Renewal Series: The Art

So far, I've talked a lot about Renewal copy in my series of posts about these critical mailings. But today, I want to take a moment to talk about the art.

Because now that you've gone to all that trouble to make your Renewal letters shine, are you going to shove them into the same old envelope and hope they get opened?

Of course not! You want to give those fabulous letters the best chance to shine that you can.

So here are a few tips on making your Renewal art effective:

The Envelopes. As with your letters, you want your Renewal series art to reflect the increasing urgency of the ask. Match your teasers to the letter copy. Change up stock colors -- nothing says "Open me right away!" like a yellow envelope in the mail.

Package Size. Many organizations send their Renewals in monarch-sized envelopes, mimicking the old-style monthly bills that people used to receive. Of course, now that more and more bills are being sent in #10s and other odd-sized envelopes, you might want to try changing up sizes.

Reply Forms. Make your reply form as easy to fill out as possible. Clump together all of the payment information and lead the donor through the choices you need them to make. And try to keep the options to a minimum -- the more decisions your donor has to make, the more likely you are to lose them.

Your Donor's Name. Your donor's name is probably the single most important thing that appears in any Direct Mail package, so make sure it's printed legibly and appears near the payment information. Our eyes are naturally drawn to our names, so if you keep the payment section near the name, your donor is more likely to see it...and act on it!

Thanks so much for checking out my Renewal Series. Please let me know if you have any questions. And come back next week for more thoughts on Direct Mail, fundraising and Communicating Your Conscience!