1. THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY'S SUCCESS '99
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2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100 Washington DC 20037 * (202) 333-0008 * www.LP.org
Direct Mail
Techniques to make your direct mail letters raise more money
There are three myths about direct mail their members 52 times a year. That's once a
fundraising ... week. They wouldn't be doing that if it wasn't
profitable, and people wouldn't be giving
1. Fundraising is begging enough to make it profitable unless they were
2. You can do it too often geting personal satisfaction from it. The na-
3. People don't read long letters tional LP mails fundraising letters about once a
month. We would do it more often if we had
Fundraising isn't begging. Standing on more immediate ability to effect public policy as
the sidewalk and harassing people for money is the Republicans can. And as we gain that
begging. Fundraising is the act of describing ability, you can bet that we'll start to mail more
something that needs to be done, saying how often, as the market dictates.
much it costs, and asking people if they value
the proposed project enough to help pay for it. Personal opinions about how short or
If they don't value it, they won't give. If they long a letter has to be in order for people to
do, they will. It's just like any other economic read it are worthless. What matters is what the
exchange. People won't pay for what they don't market tells us. And the market says long letters
want, In addition, direct mail is passive. People tend to work better. This has been confirmed by
get to decide, in the comfort of their own home, so many split-list tests that, as a general propo-
whether or not they want to give. No one is sition, it's no longer even debated. However, it's
standing over them with a gun. If you aren't important to understand some of the reasons
doing direct mail fundraising then you should why longer letters tend to do better. To under-
be. You have projects you want to do that other stand this, we have to understand the different
people will also want to see done. Give them the kinds of people who read direct mail.
chance to help.
There are four types of people who read
Only the market can determine whether direct mail ...
or not you are asking for money too often. If
you start to raise less and less money from each 1. Those who don't read it at all, but throw
appeal, then you're asking for money too often. it right in the trash.
If you're raising more and more money with each 2. Those who read just the beginning and
appeal, then maybe you should try asking more the ending of a letter.
often. If the amount of money you raise is fairly 3. Those who skim the highlights.
consistent, then you're probably asking for 4. Those who read the entire letter.
money just about the right amount of times.
• For people who throw direct mail in the trash
The Republicans mail fundraising letters to the length of a letter doesn't matter, because

2. they're not going to read it anyway. tions made below will allow you to write a good
fundraising letter.
• For those who read just the beginning and the
end, the length of the letter doesn't matter, There are two cornerstones to a good
because they're only reading the beginning fundraising letter ...
and the end, so the number of pages in
between is irrelevant. 1. The unique sales proposition (USP)
2. The complete sales argument
• For those who just skim the highlights, the
more highlights you have, the more opportuni- Before you start to write a fundraising
ties you provide to either close the sale on the letter, you should try to figure out what it is
basis of your highlighted points, or to con- about the project you will be proposing that will
vince them to sit down and read the letter as a be uniquely valuable to your contributors. This
whole. unique selling proposition will provide the
substance for your appeal.
• And for those who are so interested in your
organization that they will read the letter as a The second thing you should try to do is
whole, the more sales points you can make, figure out all of the questions and concerns that
the more likely you are to convince them to contributors might have about your project. This
give. Therefore, your letter should be as long will allow you to construct a complete sales
as is required to include every positive sales argument. It is the number and nature of the
point that you can think of. concerns and questions you will have to address
that will tend to make your letter longer rather
There are two types of direct mail than shorter.
letters ...
A good fundraising letter has five parts.
1. Fundraising
2. Prospecting 1. Progress
2. Plans (or the project description)
A fundraising letter is any letter that is 3. The request for money
mailed to people who have already qiven you 4. The reminder
money in the past. It's almost impossible to lose 5. The postscripts
money on a mailing of this kind.
It's very important to build continuity
A prospecting letter is any letter that is between your fundraising letters. You want the
mailed to people who have never given you letter you write this month to refer to the letter
money before. It's almost impossible to make you wrote last month, and point to the letter
money on this kind of letter. Prospecting letters you plan to write next month. You do this by
are valuable only in terms of the future income using a "plans and progress" approach.
you will receive from any new contributors to
discover. You begin by reporting the progress you
have made with regard to the plans you de-
Good prospecting letters are much harder scribed last month.
to write than good fundraising letters. Doing so
will be beyond the ability of most local organi- You continue by explaining how that
zations until they are large enough to hire progress relates to the plans (projects) you are
professional copy writers. However, the sugges- going to talk about this month. ~
i
,

3. Then you describe your plan, and address In addition, there are nine techniques
all anticipated concerns and questions. that will enhance the readability of your
letter ...
Then you describe how much the project is
going to cost and ask for the money to pay for 1 . Invincible questions
it. The best way to ask for money is to list a 2. Bulleted items
whole series of contribution amounts, from high 3. Foreshadowing (or teasing)
to low, so that the reader will be able to see that 4. Short paragraphs
the amount they have in mind will be of value 5. Broken paragraphs and broken sentences
to the project. This has been tested over and 6. "Stopped" sentences
over again - if you don't list a series of 7. Widows
amounts then the reader wonders whether the 8 Contractions
amount they have in mind will really help, and 9. Cliches
they tend to not give.
You want to begin the letter with some-
After you've asked for the money you thing that draws the reader in, and makes them
remind them about what you've accomplished in want to read further. Invincible questions are
the past due to their support and express the good for this purpose. An invincible question is
hope that they will be able to help you again, so any rhetorical question which you can be
that you can take the next step forward. Then certain your reader will answer in a positive way,
you thank them and sign the letter. and which will tend to excite their curiosity
about the contents of the letter. The invincible
Then you include two PS's. The PS's are for question will tend to foreshadow your unique
the people who tend only to read the beginning selling proposition.
and the end of a direct mail letter. Therefore,
you will want to try to recapitulate your sales A good second step is to then list all of
argument, in miniature and, if possible, do it in your recent progress, using quick bulleted items,
such a way that they are teased to go back and and, while doing so, foreshadow, or tease about
read the letter as a whole. In the second PS, you your project, or unique selling proposition: This
will want to remind them of your deadline in should be easy, since at least some of your
order to create a sense of urgency that they progress will have set the stage, in some sense,
should send their check right away. This is also for what you want to propose.
the point at which you remind them about any
"premiums" you may be offering, and tell them Example
that they will be sent just as soon as you get
their contribution. • Since we last wrote to you we have ten differ-
ent info booths and collected over 100 names
A note on premiums: You will want to keep of new prospects. Keep reading and I'll tell you
the total cost of fulfilling a premium to 6% of what we're going to do with these prospects.
the gift that is required to receive that pre-
mium. By far the best kind of premium is what Then, when you get to the part of the
is called an "identity" premium, which is any- letter where you want to describe your project,
thing which serves to make the contributor feel it might look like this ...
good about having contributed. A good example
of this would be to put their name on a plaque • Remember those prospects I told you about at
that will be displayed either in your headquar- the beginning of the letter? Welt we'd like
ters, if you have one, or at your public meetings. your help in recruiting them as members of
the party. To do that we're going to hold an

4. "Introduction to Libertarianism" at the Holi- "artificial stop" in it. For instance ...
day Inn on Beale Street.
The man walked into the room. (You now
When you have laid out the basic skeleton know that a man has walked into a room, but
of your letter - your progress, your plans, your you're led to wonder why.)
request for money, your reminder, and your
postscripts - you will then go back and work to He walked over to the table and picked up
enhance the readability of your letter still the gun that was lying there. (You know that
further. there's a gun, but you don't know why, and
you're led to keep reading).
• You will add more bulleted items where pos-
sible. He looked at the gun for a moment and
then put it to his head. (The tension is built up
• You will add more foreshadowing and teasing slowly but surely, so that you have more and
where possible. more information, but are left with questions.
Each "stopped" sentence answers a previous
• You will make sure that most or all of your question and then asks another - why is the
paragraphs take up no more than three lines man putting the gun to his head?)
each.
• Next, you will make sure than no page of your
• You will make sure you have a line of white letter ends with a finished thought. You will
space in between paragraphs. create "widows" (sentences that are continued
on the next page) to make sure that the reader
• If you need to break paragraphs in two in order has to turn the page in order to get the
to keep them to three lines you will do so. completed thought.
• In order to heighten tension you will want to • Finally, you will go back through your letter
create unnatural breaks in your longer para- and use contractions wherever possible. Can't,
graphs, so that your last sentence ends with instead of cannot. This will make the letter
an ellipses ... more friendly and personal. You will not, not,
not worry overly much about grammar, be-
... so that the sentence contin- cause you want your letter to sound like
ues after a line of white space spoken speech. But you do, do, do want your
and centered the way this one is writing to be clear, clear, clear.
(the centered text containing the
significant part of the sentence). • Do not be afraid of using cliches. Cliches are
universally understood, and can communicate
This is a form of highlight, so your point much quicker than long exposi-
that important points don't get tions. Your letter should be built for speed.
lost in the blur of words, and
your skimmers can pick them out
from the rest of the text.
• You will then look for sentences that you can [By Perry Willis]
shorten or break into two. There is a tech-
nique used by novelists that can be of help
here. It's caned creating a sentence with an