Winners and losers: sometimes donors just don't respond.

One can learn as many, or more, lessons from failure as one can from success. Nowhere is that as true as in a direct mail marketing campaign.

Three veterans of the direct mail industry--Lynn Edmonds, president of L.W Robbins Associates; Tom Gaffny, executive vice president of fundraising at Epsilon, and Joe Manes, senior vice president at A.B. Data--offered some of their "winners and losers" during a workshop at Fundraising Day in New York 2006.

A mailing for the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) tried to use a provocative teaser, labeling a simple envelope with "Official Business Summons" in the return address area, and only NARF's address on the back. The strategy was to get recipients, mostly lapsed members, to open the letter. Open it they did. They then overwhelmed NARF headquarters with telephone calls because they felt duped into thinking it was an official summons.

"We were upset with ourselves because we didn't expect the reaction," Edmonds said, adding that staff who were seeded on the mailing were "aghast," even asking whether it was their mailing. Edmonds said the firm assisted in writing a letter of apology on NARF letterhead that was sent to the entire audience.

A campaign benefiting the Washington National Cathedral seemed like the "right place, right audience, right time of year,' Edmonds said, which should have been a tip-off to a "classic syndrome that we all lose sleep over: everyone (client and agency) loved the package, and that usually means that it won't work!"

The objective was to add a special mailing at holiday time, capitalizing on the Christmas theme and targeting premium donors who were not selected for other Cathedral mailings. A spiritually-based letter was accompanied by a beautiful, engraved Christmas ornament, which was expensive, Edmonds said. There had been enormous success with a pin package and card packages in months that did not have holiday appeal.

The campaign was marled "a little too deep," to actives, inactives and lapsed members.

Even at the "perfect" time of year, Edmonds said, the audience just didn't seem motivated to respond to the additional premium, and the result was just 50 percent of projected income and a lower average gift than previously received. Edmonds warned against projecting performance of additional mailings based on previous results.

In general, Gaffny said, most board members,

1) hate telemarketing;

2) push for reaching younger donors, and;

3) say that no one reads long letters.

But, he advocated, "if you've got something to tell, tell it," adding that a great story is still the best way to get your message across. "It's much more effective when you can tell one story."

He pointed to an eight-page letter that was part of a mailing for the Mercy Home for Boys and Girls, while also warning that the letter used liberal amounts of white space, narrow margins and short paragraphs to make it a little more pleasing to the eye.

Is it better to show the solution or the problem, Gaffny asked, while presenting two different campaigns for Gifts Inc. "Gifts Can" described the many things that gifts can do thanks to donations made to the nonprofit, while "Girls Can't" went on about the challenges girls face in the world. Which one worked better? Gaffny said a negative approach almost always works better and this one was no different, with the "Gifts Can" campaign getting a response rate almost a third less than "Girls Can't."

Anger gets much more of a reaction, Gaffny said, and solving a problem is a stronger, more tangible approach.

Manes described the direct mail effort as "part science, part art." The science part of it involves the statistical analysis and quantitative research, previous experience and knowledge of an issue. The art is using imagination and trying new things.

He provided three "loser lessons:"

* How would this sound coming from my mother? Guilt works at times, but be careful and know your audience enough to ask whether it would backfire.

* How would my mother react? Consider the demographics involved, whether it might be too clever for its own good, and use a "mini-focus" group by showing it to someone else.

* Can I put it on a bumper sticker? Keep it simple and remember that not every facet of a program lends itself to direct mail.

On the flip side, Manes presented three "winner lessons:"

* Successful pieces can incorporate current events and news stories can spark ideas.

* When you can tell a story, do it. Connecting a donor to the cause "through passion trumps a lecture."

* Listen to donors, and recognize that they're different than the general population.

How often should you mail your donors?

"There are donors who want to hear from you often," Gaffny said. "I wouldn't be shy about talking to your cores often."

But Edmonds also warned "you do have to have a reason to mail, not just mail 22 times to make money."