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Nonprofits can make the most of each and every marketing dollar by personalizing postcards based on the motivations, personalities, interests and characteristics of their potential donors. This will help nonprofits target the right audience in a way to which it is most likely to respond.

According to a recent study, 40 percent or more of direct mail’s success is based on getting the mail piece (whether letter, postcard or other media) into the hands of those potential donors that are most likely to financially support an organization. Nonprofits can take direct-mail fundraising to a whole new level by utilizing direct marketing’s latest cutting-edge technology — Variable Data Printing.

VDP allows nonprofit fundraisers to send postcards that are relevant to the individual recipient by personalizing images and messages based on demographic, psychographic or transactional information. As an example, parents being shown images of young children in need might be called to support a children’s charity, or adult children seeing images of elderly persons and their caretakers might want to help a cause that provides elder care because they envision their own parents in a similar situation in the near future.

Research proves that the more a nonprofit customizes direct mail to its recipient, the higher the response rate. Within a single print run, a nonprofit maximizing VDP services to acquire funds for breast cancer can create relevant mail pieces to grab the attention of different generations and types of women by designing imagery and content that is relevant to each prospect group. For instance, one postcard targeting a female surfer in her 20s might picture a cancer survivor in the same age group with her girlfriends, all of whom are wearing her favorite color, green, and running on the beach. Another mail piece might feature a woman with her husband and two children standing in front a church; this would be ideal if the recipient is a family-oriented female in her 40s with strong religious beliefs.