Whilst the days might be getting shorter, and we might not be quite ready to say goodbye to summer, Christmas is not too far away! Along with our other 30 charity clients who regularly mail with us, we have been planning, printing and fulfilling Christmas campaigns for the past month.
If you’re still currently reviewing your budgets for your Christmas mail spend and working out how many records you can afford to mail, then please remember greeting cards and branded calendars can be mailed as Advertising Mail.
Along with greeting cards and calendars, there are some other ways to “jazz up” a Christmas direct mail campaign or a mailshot. Some of these ideas are well tried and tested by Charities sector… but let’s have a recap!
A direct mail pack containing wrapping paper, gift tags, personalised stickers, and cards are popular ideas – along with creative changes to the pack, such as adding a traditional Christmas themes to both the envelope and inserts such as Father Christmas, reindeers, holly, mistletoe, carols, etc. Another popular idea is to shape the mailing into Christmas shape such as a present or santa’s sleigh.
If you are still working with your creative agency or designer then please remember VAT rules still apply – so don’t get caught out paying 20% VAT. Specialty items such as pens, calendars, stickers, diaries, greeting cards might be popular but they are usually vatable, but remember by using the charity package test rules there might be a ways to avoid paying VAT at the prevailing rate on your total print and mailing spend.
Whilst bespoke shaped mailers offer stand out on the door mat when compared to standard envelope sizes – it might mean your pack is not “machineable” by Royal Mail which might increase your postage costs. We would always recommend doing some A/B Split testing to see which is most effective, so you can roll out next year. To learn more about postal technical specifications click the Royal Mail guide.
As always with postage and VAT there are some rules and restrictions that you’ll need to be aware of – you might find our quick VAT guide here handy! Of course our customer service team are on hand to answer any queries that you may have, so just drop us a line or e-mail us at enquires@productionhub.org.uk and one of the team will get back in touch.
Case Study: Alder Hey Christmas Mail Marketing Campaign
Like many charities, Christmas is a big fundraising period for Alder Hey, and to achieve the stretch target they set themselves at Christmas 2014 – to generate more income from fewer donors – they took a different approach to previous years. By cleaning up their database and segmenting the remaining givers, Alder Hey were able to target their requests for donations. The pack they sent out told the story of Grace, a little girl with incurable heart disease. Like many campaigns on this list, it told a personal story. This was supported by a letter from Grace’s godmother – a very personal request that the hospital hoped would resonate with donors.
The pack also contained a paper bauble with space to write a message to the children spending Christmas in the hospital. The baubles were then hung round the wards for the children to enjoy.
The end result was that donations were up 56% on the previous year.
http://www.mailmen.co.uk/sites/default/files/Alder%20Hey.pdf
