​31 Ways to Hit the Refresh Button on Your Direct Mail

1. Select a different signatory. If your CEO or President usually signs the letters, consider having a donor, volunteer, board member, student, scholarship recipient, grateful patient, recent graduate or faculty member sign the letter this year. Write from their perspective.
2. Do an “Ugly Betty”. So named because it isn’t pretty. This kind of mailing looks like those magazine subscription renewal letters you get. Almost no copy but just a perfunctory reminder to renew giving. People do them all the time because they work.
3. Write a copy-heavy letter. Most of the direct mail pieces I’m seeing in higher education are graphics heavy and, in my opinion, over-produced. Take inspiration from small nonprofits and write a long form letter, going into greater detail about your mission and impact. Don’t be afraid of 3 or 4 or more pages of copy.
4. Break up your copy with bold font, underlines, small paragraphs and block quotes.
5. Don’t forget the PS. Everybody reads the PS. Reiterate your call-to-action here. Don’t be afraid to add a PPS.
6. Go super-short. If you normally write a longer letter, try an abbreviated copy that will force you to squeeze the mission and call-to-action in as quickly as possible. The front of one letter sized page with letterhead would be my recommendation. I've gone as short as the space between the bottom of the letterhead and the top of the bottom third (which was a tear off reply card) with success!
7. Put your “updates” on the back. All that great stuff that faculty and/or program staff want you to communicate doesn’t belong front and center in a fundraising letter. A solicitation isn’t their annual newsletter. Put pictures and “talking points” on the back of the letter.
8. Consider doing a planned giving focused letter. Select a targeted group and write with the goal of generating leads for your planned giving staff rather than dollars-in-the-door right now.
9. Test including matching gift brochures in your mailing. Include a blurb about matching gifts in the PS. (You can get brochures here.) 
10. Get inspired by looking at samples on SOFII, the Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration.
11. Find and tell the most compelling story you can. Pull some heartstrings. Be emotional.
12. On the other hand, you might need to go to the data. Put in some graphs that show how the cost of an education has changed. Or how much state support has decreased. This might be old news for you but revelatory for your prospects.
13. Write about student debt loads at your institution by checking out your statistics at The Project on Student Debt. Here's my post about how to use student debt data. 
14. Change your focus. If you normally solicit for the college level, consider a general fund letter or a departmental letter.
15. Work with major gift officers to secure a matching donation. Write a challenge letter and have the donor sign it.
16. Research “envelope tricks” and try something new on the outside of your letter.
17. Make sure your institution is doing all that they can with data research to have correct addresses. Here’s a quick introduction to basic research. 
18. Ask your mail vendor to send you a stack of samples. Even if you don’t use a mail processing vendor now, you can inquire with one and they will send you samples.
19. Ban the phrase “make a difference”. Get a large white board and write as many phrases as you can in answer to the question, “What do I mean when I say the donor’s gift will make a difference?” Characterize the difference. What does it look like, feel like, or do in the world?
20. Construct a peer-solicitation strategy. Recruit representatives to sign the letters from each class year and segment accordingly.
21. Put your name on the mailing list of 10 different nonprofits you admire. Within a month, you’ll have a stack of samples. Read them and see which ones move you and why.
22. Write your direct mail FAR in advance. Start writing your fall mailings now. The longer lead time you give yourself, the freer you’ll be to be creative and try new things.
23. Find a story highlighted in another department and expand upon it. A story of a scholarship recipient shared on social media. The story of a bequest that was in the planned giving newsletter. The student highlighted in the admissions mailing because they won the Rhodes Scholarship. It’s okay to re-use, especially if they have different audiences.
24. Try a survey mailing. Ask your constituents about how they feel about the institution, how they like to give, and why they give. Include an ask too, of course.
25. If this is appropriate to your mission, include a petition for a lobbying issue. Ask them to give to the same issue.
26. Stay away from premiums! Giveaways should be used for stewardship not acquisition. If they send you $10 because you gave them a luggage tag or address labels, why would they give next year? You’ll be putting yourself on a hamster wheel.
27. Do a big quality check on your organization’s addressee and salutation fields. If these are wrong or wonky, it can make your organization look very silly and prevent prospects from EVER opening your letters.
28. This one is hard. Consider whether you really need a refresh. Are your donors bored? Or are YOU bored? If the results bear out that your current strategy is working, don’t mess with success. Instead, ask your supervisor whether you can expand your work into another area in order to keep yourself growing and challenged.
29. Find inspiration from the for-profit world of direct marketing. Follow Direct Marketing News on Facebook. Here’s some of their resources. 
30. Research donor-centric copy. This post was pivotal when I was teaching myself to write copy for direct mail: Future Fundraising Now, Some Donor Centered Copy Examples
31. ​Write your donor using engaging narration. You’ve probably heard it before but take your draft and write it again using the word “you” more often. Make it about how the donor is changing something for the better because they gave (or will be giving).

Did you get at least 2 good ideas to pursue from this list?

Which one was most helpful? Do you have any tips for my readers struggling to make their direct mail copy fresh?

Comments and questions are, as always, welcomed and encouraged!

Best of luck in your copywriting! Cheers,
 
Jessica Cloud
 
PS – I TOLD YOU EVERYONE READS THE PS! If you liked this post, you might also like these:

• Spoilt for Choice: Why Giving Donors Direction Works
• Is Direct Mail Really Dead?
• Five Steps to Break Through Your Direct  Mail Writer's Block
• VIDEO Tutorial: How to Set Up Formulas in Excel for Direct Mail Statistics
• An introduction to Evidence Based Fundraising

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