What’s the Big Deal?

I’ve been tracking an unusual renewal series as it unfolds — a purely postal mail campaign reminiscent of coordinated multichannel campaigns.

Today, savvy nonprofits are exploiting all the multichannel possibilities and using e-mail to bookend renewal and special-appeal campaigns sent by postal mail, for example — alerting the donor that an important mailing is coming and following up after its projected arrival with another e-mail inquiring about its receipt and calling for action.

The renewal series I’ve been monitoring is using this same strategy with a sequence of physical pre- and post-mailings around a Big Deal package.

Building the anticipation
The pre-package before the Big Deal arrived on Jan. 2 — a No. 10 with a color photograph on the outer and a teaser announcing, “Your Official 2008 Membership Kit is Coming!” On the back of the outer, an image of a membership card is accompanied by a list of what the kit will include. Inside, a letter alerts me that, “I am sending you a very special gift next week for being such a loyal, steadfast friend … The Members Only 2008 Member Kit!”

Lasered on the front with the reply on the top panel, the letter is personalized with my name in both the salutation and later in the body copy. I believe it could have been improved with a personalized ask string based on my giving history rather than the static array printed on the back of the letter, especially for donors for whom the ask amounts are less than what they’ve given in the past. With the exception of the four-color printing on the carrier envelope, this looks to be an inexpensive package — a key component to the sequencing strategy.

Voila! The Big Deal!
On Jan. 26, the promised Membership Kit full of goodies arrived in a new, ultra-slim box roughly the size of a No. 10 envelope, allowing the organization to benefit from U.S. Postal Service automation discounts even with a dimensional premium enclosed.