Why Direct Mail Marketing Is A Successful Fundraising Formula

The cost of living crisis has had a knock-on effect on charitable donations, with CAF reporting that 82% of charity leaders are concerned with covering their running costs. 

Furthermore, 1.6 million fewer people gave to charity between 2020 and 2021, according to Charity Link. The group added that rising inflation has deepened worries for charities during the cost-of-living crisis, as the monetary value of donations has now fallen compared with pre-pandemic levels. 

However, one fundraising strategy that has proved successful for both the RSPCA and Wiltshire Air Ambulance in recent times is direct mail marketing. Specifically, both organisations have experienced an increase in charitable donations as a result of the marketing technique. 

Part of Service Graphics, Southern Mail provides direct mail services to businesses and charities across the UK. 

Based on the incredibly positive results from some of the UK’s recognisable charitable organisations, here is why direct mail marketing continues to be a cost-effective and impactful way to reach customers even in spite of challenging financial times. 

Direct mail marketing involves sending promotional materials directly to the physical address of campaign recipients. Examples of direct mail marketing assets can include letters, brochures, postcards, or catalogues.

In today’s tech-focused world, we’re all used to generating social media or even video-based marketing campaigns to increase brand awareness and win sales. However, there is a timeless formula in sending personalised and targeted content directly to the addresses of customers. 

Interestingly, direct mail has a response rate of 60%. This figure is significantly higher than typical email open rates and even average social media post engagement rates. 

Now the enduring effectiveness of direct mail marketing is clear, let’s see how the RSPCA and Wiltshire Air Ambulance have put the technique to good use. 

Specifically, how sending physical campaigns directly through the post engages audiences in a way that results in increased donations, even during challenging economic periods.

RSPCA Direct Mail Marketing Case Study

The RSPCA is one of the UK’s highest profile charities, and has consistently used direct mail as part of its highly targeted campaigns. In 2021, as reported by The Strategic Mailing Partnership, the RSPCA wanted to reach new audiences and generate increased donation revenues. 

Based on results from previous mail campaigns, the RSPCA’s marketing agency was able to build a model that indicated, by postcode, the people who were most likely to donate. They created a probability index using donations to an animal charity in the previous 12 months as an indicator of the chances that a given target would respond positively to their messaging. 

Great care was taken to minimise the risks of inducing ‘compassion fatigue’ by excluding recent door drop targets and people who could be considered vulnerable to perceived pressure. 

In keeping with the RSPCA’s sustainability commitments, the design of the mailer was a one-piece version that used less paper. The mailer also qualified for the Royal Mail Test Incentive pricing, making it even more cost-effective. 

The RSPCA were delighted with the results which exceeded targets by 187%. In addition, significant data-driven learnings were achieved, and replicable, scalable cost savings were obtained. All of which delivered a highly successful outcome. 

Wiltshire Air Ambulance Direct Mail Marketing Case Study

Wiltshire Air Ambulance (WAA) is a much smaller charity than the RSPCA, but one which performs an equally vital function – namely providing emergency helicopter medical services to people in Wiltshire and neighbouring areas. In the absence of government funding, WAA relies entirely on charitable donations. 

Their twice-yearly raffle event is a major source of donations, with targets chosen from their in-house database. Efforts to clean up this database inevitably resulted in a degree of shrinkage, and a need to add new donation prospects to the database. 

As reported by Marketreach, WAA wanted to avoid the wastage associated with blanket mail campaigns. The organisation also wanted to eliminate any danger of alienating existing donors with less personal communication.

Working with Marketreach, WAA devised a partially addressed mail (PAM) solution that would mail prospects who matched their core raffle respondents by postcode. Marketreach used MOSAIC data to create a look-a-like prospecting model for the Wiltshire area. 

The best prospects were sent a mailer that ticked all the necessary boxes in that it was informative, compelling, and engaging. By encouraging prospects to engage with the WAA team as well as to donate, it helped foster the sense of community that is vital to the success of all local charities. 

The PAM campaign worked extremely well as an acquisition model and achieved a notable response rate of 1.93%. As a result, PAM now has a larger database of responders, and raised significant funds to support its services. 

✅- Keep mailing lists up to date

✅- Use targeted audiences (segmentation)

✅- Make content engaging with creative design and print

✅- Include an effective call-to-action (CTA)

✅- Follow postal and GDPR regulations

✅- Test and measure campaign success formulas

✅- Arrange campaign follow ups for recipients

We’ve answered some of the most common questions about direct mail marketing for a charitable organisation below. 

If you don’t see your query, or if you want to discuss some direct mail marketing ideas for your next fundraising campaign, please get in touch.

How To Do Direct Mail Marketing

Direct mail works by sending physical promotional materials to your mailing list subscribers or customers. Consisting of flyers, postcards, letters, brochures and similar printed assets, direct mail marketing is designed to be engaging and impactful. Charitable organisations use the format to highlight their work along with the importance of donations. 

Does Direct Mail Marketing Work?

Absolutely! When done right, direct marketing can be an incredible driver of donations for fundraising campaigns. As with any marketing campaign, the trick lies in sending targeted messaging that is impactful while displaying a clear call to action. Southern Mail provides direct mail marketing services in the UK. Please contact us for some personalised pointers. 

What Can Charities Do To Increase Donations?

Some general tips include promoting tax deductibility of the charity, highlighting the impact of each donation along with setting up regular direct debits for donators. However, in terms of effective marketing strategies, direct mail has long delivered high engagement rates. When combined with impactful creatives and call to actions, direct mail marketing can be one of the many methods used to increase charitable donations. 

Are you interested in replicating the direct mail marketing success stories of the RSPCA or Wiltshire Air Ambulance for your business or charity? 

At Southern Mail here at Service Graphics, we offer an unrivalled level of experience in all things design, print, mailing services and document management. Our direct mail marketing service offers a cost-effective way to reach out to customers, boasting industry-leading response rates for businesses and charitable organisations. 

To find out how we can achieve success for your next direct mail marketing campaign, get in touch with our team. 

Give us a call on +44 (0) 1823 587336 or email us at enquiries@servicegraphics.co.uk.