This seems ‘old school’ or ‘not professional’ enough.
That’s a comment I seem to be getting more and more lately — either in response to copy I’ve written, or how the copy is formatted. I often hear it once a client sees my copy in a design layout.
I wrote a brief LinkedIn post not long ago, asking why some people seem to have an issue with indented paragraphs. I’ve had a few clients tell me it looks “old school” or “not professional”. Some clients say that about serif fonts, too, like Times New Roman, Georgia or Bookman. Or, using larger font sizes.
It turned into a fairly heated debate! People are passionate about formatting!
But you know what?
Your personal opinion about how things look doesn’t really matter.
I’ve been working in direct response fundraising for more than 20 years.
I was taught that using specific formatting details are critically important - especially when you’re talking about a direct mail package. In fact, testing has proven time and again that when you use formatting that improves readability — such as serif fonts, large font sizes and indented, short, easily readable sentences and paragraphs — your response rates improve.
Think about your audience!
What’s the average age of your direct mail donor? I’m guessing it’s up there. I’m (gasp) getting up there too, and I can tell you that I need glasses to read almost everything I get in the mail these days.
Do you want your donor to have to get up and find their glasses to read your mail piece? That gives them the chance to set that thing down and never look at it again. Or do you want them to be able to read it clearly right off the bat?
Of course you do! You may be young, have healthy eyes and lots of opinions about how things “should” look. But, there is a lot of research out there showing that certain fonts and certain formatting techniques WORK in direct response.
We can’t send this to our high-level donors! It’s not professional enough.
Ok, let’s talk about this. Who got the idea that donors who give higher amounts should somehow receive “professional-looking” pieces in the mail? That they shouldn’t receive the “emotional” appeals that the lower value donors get?
I think that’s silly - and if you believe this, you’re possibly leaving money on the table.
Higher-level donors are regular people just like you and me. They have feelings and emotions too. Just because they’re giving higher amounts doesn’t mean they won’t respond to an emotional, personal, touching and vulnerable piece of mail.
In fact, I’m betting they’ll respond even better - considering most of the stuff they’re getting is clearly being highly ‘professionalized’!
What’s your donor going to reach for and pick up first… something that looks like a human wrote it and sent it to them with love in their heart — or a highly glossy, overdone, highly professional brochure-looking thingy?
You know the answer.
