The secret to reducing your direct mail fundraising costs is counterintuitive, like fertilizer.
Next time you're out in the boonies, watch as a farmer spreads fertilizer over his field.
As he passes over the parts of his field that always produce the smallest yield, he spreads little or no fertilizer.
As he passes over those parts of his field that traditionally deliver the highest yield, he pours the fertilizer on thick.
If you're a city-slicker like me, that doesn't make any sense.
Why doesn't the farmer fertilize the part of his field that obviously needs the most help? Surely the poor soil needs the fertilizer more than the healthy soil, right? Wrong.
Farmers know that they should invest their money in the parts of their acreage that always give them the highest return on their investment.
Or, to put it the other way, farmers know that they should not spend any more money than necessary on the parts of their fields that habitually deliver poor results.
You should follow the farmer's lead when you need to save money on your direct mail fundraising program.
Invest your money on the people in your house file who promise to deliver the greatest return on your investment.
Give them more fertilizer.
Spend less money on the people who show little promise.
Give them less fertilizer.
The most promising donors are those who give you the most money and who give the most often.
The least promising donors are those who give little and give infrequently.
For example, the donor who gives you $250 in three donations each year should get more of your fertilizer than the donor who gives you only one donation of $20 each year.
The high-dollar, frequent donor should receive more appeal letters than the low-dollar, infrequent donor.
The secret to reducing your mailing costs (and boosting your net revenue as a result) is to segment your house file.
Segment your donors into three groups, high, medium and low.
In the high group are those who give the largest gifts and who give the most often.
In the low group are those who give you the smallest gifts and who give the least often.
In the middle group are those who are in between.
Mail the donors in your high group at least six appeal letters each year.
Mail the donors in the medium group at least three times a year.
Mail the folks in the low group one fundraising letter a year (Christmas might be the best time).
Inexperienced fundraisers think they should mail their high-dollar, frequent donors less often (since these donors are already giving) and think they should mail their low-dollar, infrequent donors more often, to encourage them to give more and to give more often.
No wonder these folks have trouble putting food on the table.