Mandalay Bay

Las Vegas, NV

This is one of direct response marketing’s largest conferences.  Featuring speakers from some of the largest companies in the world – IBM, American Express, Facebook – the conference covers topics from mail to social media to digital.  Attendees are from around the world, and offer numerous different perspectives on how to use the tried and true marketing methods, as well as how to expand into new and other channels.  For those in the nonprofit fundraising world, this is a great way to get ideas and adapt them to fit your donors’ needs.

For more information, visit www.dma12.org.

Members of the PEP Direct team will be attending.

- Review your own data: Data from other charities and tips from industry experts are great as broad guidelines – but there’s no substitute for your own data.  Map your organization’s performance across key metrics in election and non-election years to get the clearest read on how elections impact your bottom line.

- Target your audience: If your organization has an advocacy mission, you may do well to message around the current election cycle – but if your work is outside the political arena, don’t force the connection.  For mailings that will hit during the last few months before November 6, some groups have done well with suppressing battleground states and/or ZIPs from their efforts, particularly for acquisition mailings.

- Pay attention to formats: Inline and oversize formats and simple, businesslike #10 packages tend to predominate in political mail.  Vary up the envelope size and colors you use for maximum impact.  And don’t be afraid to go against conventional wisdom if your donors prefer the formats favored by political mailers – just test a different format package as well.

- Watch the timing: An unscientific review of several popular nonprofit fundraising blogs showed that most advised mailers to steer clear, if possible, from dropping mail to arrive in-home during the four weeks before November 6.  This is when many mailboxes will be jammed with political mail.  For example, if your fall acquisition usually drops the first week in October, consider holding it for two to three weeks so it arrives once the election is over.

Wilton, N.H. – PEP Direct continued its tradition of award-winning excellence at last night’s 2012 NEDMA Awards for Creative Excellence ceremony.  Held by the New England Direct Marketing Association at the Museum of Science in Boston, Mass., the N.H.-based direct marketing company accepted four awards.

The awards were spread among four categories, and were: silver in the Direct Mail Fundraising/Nonprofit category; silver in the Other Media: Poster category; bronze in the Other Media: Collateral category; and silver in the Technique: Best Print Production category.

PEP Direct’s numerous service offerings were represented in the awards it received last evening, including strategy, creative, and production.  Several members of the PEP team were on hand to accept the awards.

The NEDMA Awards for Creative Excellence are held annually and represent the best in direct marketing throughout the New England region.  Over the last six years, PEP has won more than 20 awards across the levels of gold, silver and bronze.  The work PEP Direct has done for numerous clients has been showcased and recognized by NEDMA.

About PEP Direct: Based in Wilton, N.H., PEP Direct is a full-service direct marketing company, specializing in meeting the needs of nonprofit organizations.  Founded in 1973, the company provides a unique combination of direct response strategic expertise with complete state-of-the-art production capabilities.  PEP offers a full suite of strategic planning, analytics, creative, data processing, and production management services to its nonprofit partners.

In referring to Jon Haidt’s The Happiness Hypothesis, McMurtry explains that many of the elements that make people feel happy play to the strengths of nonprofits.  These include: feeling connected to others; making a difference; associate with and experience “good”; reciprocity; and fairness and justice.

With people already subconsciously hardwired to seek what nonprofits offer, the next step is to speak directly to that part of the mind to engage donors in the desired behavior: making a donation.  Regardless of the channels you use to fundraise, McMurtry provides some facts that are actionable for your organization.

Word Choice

There are words that you can use that will garner a positive reaction from your recipients, and will, at least, get your message some attention.  McMurtry shared some of the most effective choices, including: dependable, guaranteed, immediately, improved, recommended, unconditional, unsurpassed, urgent, and wonderful.

Color

According to McMurtry – and supported by independent research by Jan Whit, Ronald Green, and Virginia Johnson – just the addition of color will increase the chances of your appeal being read by 80 percent over black and white, while, when used in direct mail, color boosts response by 45 percent.  Different colors have different meanings, and inspire different responses, making the choice of color important.

McMurtry shared some of the meanings that different colors can have:

• Red: increases physical energy, stamina, spontaneity, passion
• Orange: stimulates creativity, productivity, enthusiasm, emotional expression
• Yellow: increases fun, humor, logic, intellect
• Green: supports balance, harmony, nature, acceptance
• Blue: increases calmness, peace, love, emotional depth, devotion
• Violet: stimulates intuition, imagination, meditation, artistic qualities

Channel Choice

While the number of fundraising channels is growing – all with varying and growing levels of success – the subconscious mind is still connected to the tangible.  Holding a piece of direct mail in their hands causes donors to have the perception that the offer is “more real” and carries deeper emotional processing.

McMurtry shared some statistics published by the DMA for commercial mail:

• 70 percent of consumers conducted a repeat transaction due to receiving a direct mail piece.
• 67 percent of online searches were driven by a direct mail piece, and 39 percent resulted in a sale.

The numbers shared for nonprofits were equally as encouraging: the DMA projects that nonprofits will get a return of $17.04 for every dollar spent on direct mail fundraising.  Adding personalization will boost results even further.

These are just a few ways that organizations can reach donors through the unconscious mind.  When combined with the knowledge of your development department and experience of direct marketing fundraising agencies like PEP, these are opportunities for incremental growth within your existing fundraising program.

Jeanette McMurtry is the principle of e4marketing, and can be contacted at jeanette@e4marketingco.com.

Thanks to PEP’s innovation, we are able to more efficiently communicate with our donors, as well as receive more accurate results. They worked with us every step of the way, and they couldn’t have been more accommodating!”

Jamie Beckler
Neighbor Campaign Consultant
American Heart Association

PEP Direct’s innovative cost saving initiatives and dependable service has led to an increased involvement in our fundraising programs. I have found them to be such an important part of our success, that we have been partners on the majority of our programs.

I look forward to continuing this partnership well into the future, and I consider them an integral part of our team.”

Kimberly Haywood
Director, Direct Response Fundraising
March of Dimes

In today’s ever-changing fundraising arena, the efficiency, timeliness and accuracy PEP has delivered to the PVA account have ensured winning results year after year. Through our partnership, we have successfully raised, via our premium direct mail program, over $75,000,000 year after year. Without these funds PVA would not be able to provide the programs, services, and benefits for America’s paralyzed veterans returning home from foreign wars.

The members of our PEP account team are extremely knowledgeable in all aspects of the PVA program. From creative design to strategy and production, PVA knows it can look to this team for exceptional service. The hallmarks of the relationship are: understanding; dedication to the PVA mission; diligence; and focus.

We look forward to continued success through our ongoing relationship with PEP Direct, Inc.”

Mark Dowis
Associate Executive Director, Marketing and Development
Paralyzed Veterans of America

Janice Schmidt joined PEP in 2011 with nearly 20 years executive experience in developing, growing and managing business units. She comes to us from the Washington Redskins, where she served as Chief Marketing Officer. During her tenure, she led her division to one of the most profitable seasons in the team’s history. The Virginia resident is returning to her fundraising past, having spent time as a senior vice president at Barton-Cotton. Prior to that, she served the United States as an active duty Officer in the United States Army during the first Iraq War.

John joined PEP Direct in 2011 with more than 20 years experience in customer service and operations. Bringing a wealth of knowledge from a variety of manufacturing settings, he has a proven track record of improving productivity, enhancing interdepartmental communication, launching new services and benefiting customers through stellar customer service. John comes to PEP from Concord Litho, and has also spent time at RR Donnelley and Daniels Printing

Liz is in charge of all operations as well as business development for PEP’s donation processing services group. She came to PEP Direct in 2006 from her position as Executive Vice President in charge of product development and client relations at J&B Software. Liz’s career began at Liberty Mutual, overseeing their remittance operations. Liz is a member of several industry organizations, including TAWPI (The Association for Work Process Improvement) and J&B Software User Group.