set up to mail at the nonprofit rate? Shame on you if not! It's 100% FREE to do this. Here's a link with instructions where you can download the paperwork and submit your request right away.

Contact me with any questions about getting approved to mail at the nonprofit rate. I've helped dozens of charitable organizations get approved.

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida mailed their invitation using the nonprofit rate. This piece was mailed to their most exclusive donor list. I know this may be shocking to you, but the truth is that millions of dollars are wasted each year by nonprofits who are not taking advantage of mailing at the nonprofit rate.

The savings are substantial. You're looking at postage of 15 cents apiece for automated nonprofit postage versus 44 cents (soon to increase) for a first-class stamp. Do the math and figure out how much money your nonprofit could save.

3) Automation: So what in the world is automation? Does it mean that your fundraising appeal needs to be prepared by robots? No, it does not; you can click here for a full explanation of automated direct mail.

Two simple benefits of automation are 1) lower postage (saving on average 5 cents apiece) and 2) speedier delivery by the United States Post Office. You'll notice the barcode printed at the bottom of the envelope. This intelligent mail barcode was added by my company BEFORE the mailing was sent.

For purists who think that the barcodes look ugly and make the mail piece look more like a solicitation, I have some bad news for you because if you don't print it one the envelope, the USPS equipment will. Don't believe me? Take a look at the mail that you receive at home today or at your office and notice all the barcodes. If you print the barcodes instead of the post office, you pay less postage.

4) Precancelled Stamps: Simply put, precancelled stamps look like first class postage but mail at the rate indicated in fine print on the stamp.

Notice the stamp on the image of the envelope. With the exception of postal geeks like me, most people will not ever realize that it's not a first-class stamp on the envelope. Here's a link that will tell you everything you need to know about precancelled stamps.

5) Mailing Labels: I hate using white mailing labels to address an invitation. I think they look cheap and tacky. You'll notice that the example piece from Conservancy of Southwest Florida has an address printed directly onto the envelope.

Of course your board will tell you that hand-addressed envelopes look better, but is your board going to hand-address them for you, and will your mailing get out on time? By hand-addressing, you'll also be sacrificing the tremendous postage savings that you get by mailing at the nonprofit rate, so my advice would be to limit hand-addressed appeals and invitations as much as possible. I think you'll agree that the font chosen for the sample piece still conveys sophistication.

I bet before you started reading this, you didn't realize the power of a lowly envelope. I didn't even talk about the piece inside, but now you see how the decisions associated with your envelope can impact not just the perception of your campaign, but the dollars and cents that you invest in every single mail marketing campaign.

Here's your homework: Take just one of the cost-saving ideas listed above and implement it in your organization before the end of the calendar year. It doesn't matter which you choose: single-color printing, mailing at the nonprofit rate, using precancelled stamps or automation.

Savings in any area will buy you the extra money that you're seeking for your next mail marketing campaign. By keeping your marketing simple and focusing on getting the basics right, you’ll be more likely to spend less and have a more successful campaign.

Remember, if you get stuck, you can always contact me, but you've got to take the first step.

Like what you're reading?  Have you signed up for my weekly e-newsletter yet or are you following my blog's rss feed?

What are best practices that you've seen in nonprofit direct mail marketing? Please share your comments below.

Which Nonprofit Database Management Software is Right for Me? Interview with NonProfitEasy

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You can forget about mailing a successful appeal letter if your donor data is a mess.

I work with successful nonprofits on a daily basis to launch fundraising campaigns and other donor communication, but I have to turn others away because they are unable to produce an organized database.

As a direct mail professional, I have a vested interest in making sure that my clients maintain an organized database. In the spirit of getting things in order from the beginning, I present my fifth in a series of posts evaluating nonprofit database management solutions. Lomesh Shah from NonProfitEasy shares his answers below.

Here are NonProfitEasy’s Questions & Answers:

Is there a certain size nonprofit that your software is best suited for?
Our focus is on the small to medium community nonprofits. We target nonprofits with an operating budget between $100,000  and $2 million, although we have a couple of nonprofits that exceed that.

What do most users consider to be the 3 best features or benefits of your product?
1.    Simplicity: We work very hard to ensure that the application is user-friendly and intuitive. If several users are struggling with a specific feature, we can provide additional training or we can modify the feature through a future update. All users have an opportunity to post and vote on potential updates to the system.

2.    Affordability: One of the main challenges with database management programs for smaller nonprofits is the cost. Most of the community-based organizations are managing with very little resources. The product we develop has to provide value while at the same time give the nonprofit staff the tools they need to manage the day-to-day operations more efficiently.

3.    Events Dashboard: This feature, along with the other Dashboard information, gives the users a quick snapshot of exactly where the organization is at a glance. Online registrations and ticketing is one of the most used features in the system.

Is there a trial version of your software available for nonprofits who would like to test drive it?
We have found that the best way to engage the potential user is through a comprehensive demo where we can actually walk them through the features that will benefit their organization the most. Unlike mass demos, we do an in-depth one on one demo and tailor that to the needs and concerns of the organization.

What sort of user training is available for your software and is it included with the price of the software?
The setup fee includes 2 one-hour training sessions. There are self-help tutorials, chat capabilities and free phone support which includes screen sharing capabilities so that they can visually see how to do certain things if they have questions.

When nonprofits are ready to launch a direct mail appeal, how do they export their mailing list?
That’s the beauty of NonProfitEasy. Any Advanced Searches or Reports you generate can be exported easily into Excel or printed.

As for Donation Acknowledgements, with NonProfitEasy, the nonprofit can customize letters before printing them and even print the envelopes. In addition, the application will document the activity so that you have a history of outgoing communication. Whether it’s a letter, postcard, or newsletter through direct mail or e-mail, NonProfitEasy can help organizations reach out to the community. And because we’re firm believers in making life easy, if they need to export data they can always download it to an Excel spreadsheet.

Why do you feel that it's important for nonprofits to invest in database management software? Nonprofits like stuff that is free. Unfortunately, when it comes to data management, free is not something you want. Data is critical to understanding the constituents and their propensity to give – time or money. Lost opportunities are seldom noticed when data is spread across different systems that do not talk to each other. Nonprofits exist for a specific purpose and it’s not to juggle data between systems.

Because NonProfitEasy was created by nonprofits, we understand and are firm believers in efficient management as a way to manage costs and pour more funds and time back into the mission. There’s no reason why a nonprofit should operate at a disadvantage when NonProfitEasy is available at an affordable cost.

About the Author
Lomesh Shah combines his proactive approach with more than 20 years of international corporate experience and business management expertise for the operations and management of NonProfitEasy. A business futurist and strategist, he has been a very strong advocate of using the power of technology for nonprofit management transformation. He has worked with small to mid-size businesses, privately-held companies and Fortune 500 corporations in various capacities from Sales and Marketing to overseeing automation and reengineering of processes and operations. He played an instrumental role in three startups before founding NonProfitEasy.

When not working, Lomesh volunteers with various non-profits in the community, bringing his business experience to the non-profits. Lomesh is very active in the Chamber of Commerce and is a mentor with the local small business incubator.

NonProfitEasy was born out of a need to help nonprofit organizations streamline the management of their businesses. Designed by nonprofits, NonProfitEasy helps organizations develop and manage stakeholder relationships (volunteers, donors, members, staff, board, foundations, government agencies, service partners) within one simple, integrated application. For more information, go to www.nonprofiteasy.com or contact Lomesh to request a free comprehensive demo.

If you enjoyed this post, you may also enjoy earlier nonprofit database management interviews with Dmitry Buterin from Wild Apricot, Mark Panger from Trail Blazer, Ellen Mowrer from GiftWorks or Peter Turk from Sumac.

By the way, if you already have your database figured out, but need help designing, printing and mailing your campaign, then I hope you’ll contact me for help.

Like what you're reading?  Have you signed up for my weekly e-newsletter yet or are you following my blog's rss feed?

Please contact me if you are a nonprofit database management provider and would like to be interviewed for this blog.  If you are a nonprofit and would like to recommend a particular vendor, or provide feedback on NonProfitEasy, please share your comments below.

Time for Another Postage Rate Increase from the USPS

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Do you include direct mail in your marketing mix? Then I'm sure you're not excited to learn that the USPS just announced a postage hike effective January 22nd, 2012. This represents the second postage increase in less than a 12-month period for the USPS.
Why is the USPS allowed to keep increasing postage rates? I get asked this question all the time, and as long as the proposed rate increase falls within the rate of inflation, there's no need to for approval from the US Congress or any other entity.  In this case, the inflation rate is 2.1% (as measured by the Consumer Price Index) and the overall proposed hike falls below this number.

Will it cost more to mail a first class letter? Yes, the cost to mail a regular first class letter will increase from 44 cents to 45 cents. Of course if you want to stock up on forever stamps, you can preserve the lower rate for a longer period of time.

What about postcards? It will cost three cents more to mail each postcard; postage is going up from 29 cents to 32 cents-that's more than a ten percent increase-ouch!

How about foreign letters? Currently it costs 80 cents to mail to Canada and Mexico; this will increase to 85 cents. Mailing to all other countries is now 98 cents apiece, but will increase to $1.05 apiece.

How will this increase impact bulk mail rates? Both presort standard and first class presort are expected to increase about 2.1% across the board.

How will Every Door Direct Mail impacted? The rate increase will barely impact the relatively new Every Door Direct Mail program from the USPS. This new program was launched in April of this year, and it allows marketers to mail at the dazzlingly low postage rate of just 14.2 cents apiece; as of January 22nd, 2011 this will increase just slightly to 14.5 cents apiece. This is by far the most cost-effective way to utilize direct mail marketing to target by geography.

How will this impact those who mail at the nonprofit rate? I contacted the USPS directly regarding how this change will impact nonprofit postage since it was not addressed in their official press release. There's relatively good news for nonprofits.

To balance out the overall 2.1% increase, the USPS has opted to actually slightly lower the nonprofit postage rate for letter-sized pieces (6" x 11" or smaller) and slightly increase postage for flat sizes pieces that are larger than 6" x 11".

If you're a nonprofit, this means it's time to fold your newsletter in half before you mail it. A standard 8.5" x 11" newsletter mails at the higher flat rate, but by folding it one more time to 8.5" x 5.5" you can mail at the lower letter rate.

Remember, the post office prefers that you tab your newsletter at the top. If you don't want to worry about tabbing your newsletter closed, you can always drop your newsletter in a 6" x 9" envelope and still mail at the letter rate.

When was the last postage increase? The last USPS postage hike took place in April 17th, 2011. This increase was pushed through on the heels of a larger 5.6% increase that was rejected by Congress in late 2010.

The interesting thing about the last increase is that the rate of a regular first-class stamp was left unchanged. This meant that while the increase was felt by business marketers and nonprofits, it was largely unnoticed by the general public. It will be interesting to gauge public sentiment from this latest increase.

What other changes can be expected from the USPS? I'm disappointed that that the USPS has yet to push through a five-day delivery schedule. In terms of labor and fuel costs, this seems like a simple way to save a substantial amount of money.

While five-day delivery is relatively painless to the consumer, postal unions have leveraged their resources to fight against this every step of the way. I still think it's inevitable that the USPS will transition to a five-day delivery. My hope is that this happens sooner than later.

Although there's nothing that you can do to prevent the planned postage rate increases, smart marketers like you should use this as an opportunity to reevaluate your direct mail options. If you can transition any of your direct mail prospecting to Every Door Direct Mail, this will not only mitigate the postage increase, but it will actually save you a substantial amount of money in postage.

If you're mailing first class presort, you may want to consider using precancelled stamps and mailing at the lower presort standard rate.

If you have questions about which bulk mail options make the most sense for your organization, I hope that you'll please contact me for help.

Many thanks to my friends at Post & Parcel for breaking this story first.

Like what you're reading?  Have you signed up for my weekly e-newsletter yet or are you following my blog's rss feed?

What strategies do you have for dealing with the planned postage increase? Please share your comments below.

Is Direct Mail Fundraising Still Pulling in the Lion's Share of Gifts?

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With all the noise about social media marketing and e-mail marketing, are you confused about how direct mail fundraising still fits into the mix?

Research published this year by nonprofit software giant, Blackbaud, shows that direct mail accounts for 79% of donation revenue for nonprofits. This answers the questions of "Is direct mail fundraising still relevant?" with a resounding "yes!"

So now that you've seen the numbers in support of direct mail fundraising, how do social media marketing and e-mail fit in?

How should nonprofits use e-mail and social media?

Technology news site, Mashable, examined the data from Blackbaud and came to the conclusion, that the most effective fundraising campaigns are coordinated, multi-channel efforts. That's right, synchronizing your traditional marketing and online marketing results in more profitable campaigns. In fact, according to Mashable, multi-channel fundraising campaigns result in three times better fundraising results-wow!

This means that instead of ransacking your direct mail fundraising budget and shifting it to social media or e-mail, you need to be sure to allocate funds to multiple channels. If direct mail marketing is responsible for 75% of your current fundraising, then you need to fund your direct mail appeals accordingly.

What steps should nonprofits take to increase their exposure online?

Successful social media marketing requires engagement. Engagement simply means interaction with your constituents, donors and volunteers. Engagement requires the substantial investments of one precious resource, and that resource is time.


It's easy to look at social media marketing and make an argument for how inexpensive it is compared to other forms of marketing, but this assumes that the required staff time has no value-which of course would be ridiculous.

You can't just sign up for a Twitter account and start a Facebook page for your nonprofit and expect people to flock there. You have to identify a team member, volunteer or paid consultant who can devote the time required to develop a presence, share relevant content, and interact.

This may sound daunting, but the good news is that another study published by Mashable shows that social media marketing is one of the few areas where smaller nonprofits can compete with the big boys. It's one area where your fundraising budget will not limit your success.

What's the best way for nonprofits to collect e-mail addresses?

E-mail marketing is viewed as another low-cost option for fundraising and marketing; however, many people forget that e-mail marketing is a permission-based form of communication.

Obtaining someone's permission to market to them via e-mail is not only the right way to go about it, but it's also mandated by the US Congress' Can Spam Act of 2003.

What about buying e-mail addresses?

I get asked on an almost daily basis by existing clients or blog visitors about purchasing e-mail addresses. I feel very strongly that purchasing e-mail addresses is the wrong way to go. A purchased e-mail address does not equal permission. Please take a look at my recent post How to Get More E-mail Addresses Without Being Labeled a Spammer for a more detailed look at this important topic.

So what's the key to get your marketing to work together?

The key to multi-channel marketing is to use the information that you already have about your supporters to fill in the missing pieces. If you have physical addresses, send a postcard asking supporters to sign up (give permission) to receive your e-mail communications. If you have e-mail addresses, invite your constituents to connect with your social media channels.

Send an e-mail campaign requesting supporters to share their physical mailing addresses. If you're worried about the logistics of this, you may want to consider using a PURL campaign. You can always hire me or another professional to manage the campaign for you. The data that you collect from existing donors is worth way more than any purchased list you could find.

Why go to all the trouble to set up multi-channel marketing?

Really, the key to improving your fundraising is to make it as easy as possible for your supporters to make a donation. The truth is that you don't get to decide how your donors want to interact with you, they do.

How donors choose to interact, may change from day to day. One day they may respond to direct mail, and the next day they may donate based on an e-mail solicitation. If you're reaching them across different channels, you are empowering your donors to support you using the channel that works best for them.

Going out of your way to make it easy for your donors, improves results and provides more money to support the important work that your organization is doing.

Like what you're reading?  Have you signed up for my weekly e-newsletter yet or are you following my blog's rss feed?

Where has your organization seen success fundraising? Please share your comments below.

The Dynamic Duo: E-mail Marketing and Direct Mail Marketing

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Are you looking for more e-mail addresses for your marketing communication? I get contacted almost every day by people like you who want to purchase e-mail addresses.


The problem is that most people forget that e-mail marketing is a permission-based. Not only is getting permission the right way to use e-mail marketing, but the US Congress' Can Spam Act from 2003 mandates it. This means that it's almost never a good idea to purchase e-mail addresses to use for your e-mail marketing.

So what's another way to collect e-mail addresses?
Step 1: Create a sign up form. Prominently display your sign up form on every page of your blog or website. Make it as easy as possible for people to sign up for your e-mail marketing.

Here's an example of my sign up form. You'll also see a link prominently displayed in the top right-hand corner of my blog.

Step 2: Target the right people. Start with existing customers. Yes, you can use the physical addresses of your existing customers to get their e-mail addresses. I've launched many direct mail campaigns like this for my clients, and I can tell you that this is one of the most profitable ways to use direct mail marketing.

Since the people receiving the direct mail communication already know you-remember, these are your existing customers-they are very likely to pay attention and respond to your request to share their e-mail address.

How do I get people to sign up for my e-mail marketing campaigns? If you want to make your campaign even more successful, then offer subscribers a small incentive, reward or discount in exchange for their permission for you to market to them.

By the way, if you think for a minute that existing customers aren't worth investing your limited marketing dollars, then please take a look at my recent post, Your Marketing Blind Spot.

How do I prevent people from unsubscribing?
1) Find out what they are interested and talk about it. People are looking for solutions to their problems. If you share videos, blog entries, book reviews or any type of information that can solve problems for your customers, then they will pay attention to you and stay subscribed.

2) Offer them incentives. Coupons are the most common incentive, and this is a great way to keep people interested and engaged, but coupons and discounts are not the only way to keep people engaged. If you share information that helps to solve problems for customers and prospects, then you can keep some of the information private, and share it exclusively with people who sign up for your e-mail marketing.

How does this impact my budget? While it costs less to market to customers via e-mail, the "permission" thing gets in the way. So the reward for encouraging your customers to sign up for your e-mail marketing communications is that you're automatically stretching your budget by converting them to a less expensive platform.

What's the best way to communicate with my customers? Your customers are fickle, and you can't control that. Some days they may respond to an e-mail, others direct mail and on other days that may want to hear from you via social media.

In almost all cases, there is no single channel that will suffice for your marketing efforts.

How can I score my marketing efforts? If you're not marketing at all to your existing customers, then you earn an "F." If you are marketing using a single channel, then you are probably somewhere around a "C." Consistently marketing using two channels will earn you a grade of "B," and if you're using more than two channels, you've earned an "A."


If you think this grading system is silly, consider that the more successful you are at marketing to your existing customer, the more profitable you will be. The investments that you make marketing to existing customers result in additional business, a longer customer life cycle and referral business.

If you agree that this is really important stuff, but aren't quite sure how to get started, I hope that you'll please contact me. This is the type of stuff that I help my existing clients with every day. Let me help you realize the benefits of marketing to your existing clients.

Like what you're reading?  Have you signed up for my weekly e-newsletter yet or are you following my blog's rss feed?

What do you see as the keys to marketing to your existing clients? Please share your comments below.

Your Marketing Blind Spot

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This may be the most important blog post that I've ever written.

Names have been changed to protect the guilty and innocent, but this is a completely true story. A story I share so that people like you can either learn from it, or feel better about the marketing decisions that you've made for your business.

Every business has a marketing blind spot, just like the blind spot in a side-view mirror that can prevent you from seeing the car that's right next to you.

That's the irony with something in a blind spot-it's so close, yet so easy to miss, and missing what's in your marketing blind spot can be just as catastrophic as veering into a lane when another car is right next to you.

The story of Joe the Insurance Guy
You see, at the end of last year, I received a letter in the mail telling me that my home owner's  insurance was going to increase. I live less than a mile from the Gulf of Mexico, and it's probably no surprise that insurance agencies aren't exactly tripping over themselves to insure my house.

I suggested to my wife that she give our insurance agent (a.k.a. "Joe the Insurance Guy) a call to see if he had any ideas for finding a less expensive home owner's policy for us.

The next day, when my wife went to call "Joe the Insurance Guy," his phone number was disconnected, we realized at that time that Joe was out of business.

Introducing, Jane the Insurance Gal
I'm part of a local networking group, and there's a female insurance agent in the group-let's call her "Jane the Insurance Gal." So my next step was to call Jane and explain my problem with my home owner's policy. Jane was eager to help and asked me to fax over a copy of my current policy to her office.

Jane did some research on her end and was ultimately able to find me a new home owner's carrier and save me several hundred dollars a year.

My wife and I were very happy, so when our auto policy came up for renewal, we gave Jane the opportunity to bid on that as well, and she was able to save us money there too. Jane now had both our home owners and auto insurance policies.

So what ever happened to Joe the Insurance Guy?
A few weeks later, I was out at a networking event, and I bumped into an old friend who knew Joe the Insurance Guy. I asked him whatever happened to Joe, and what he said shocked me. He said that Joe the Insurance Guy wasn't out of business, he simply moved to a new office.

What really happened?
That's right, Joe moved his office, got a new phone number and never told me. "Me" as in his current customer who he'd written policies for the last few years. "Me" who'd referred two relatives to Joe for business. Joe lost me as a customer because he forgot the most fundamental of business principals: maintain communication with your existing customers.

I didn't fire Joe as my insurance guy, he abandoned me. I didn't leave him, because I was dissatisfied with his service, or because he had a bad product. I didn't expect Joe to take me to lunch or to buy me a box of chocolates. I simply needed him to stay in touch with me and he dropped the ball.

I share this story because countless small business owners are making the very same mistake every day-are you one of them?

The truth is that most small businesses are obsessed with getting new customers at the expense of their existing customers. If you're guilty of this, it's like putting your customers on a treadmill. As new customers come in the front, your existing customers are getting carried out the back.

The result of this is that even with successful prospect marketing and new customer growth, your profits are flat or negative.

What do the statistics say?
According to MarketingSherpa.com, it costs 5-7 times more to acquire a new customer than it does to sell more to an existing customer. This means that any money that you invest in marketing to existing customers will be at least five times more effective than marketing spent on trying to acquire new customers. How much of your marketing budget are you investing on your existing customers? 

What can you do about this?
Put a plan in place today to engage with your existing customers. This can be scary because it involves you DOING something with your data. And yes, you do have customer data if you invoice customers or collect payment from them.

The truth is that with prospect marketing there are fewer barriers. You simply agree to do something, and then you write a check. It's easy! Your marketing can be in the form a newspaper ad, a radio commercial a banner ad on website, etc. There's no messing with your customer data-phew!

Large companies like Amazon.com and the NFL are using customer data and purchase history in their marketing with tremendous success. The same techniques that they leverage are available to you as a small business.

You can’t afford to skip this because you’re afraid it’s too difficult.

If you know that you need to start doing this, but you don't know where to start, I'll hope that you'll please contact me.

Oh, and by the way, one of the biggest things that you're missing by not marketing to your existing customer is referral business. Wouldn't we all like some more referral business?

If you don't stop neglecting your existing customers, you'll suffer the same fate as Joe the insurance guy. Don't be that guy!

Like what you're reading?  Have you signed up for my weekly e-newsletter yet or are you following my blog's rss feed?

What are some of the best methods you’ve seen used for marketing to existing customers? Please share your comments below.

How to Guarantee the Lowest Postage with Every Door Direct Mail

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Are you confused about the new Every Door Direct Mail program from the USPS? Are you trying to get the tantalizingly low 14.5 cent postage rate but not sure if your mailer qualifies? Then this post is for you.

The primary reason that there is so much confusion about the program is that there are actually two different programs: 1) standard Every Door Direct Mail and 2) Every Door Direct Mail Retail. The 2 programs have quite a few differences, but it’s Every Door Direct Mail Retail that offers the ultra-low postage of 14.5 cents apiece.

So what are the differences between standard Every Door Direct Mail and Every Door Direct Mail Retail?

• Where your bulk mail gets dropped off: With Every Door Direct Mail retail, your bulk mail gets dropped off at the regular retail mail counter, not to the Business Mail Unit (BMU).

This is a very important distinction, because the two programs also have different postage. If at all possible, you want to take advantage of the lower Every Door Direct Mail Retail postage rate of just 14.5 cents apiece.

With Every Door Direct Mail Retail, you can't just arbitrarily pick any post office because you need to drop your mail at the post office that handles the mail for the neighborhood or neighborhoods that you are targeting. You can determine the specific retail post office location by visiting the official USPS Every Door Direct Mail website.

How much money can you save on postage by using Every Door Direct Mail Retail? One of the people who contacted me was paying 8 cents more apiece for standard Every Door Direct Mail postage. You can see that this is a substantial difference.

What other factors influence which program you qualify for?
• The size and thickness of your direct mail piece: Even though Every Door Direct Mail Retail offers a low postage rate, your mail piece must qualify as a flat which means that it needs to be larger than 6" x 11", but smaller than 12" x 15". In addition, the mail piece must be at least 0.007 inches thick (a little thinner than a standard business card); standard copier paper will not qualify for the Retail rate postage.
• The quantity of pieces that you want to mail: With Every Door Direct Mail Retail, you can't mail more than 5,000 pieces from the same retail location on the same day.
• Do you have a permit? Every Door Direct Mail Retail does not require a mailing permit, so if you're a do-it-yourself mailer and don't want to pay the annual bulk mail permit fee, then EDDM Retail is definitely the option for you.

Are there any strong arguments against using the less expensive EDDM Retail option?

1) If you're sending a bulk mailing that is not in your immediate area, then you may want to consider avoiding EDDM Retail. For instance, if the retail post office that you'd have to use is more than 100 miles from where you are located, you would almost certainly spend more money on gas driving there then you would spend on the increased postage you could pay by dropping your mailing off at your local Business Mail Unit instead.

2) If you're planning to mail more than 5,000 pieces from the same retail location on the same day. Of course, if you have 15,000 pieces that you want to mail, you could always just mail them out on three consecutive days and stick with the lower EDDM Retail rate.

3) If you are sure that you do not want to mail a flat sized piece. For example if you want to mail a standard-sized postcard or letter, they will not qualify for Every Door Direct Mail Retail.

If you aren't stuck in one of these 3 categories, then in my opinion, you should absolutely use Every Door Direct Mail Retail. If you'd like more details on Every Door Direct Mail Retail, then take a look at my recent post New Business Mail Option: Every Door Direct Mail.

After reading this, it should be apparent that you MUST understand the details needed to qualify for a particular bulk mail program BFORE you design and print anything. Please use this blog as your free resource for answering any bulk mail questions that you have.

The two easiest ways to find specific information on this blog are to search the "categories" cloud in the top left-hand corner of this blog, or to use the "search" box on the top right of this blog. Of course, if you still can't find the answer to your question, I hope you'll please contact me for help. You never know when your question may end up as a topic for a future blog post. Odds are that if you have a question, many of our readers are looking for answers on the same topic.

By the way, if you'd rather not deal with all of these details, you can always hire me to print and process your bulk mail campaign for you.

Like what you're reading?  Have you signed up for my weekly e-newsletter yet or are you following my blog's rss feed?

What are your thoughts on the new Every Door Direct Mail program?  Please share your answers in the comments below.

How Google Uses Direct Mail Marketing to Grow its Business

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Google is one of the most idolized companies in the world right now. Funny thing is that most people don't realize that Google is also one of the largest direct mailers globally. That's right, high tech Google consistently uses low tech snail mail to attract new clients and generate revenue.

It's clear that Google has found a successful formula for incorporating direct mail into its marketing mix. With this in mind, I thought it would be useful to share an example of an actual Google direct mail piece that I received this week.

If you're curious about which techniques Google is employing in their direct mail marketing, and you think that you may be able to learn from their example, then this short post is for you.

Be environmental: What's the environmental impact of your printed marketing collateral? More and more people are asking this question.

As a result, Google uses FSC-certified paper for its direct mail marketing pieces including the envelope. See below.
Not only is Google responsible enough to do use FSC-certified paper, but they also display the FSC-certified logo clearly on the outside of the envelope. By doing this, they are educating potential customers regarding their concern for sustainability and the environment. This is a critical step of green marketing. Make sure that your customers and potential customers know if you are taking steps to preserve the environment.

Offer an incentive: While Google is offering a $100 discount, you probably don't need to be as generous. Discounts are one way to entice prospects, but they can really eat into your profit margin. Limited time offers and limited quantity offers are often superior ways to generate a response, and your cost for the discount is often much lower.

In the AdWords Express campaign that I received, Google actually combined a limited time offer with the discount (referred to as a gift card).

Integrate: Yes, the goal of the mailing is to drive recipients to a website to redeem a gift card; this is a classic example of marketing integration.

What about you? Can you set up an online discount for prospects that you target via direct mail? Can customers or prospects sign up an educational e-newsletter? Can they become a Facebook Fan or follow you on Twitter? Be sure to leverage your online infrastructure with your direct mail marketing.

Track results: The gift card included in the mailer has a unique ID so Google can instantly tell who has redeemed their gift card. They can also aggregate the data to determine how many recipients responded to this particular marketing program and how much each advertiser spent. Do you have tools in place to track the effectiveness of your marketing?

Keep it relevant: Google recognized that we are a local business, and it tailored its message accordingly by prominently displaying the city where my business is located. If a mail piece isn't relevant to the target audience then it has almost no chance of succeeding.

Use Precancelled Stamps: Don't know what a precancelled stamp is? A precancelled stamp is a type of postage that looks just like a regular first-class postage stamp, but allows you to mail at the discounted bulk mail rate. For a more detailed explanation on how precancelled stamps work, take a look at my recent post, "Getting First Class Attention Without Paying For First Class Postage."

See below for the sample from Google's envelope.

Successful marketing doesn't happen by accident. The more that you know about your target audience, whether they are existing customers or prospects, the better that you can do to create a campaign that appeals to their needs.

This Google AdWords Express campaign provides some classic examples of direct mail marketing strategies that you can utilize in your own marketing campaigns. Why not borrow from their example and use some of these techniques in your next campaign?

Like what you're reading?  Have you signed up for my weekly e-newsletter yet or are you following my blog's rss feed?

What techniques have you found effective with direct mail marketing? Please share your comments below.

Marketing in the US and the Latest QR Code Statistics

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So you're still wondering if QR Codes are worth all of the hype. Well, to make your decision easier, here are the latest statistics on QR Code use in marketing in the US.

How many people scanned QR Codes in the month of June in the US? Try 14 million! This is the equivalent of every single person in the state of Pennsylvania scanning a QR Code in the month of June-that's an awful lot of people!


Are the people scanning QR Codes wealthy? The study found that more than 36% of the people scanning QR codes in the US are earning over $100,000-wow!


Is there a gender bias? More men scan QR Codes than women. A survey by comScore showed that men scanned about 60% of the QR codes in the US.

Does age matter? Yes, age is definitely a factor. More than half of all QR Codes were scanned by people in the US between the ages of 18 and 34.

Which type of smartphone are people using to scan the most QR Codes? Almost 10% more people are using Androids to scan QR Codes as opposed to iPhones.

Where are people when they scan QR Codes? Surprisingly, even though QR Codes are meant to appeal to people on the go nearly 60% of QR Codes are scanned at home. Most of the rest of the scans were done at retail stores.

If you want to drill down a little deeper, the majority of the statistics in this article came from these two posts: QR code lovers skew male, young & affluent and 14 Million U.S. Adults Used QR Codes in June.

Do the people scanning QR Codes in the US sound like your customers or potential customers?

These statistics make it clear that QR Codes are not a passing fad or trend. The fact that 10s of millions of people are scanning QR Codes in the US, means that you need to start including QR Codes in your marketing right now if you're not already including them.

What do people WANT when they scan QR Codes? Of course you can't just slap a random QR Code on any marketing collateral. You need to know what people scanning QR codes are seeking. To get more insight on this, take a look at my recent post, The "Do's" and "Dont's" of QR Codes in Marketing.

Like what you're reading?  Have you signed up for my weekly e-newsletter yet or are you following my blog's rss feed?

Do QR Codes resonate with your target market? If so, how have you used them in your marketing? Please share your answers in the comments below.

Nonprofit Case Study: My First Direct Mail Fundraising Appeal

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Paul Green was looking for a way to send more special-needs kids to camp. His small nonprofit, the Children's Rainbow Mountain Retreat, was relying on funding from just a handful of loyal supporters, and he needed a way to reach more people who were interested in helping.

Paul reached out to me to help him with his very first direct mail fundraising campaign, and this is Paul's story.

Who is this post for? Of course, one of Paul's primary reasons for taking the time to share what he learned through this process is to help other nonprofits who are contemplating their first campaign.

However, Paul also recognizes that this information can be beneficial to smaller charities that are already engaged in direct mail fundraising, but are looking to improve their results. More specifically, all nonprofits wrestle with both inconsistent campaign results and donor attrition.

Finally, Paul has agreed to include actual samples of the pieces that he used in his first campaign as part of this post. So, if you're interested in see these sample pieces, you'll want to continue reading.

What reservations did you have to doing your first direct mail fundraising campaign? Since I'd never done a direct mail fundraising campaign before, my primary concerns were 1) who should I target 2) what should I expect as a return on investment?

How did you pay for your first fundraising campaign? This was a major stumbling block for me; I wanted to be sure that 100% of the funds that I raised would actually be used to send more needy kids to camp.

I approached an existing donor about pre-funding the cost of the entire bulk mail campaign. They understood that this was an investment in the future of the organization and they agreed to fund the entire thing. This is what finally gave me the confidence to move forward with the campaign and stay true to my promise of using the funds for the kids.

What were your expectations for your first fundraising campaign? After learning more about prospecting campaigns, I set a goal of breaking even or losing just a little bit of money on the appeal.

This may sound insane or counterintuitive, but it’s consistent with what Mal Warwick, professional fundraiser and author of Revolution in the Mailbox teaches. Warwick’s research shows that an acceptable response rate for a donor acquisition mailing is 0.5-2.5%; however, for donor re-solicitation 6-12% is the average response rate. The real value in donor acquisition campaigns can only be measured over the long term.

Do you feel like met your expectations? The campaign well exceeded my expectations, and I was blessed to find an exercised, well-versed marketer that was willing to take an interest in our needs and guide us in the right direction.

Specifically, we received one $500 donation, another donation that was several hundred dollars and a handful of smaller donations.

Who did you decide to target as potential new donors for your fundraising campaign? We targeted a list of people with a history of donating to charities. In fact, the list that we targeted included people who had either donated to multiple charities within the last year, or they had supported the same charity multiple times. In addition, since there was already an awareness of our organization in our local community, we focused on a list of charitable donors located exclusively in our county. Finally, to make sure that they had some means to support us, we applied a minimum annual income threshold.

(For more info on this topic, see my recent post How To Grow Your Charitable Donor Mailing List.)

What do you think were the keys to the success of your campaign? The number one thing that led this to be a successful campaign was the well-targeted database. The appeal that we sent was relevant to the target audience, and that is why we succeeded in attracting new donors. A shotgun approach to fundraising will never produce consistent results.

I think that timing was another important factor associated with the success of this campaign. We sent our campaign the last week of the year because we recognized that this is the time when most donors in the US make their decisions about which charitable organization they will support. Obviously, the end-of-year tax deadline is a motivator.

Please explain your process for thanking new donors? First of all, we have a rule: we do not deposit any checks until we write a thank you letter.  Additionally as the Executive Director, I hand-signed all thank you notes.

One donor sent in a very nice note along with their donation, so I actually picked up the phone to thank them personally.

Finally, we sent a thank you plaque to the most generous donor from the campaign.

Is there anything that you would do different on your next campaign? I would allow more time to plan and execute the campaign. This campaign was planned, printed and mailed all in less than 1 week. If I had known that someone like Blase was out there to assist me, I would not have waited so long to do a mailing.

Is there any additional advice that you would share with someone who's about to launch their first fundraising campaign? The most important thing from my perspective to assure a successful campaign, is to work with someone with knowledge and experience with direct mail fundraising. This can be in the form of a staff member, a board member or in my case, by hiring a consultant.

Here’s a sample of Paul’s appeal letter-simply click on the picture to view a larger version.

Here’s a sample of the remittance envelope (aka donation envelope). Notice the oversized flap that allows for donors to provide credit card information securely.
Summary: Paul addressed the challenge of financing his first direct mail fundraising campaign by securing a donation from an existing supporter. He worked with an experienced professional who identified a highly targeted mailing list. Paul followed up with a prompt, personal thank you to all of his new donors. Perhaps most important to Paul's success was that he set realistic expectations, and he approached his prospect campaign as a long term investment for his organization as opposed to a short-term money-maker.

I'm so excited to have had the pleasure to work with Paul, and I'm doubly excited that he agreed to share his experience in this short case study.

About Paul Green: Paul is the Executive Director of The Children’s Rainbow Mountain Retreat. His nonprofit is dedicated to making a difference in the lives of special needs children, abused children and children that have a life threatening illnesses. They provide these special children and their families an all-expense-paid four day therapeutic retreat located in beautiful Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

Like what you're reading?  Have you signed up for my weekly e-newsletter yet or are you following my blog's rss feed?

If you need help launching a nonprofit direct mail fundraising appeal or if you need help finding a targeted mailing list, I hope that you'll please contact me.

What do you think are the most important keys for a successful direct mail fundraising campaign? Please share your comments below.