Test First Class Postage This Fall

The following is a hand-picked guest post from Bill Jacobs.  Enjoy, and you can read more about Bill below.

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One of the disturbing USPS trends – other than raising the cost of postage every year – is the bulk delivery of appeal letters with nonprofit postage.

Over the past year, when I’ve checked my mailbox for the appeal letters I’m seeded on, I’ve noticed that I receive all my nonprofit appeal letters on the same day. ALL OF THEM.

Now, I know that the official drop dates of these appeals are not the same. They could be weeks apart. Yet, time and time again, all the appeals land in my mailbox the same day.

And that is a disaster.

Not only are your appeals competing with other organizations, but you are also competing with your own appeals that dropped weeks before.

One of the keys to direct mail appeal response is getting the envelope opened. And it creates immense competition when a dozen appeals arrive on the same day in a donors’ mailbox.

It’s no wonder response rates to direct mail appeals are plummeting.

So it’s imperative this fall that you test using more expensive first-class postage to give your appeal a chance to be opened.

Otherwise, anything you mail with nonprofit postage can expect very low response rates.

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Steven says: “Bill Jacobs is a fundraising analyst and founder of AnalyticalOnes.  I’ve learned more from Bill about analyzing fundraising data and knowing what to do next than from anyone else in my entire career.  You should subscribe to Bill’s blog, Data Stories!”

This post was originally published on May 6, 2024.