Posted on Tue, Jul 06, 2010
By Bill Goldstein, Vice President, Client Services
Yoda would have made a fantastic marketer. Being a diehard fan of the Star Wars films (yes, even the prequels); I cannot tell you how often his little nuggets of wisdom apply to our roles as direct response marketing strategists.
As we look forward to developing smart and innovative tests to grow our clients’ membership sizes, retain members, reduce expense, and improve revenues, consider some of these great quotes and how we can take them to heart in our testing strategies.
“Size matters not ... Look at me. Judge me by size, do you?” Too often, the tests which have the largest impact on our programs revenue and performance are the ones with the smallest changes to our packages and segmentation strategies. How many times has something as simple as 1st vs. 3rd class postage, a return address envelope vs. business reply envelope, or removing an insert dramatically improved results? It is important for us to be innovators. It is just as important to use best practices.
“Mind what you have learned. Save you it can.” Have you reviewed your client’s past testing results? Have the winning tests been rolled out yet? A strong testing agenda builds on what has been done so you are not repeating the same tests over and over again. If you have tested BRE vs. RAE multiple times, what is the consensus? You can save a client considerable expense by not repeating tests that are clearly one-sided.
“Always two there are, no more, no less: a master and an apprentice.” We spend considerable time and expense developing new messages, creative and testing strategies to improve programs. But all that work is for naught if the control and test are not correctly set up. Make sure you have isolated only one variable that you are comparing, such as segments; there is a stratification of the data; and a large enough sample size to read results.
“Always in motion is the future.” A smart marketer never accepts the status quo. As direct marketing strategists, it is our job to always test the conventional wisdom for our client’s programs.
"Reckless he is. Matters are worse." While it is criminal to rollout 2 million pieces of acquisition mail without a single test – we also do not want to throw a bunch of tests into a large campaign to say we did testing. Test smart and test with a purpose! If possible develop a testing agenda during the budget process and lay out your strategies for the next 12 months.
May the force be with you.
Let us know what testing strategies you use? What’s made the biggest impact?
Posted on Tue, Mar 23, 2010
By Pete Carter, Principal & Senior Vice President
In case you haven’t had a chance to pour over all 196 pages of the DMA’s 2010 Statistical Fact Book there are a few interesting stats that demand our attention. For example – the average consumer received 24.7 pieces of mail per week last 
year. Sounds like a lot, but that’s the fourth year in a row that the average has fallen. But, our beloved direct mail now represents more than half - 52% - of total mail volume in the United States. This trend will surely continue as people send fewer and fewer personal cards, letters, etc. So the competition in the mailbox is in some ways more intense than in years past since a majority of those 24 or 25 pieces sent each week are addressed to “Dear Friend.”
So how do we make our Dear Friend message stand out?
With an average of 11 seconds to get our letter noticed, we need to be at our creative best. One place to look for inspiration and creativity: the rest of the world. They have some pretty good ideas out there, some of which are really different than our own. When I’m looking for a fresh idea I will often turn to SOFII, the Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration.
This UK-based site is fantastic – easy to navigate, and chock full of great ideas. I especially like their “Best of the Best” showcase of fundraising campaigns from around the world. Every channel is represented here, including many of the most interesting direct mail and DRTV campaigns ever created.
I was especially impressed by two techniques that I saw recently on SOFII. Both ideas could be used by just about any nonprofit. The first, from Habitat for Humanity of Great Britain, is a “Money Back Guarantee.” Sounds risky, but it worked for them. HFHGB offered to return a contribution in the first six months of receipt if the donor did not feel it had been spent wisely and informed them about it in an appropriate way. When tested, the control and the money-back-guarantee version generated nearly identical response rates – but the test lifted average gift by 50%. And virtually NO donors asked for a refund!
The other I want to share with you is from Canada’s Ontario Nature. Ontario Nature is one of Canada’s oldest and most respected environmental organizations. They are testing an alternative to the final ask amount on their reply form.
Most groups leave this amount blank, or put the word “OTHER” next to the option. Nature Ontario is going in a different direction – their final gift amount says “SURPRISE US”. Nicely done.
The results will indeed be a surprise – a good one, I hope! What tests are YOU planning this year?