Key considerations when selecting data for a direct mail fundraising campaign

When you’re planning a direct mail fundraising campaign, there are a few things that you need to have clear in your mind to get the data selection right. This, after all, is a critical moment if you’re to run a campaign that only goes to specific audiences and gets the response you’re hoping for, whether it’s much needed funds for an urgent appeal, or new supporters to build a relationship with.

What’s the why behind the campaign?

When charities come to me and say they want to mail 50,000 people, or find 1,000 new donors, my first question is always why.

The ‘why’ is really important when sourcing data for a direct mail campaign. It drives the approach we take. So understanding this is critical to ensuring your campaign only goes out to people it’s relevant for.

If it’s a one-off mailing for example, it will require a smaller mailing universe than if it’s to be the first of a series. If it’s to introduce a new income stream, the charity will often be testing the proposition, which makes it important to de-risk the data sets as much as possible. And if the focus is to address issues caused by attrition then you may not need such a large prospect pool and can concentrate more on the files that are higher responding, which will also keep your costs down.  

Or, a charity might want to talk to a different group of people, and this might mean looking for data from a different region or age group.

So all of these things will impact the kind of data you need.

Getting your file mix right

Because people differ, files do too. There are files that give average performance but good volume, and more niche files that tend to give a high response rate or much higher average donation, but with lower volume.

Generally you will need a blend of both in order to achieve your overall target, with the mix differing depending on the campaign’s objectives and how you’ll be measuring success. How many records you take from each file will also vary, depending on whether they’re high or low performing.

In addition you may want to check which data sets used in the past have tended to give at least a second donation and to look for something similar. Sometimes those that are lower responding at the outset ultimately have a better lifetime value and can help a charity reach break even quicker than a higher responding file.

Your target response rate will also impact your blend of files. You may be looking for a 1% response rate for a campaign for example, but it’s worth remembering that this doesn’t mean every file needs to perform at this level. You will select some files that perform above 1% and others below, and getting the mix right means the overall campaign can achieve 1%. This is the best way to plan in and de-risk testing, because you will assign the test a lower response rate and you can then ensure the campaign overall can carry the risk of a poor performing file.

Again it comes back to whether this is a one-off mailing, or one of many. All too often I see organisations planning each campaign in isolation, meaning that some do better than others, simply because they have more of the better performing data available for that specific mail date. This is fine, if it is done deliberately, but it can happen by accident if an eye is not kept on the needs of future campaigns.  

Seasonality is also a consideration. Some charities see no peaks or troughs in campaign performance, no matter when they mail. Others can see significant variances between months let alone seasons. I have a client who will undertake a cold mail campaign in October and December, but not November as November for a number of years did significantly worse than to the other months in that quarter. So, it pays to know who to mail and when.

Age and gender are of course a consideration too. Charities can often be quite specific when requesting their target audience, but these are areas where it’s important to exercise caution. While traditionally charities have often thought of donors as predominately female and over 70, it’s a lot more nuanced than that. Instead, focus on the product, the ask, and how the stories you include in the mailing piece engage people. By not putting a gender overlay on file selection you may be in a better position to find a broader group of names, more volume and even more response!  

With age, I generally advise looking at the average age of your existing donors, as their profile will provide a good guide as to who is generally most engaged with you and your cause. But this may be skewed if all you’ve ever done is communicate with one specific age group.

Essentially planning the data for a campaign is all about working out that delicate balancing act between response rate, average donation and spend to meet requirements, but if you’re clear on the ‘why’ from the start, that in itself will go a long way to ensuring you get it right.

For more help on this and other aspects of direct mail, contact Suzanne Lewis of Arc Data.