Why Direct Mail is key for the Charity Sector
Charities play an essential role in bringing support and services to those who are most in need and often take the strain from overstretched local authorities. The sector must fight to optimise funds and retain donors… We’re in a period of challenging times, which is why charities need to ensure that their brand can make an impact. In this blog, we look at direct mail as an effective way to attract donors, engage stakeholders and stand out for the right reasons.
Key issues for the charity sector as we move into 2020…
Whilst Brexit still plays out in the media, and state funding for charities is being cut, charities need to work harder to attract even more donations. The need for cost-efficiency is clear.
Charity sector facts and figures
- There are nearly 200,000 registered charities in the UK
- Charities fund almost half of all UK medical research
- The total income of all charities combined is about £48 billion. This is higher than the Higher Education sector, and about £10 billion less than Tesco.
- The voluntary sector contributes approximately £15.3bn to UK GVA – more than the arts or agriculture.
Fundraising and the value of print and direct mail
Today, more than ever there are so many marketing channels available to your charity to engage with existing and potential supporters. In a previous blog “Which is best email or direct mail” we looked into the benefits of both direct marketing channels to maximise your fundraising budget.
It’s perhaps too easy to think that digital is the only way forward. That print is dead. But let us reassure you that’s not the case, as we just round up our busiest quarter to date! The other good news is that direct mail marketing is subject to fewer data privacy restrictions than email. So direct mail is a great way to contact stakeholders who may otherwise be unreachable. Take a look at our post “10 ways direct mail delivers in a GDPR world” for more information.
PLUS Direct Mail has always delivered a great return on investment (ROI) and still does. Royal Mail, MarketReach, have conducted a series of research projects to understand what physical mail means to consumers. It’s fascinating stuff.
“We’ve looked into consumers’ homes and found that mail lives a rich, complex and surprisingly long life beyond the doormat. We’ve looked into their hearts and uncovered the deep emotional responses that are triggered by sensations of touch. And we’ve literally looked into their heads, using the latest neuroscience techniques to discover that mail has a profound and direct impact on the brain.”
— Jonathan Harman, MD, Royal Mail MarketReach The Private Life of Mail
Why should charities use direct mail?
With the right messaging direct mail has the power to provoke your emotions. Messages which can reward and excite, shock or concern. Fundamentally, mail can deliver the most important benefit for your charity – driving your stakeholders to take action. Whether that’s increasing awareness; showcasing how your charity makes use of donations; appealing for donations or to encourage engagement with your cause.
Integrate your direct mail and email marketing
For maximum impact, you need to plan and implement an integrated marketing campaign that brings the best of digital and print together.
A 2018 JICMAIL report found that direct mail achieves high open rates (57.1% addressed mail) and read rates (60.5% door drops).
Complement this with rich, online content for even greater engagement.
Measuring the success of direct mail
When done correctly, direct mail can be one of the most cost-effective ways for your charity to reach your audience. From the outset you can estimate your response rate so you can determine the quantity of the mailing needed to achieve your goals.
One of the benefits of direct mail marketing is that its value can be measured. You can track your response rate using personalised URLs, response telephone numbers or source codes. For even more information on how you can ensure you achieve the best results with your direct mail campaign, why don’t you read our blog “Charity DM – 5 Considerations to Ensure Success”
Establish your direct mail KPIs
First and foremost, you should identify the goals you want your campaign to achieve. For example: Raise awareness? Generate leads? Increase donations? Below are 5 examples of direct mail KPI’s to help you accurately measure the success of your direct mail campaign:
- Response rate – the percentage of people who responded to your mail using any of the tracking methods mentioned above
- Conversion rate – the percentage of respondents who took the action requested in your mailer
- Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)– tells you how much it cost to secure each new stakeholder
- Revenue per donation – revenue per donation subtracts the CPA from the average donation to show how much profit you made from each donation on average
- Return on Investment (ROI) – the holy grail of KPIs! ROI will show you how successful your campaign was.
Don’t forget to record and save the results from each campaign. That way, you’ll be able to compare each campaign’s KPI data and learn how to improve future campaigns.
Effective Print Management drives cost efficiency
Print management can provide a significant benefit to your organisation by focussing on the detail. Implementing a robust print management solution will enable you to:
- achieve deadlines within budget
- ensure the most cost-efficient and waste-reducing formats are used
- streamline the production process
- cleanse your data for optimum ROI
- achieve better postal rates
- make better use of in-house resources (both people and financial).
Direct Mail marketing made easy
As an ethical and environmentally friendly business we’d love to discuss how we can help your charity with your next (or first) direct mail campaign. Get in touch today!
