With life happening on our phones, is it really still worth a charity posting things to their supporters?
It’s often said that we now live in an attention economy. In that context, a piece of paper and the postal system can be the secret weapon.
Why does post ‘deliver’?
To a warm list, sending a charity appeal in the post still gains a much higher response rate than just using email – up to ten times higher. Mail also typically generates bigger average donations. So why is this?
Attention
Think about it from your own perspective. How many messages and emails do you get every week, day, even hour? And how many letters do you get through your door?
Right away, your attention is divided by all of the emails, notifications and online content you receive, but it’s grabbed by the one envelope that plopped through your door. And this effect is only getting bigger as post becomes less common. If you ever get a letter from a friend in this day and age, it’s extremely exciting!
Surveys suggest over 90% of postal appeals are opened, compared to about 25% of appeal emails.
Coming back to it
How often do you go back and read an email you didn’t have time to read when you received it? Probably very rarely. But the letter sitting on your kitchen counter gets picked up and read eventually. A magazine that arrives at your house will sit around in view and be read and re-read at odd moments of the day. Meanwhile, your unread charity and corporate emails disappear down the inbox list, never to be seen again.
The appeal of physical media
Finally, isn’t it nice to do some reading from a piece of paper and get a break from the screen? Businesses and charities have spent a lot of time thinking they need to be more online to appeal to the youngest generations, but in fact, Gen Z and below are also leading a renaissance in slow, tangible, offline pursuits like birdwatching, crafting and using more physical, ‘inconvenient’ tech. Getting some beautiful post is in fact very appealing for many younger people, as well as the oldest generation.
An important aspect is to make your post look as personal and visually appealing as possible. If it looks too much like a bank statement or advert, it might as well be another email that gets ignored.
Studies have found that an appeal letter with a hand-written envelope gains a better response rate. Could you do this for your top or regular donors, or use a font that looks convincingly like handwriting?
The place for long form
The digital attention span is short. But there is still a place for long form, and that’s on paper.
Telling a longer, deeper story can really connect people with what you do. The ability to go into more detail increases your credibility as a charity, but it can be difficult to do this online.
Another reason to produce a short magazine or annual review is when you have a lot of supporters who only know about one aspect of your work. Perhaps they came on board through a niche project in their local area, or by sponsoring a friend. It’s a good way to introduce them to the full breadth of what your charity does and discover new ways they might want to support you.
But it’s so expensive!
What puts charities off is the cost. The price of postage alone has soared in recent years.
But – don’t assume it’s too expensive without doing the maths. If a letter gets 10 times the response rate, and each donation is worth double, you can still make a profit above what you’d raise by just using email.
Look at your average response rates, your average donation amounts, the design, print and postage costs per person, and how many warm contacts are on your mailing list. You should be able to estimate whether it’s worth it or not. You may need to just try it the first time if you don’t yet have the data.
With other things you send in the post, the main value is in retaining your existing supporters. How much would it cost you per year to lose the support of a regular giver? How much would it cost you to send them an exciting annual review or a handwritten thank you each year? It’s all about the cost/benefit.
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Get in touch with our team if you want to explore producing a physical magazine, annual review or direct mail campaign letter, perhaps for the first time. We’d love to help!