THESE ARE TOUGH TIMES FOR CONSERVATIVE NONPROFITS THAT DEPEND ON DIRECT MAIL FOR A
SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF THEIR INCOME
Post #23
August 15, 2023
Direct mail/marketing results have been down significantly for about the last 18 months.
Costs are up about 25% and donations are down about 25%.
Some of the reasons for the cost increase are serious supply chain issues, continuing postage increases, paper and print costs have gone up significantly, some printing plants have closed permanently, and others have converted their printing process to print shipping boxes.
Direct mail donations are off partly because of a number of storms including inflation, income not keeping up with the increased cost of living, a looming recession, sky-high gas prices, etc.
Interestingly, donations from high-dollar donors have been stable, or in some cases increased.
There are signs that returns are slowly improving but are in no way close to what they were in 2019-2020.
Some observations:
Too many direct mail packages read like they were written 2-5 or more years ago. The conservatives in the U.S. House are doing some important investigative work and introducing legislation, as a result of their investigation, but I seldom see packages that support the work of these conservative House members.
Be sure your creative team is regularly reading the Washington Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Examiner, American Spectator, etc., as well as regularly watching Brett Baier, Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, as well as Newsmax TV and One America News Network.
Most copy reads like it was written far too fast and not enough thought went into the copy. Headlines look like they were written in seconds rather than 30-60+ minutes.
Urge copywriters to take significantly more time in writing their packages. It’s better to have one successful package a month than four or five losers.
Most all carrier envelopes are white #10s—very boring.
Because of the increased high cost of postage, printing, and lists, too many prospect packages in rollout quantities exceed 80¢ cost. Few organizations can afford to have a control package where the costs exceed 68¢ per letter mailed.
Avoid cuss letters—ask for money for specific projects that will help win the Spiritual Civil War with the left.
Next week, I’ll make some suggestions to increase your income and reduce the costs of your direct mail program.
This free post is brought to you by American Target Advertising™ (ATA) and American Mailing Lists Corporation™—“Conservative Donors R Us.” ATA was the world’s first conservative direct marketing agency and still is the largest with over 80 team members (increasing to 135 by 2024) that will mail over 300,000,000 postal letters in the 2023-2024 election cycle for 40+ clients who will receive over 7,000,000 donations from over 2,500,000 unique donors. |
Much of the information in GoRightGoBig.com is from Richard A. Viguerie’s new book, GO BIG – The Marketing “Secrets” of Richard A. Viguerie. Copies for yourself or as a gift can be ordered at GoBigConservatives.com or GoRightGoBig.com, or at your favorite online bookstore. If you wish to buy copies to be given free to high school or college students to encourage them to seek a career in conservative politics/marketing, go to GoBigConservatives.com. To subscribe FREE to GO RIGHT - GO BIG blog, click here. |
