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Planned Giving Spam? Facts You Should Know.

If you are about to use spam to target your prospects...

Overzealous marketers sometimes promise you more for your money – and you just don’t really need more.

Take for example donor e-newsletters or e-mail campaigns, a popular product available in the planned giving industry. These are automatically mass e-mailed to your prospects on a regular basis, sometimes as often as weekly. They can feature a header and footer personalized for your program and the vendor usually provides the generic content.

Where’s the problem? Promotional material automatically mass mailed to a list of e-mail addresses sounds a lot like spam, doesn't it? Especially when it’s received with mechanical frequency. Like anyone else, your prospects are unlikely to respond to that approach. They’re more likely to reach for the delete key and tune you out. That's even if they've opted-in before.

Think about it.  When was the last time you read spam? Senders never think they're spamming. Receivers (like your prospects) do. You just can't put planned giving in the same category as spam to re-finance your house, sell life insurance online, off-shore medications or personal enhancement tools.

Typical bulk mail with broken graphics.

Dressing pseudo-spam up in a suit and tie and calling it a newsletter just doesn’t fool anyone. Prospects aren't dumb. Your most powerful arguments in favor of their giving engage their mind with persuasive content. But the content provided for e-newsletters often consists primarily of generic gift-planning and investment advice.

That comes as no surprise. Canned information has to be "cookie-cutter" generic so it can be plugged in to e-newsletters for multiple organizations. Besides, when you're serving thousands of clients, it's a must to have a cookie-cutter approach otherwise you won't make a profit. Can you imagine going to McDonalds for a gourmet dinner? It just doesn't work.

So remember, regardless of how much information you send, your prospect, weeding through their email inbox, will notice not only that such content is being duplicated by others, but also that it’s dry and uninteresting.

And you may lose their attention. Forever.

What do do?

Here's how we recommend using email marketing:

• Send just 4 emails per year – no more than 6, tops.
• Let your mission drive your message.
• Keep the copy short (no more than 10 lines).
• Do not use fancy graphics with headers and footers;  it breaks, looks like spam, and now you're competing with bulk-mailers.
• Personalize each email.
• And most importantly, do not use a "bulk mailer"

To set your e-marketing apart and capture your prospects' attention, harness the special relationship your organization already enjoys with your constituents. But not by pelting them at mechanical intervals with e-mails detailing standard plan features and generic investment advice. Instead, appeal to them creatively, in a personal way, with mission-driven messaging that is short, donor-friendly, and compelling.

• Sample profit-driven message: "Give now to lock in great rates!"
• Mission-driven message: "Your special legacy to our institution enables us to further the goals that we support, together, into the future."

Which reads better? Which is more compelling? Which is more effective? Mission-driven beats profit-driven every time. Plus, your prospects see mission-driven e-communication as genuine communications – not as canned marketing-product served up by a machine. So their minds are open to receive the message it brings.

We can show you what your peers are doing so you can develop the right message. We also have a series of templates you can purchase and customize them on your own. Then, we'll use the tools we have to broadcast your message to your right prospects and make sure it gets through. Contact us to find out more.

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