Live from the DMI Co-op: Guidepost’s Test of Faith — And Effort
More is better, consumers don’t need to be bribed to do good works, and when given a choice of two design packages, going for the “old ladyish” variation is the formula for success.
The above is a cheat sheet for determining which of three pairs of mailings worked best for the Guideposts Foundation, an organization geared toward applying faith and positive thinking to everyday life.
Lisa M. Greco, the direct response marketing manager for Guideposts, presented test and control packages for two donor mailings and an acquisition effort to an audience at the 2007 Direct Media Client Conference & Co-op. She was unstinting in offering her pre-mailing biases — even when those biases proved wrong.
Take a donor renewal package, which included a blank Christmas card recipients were encouraged to sign and return for distribution to a nursing home resident or a hospitalized military veteran. (And yes, when returning the signed card recipients were asked to include a donation for Guideposts.)
The response wasn’t bad, but surely an additional goodie for recipients, in the form of labels, would make it better, right?
Wrong. The overall response rate dropped by 6%, and average gift donations were off by 4%. As Greco later surmised, this particular campaign could remain mission driven. Donors felt good about doing something for those less fortunate, and did not need the additional incentive.
Then there was a spring donor renewal control package, which included jam-packed with a personalized notepad for the recipient, address labels and bookmarks.
In a sudden burst of “everything old is new again” spirit, a new creative team retained by Guideposts offered a variant of an earlier package design, which included five all-occasion greeting cards and address labels, as the test package.
Greco had her doubts. That particular premium hadn’t worked in a while. And the entire marketing department found the overall package design, with its emphasis on pastel colors, “old ladyish.”
It turned out that geriatric was the new green. The test lifted response rates by 84%. That’s not a typo.
“We found our creative opinions don’t match those of donors,” Greco admits ruefully.
The final control/test split Greco presented was the Guideposts summer acquisition package. The control included floral-patterned silver foil name-and-address labels.
For the test, Guidepost hired a creative agency that retained the basic idea, but put the labels into a larger-sized envelope, with more than double the number of labels and a greater variety of label design.
More was, in fact, better. The new package lifted response rate by 38%. It seems the vendor who designed this test had lots of experience with other fundraising organizations that appeal to the same demographic as Guideposts’ donors.
Greco incorporated the lesson from working with that vendor into five key takeaway points she offered:
- From the Christmas card mailing, she realized “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
- From the larger-format mailing, she discovered the value of finding a creative agency with measurable success in other non-profits that have demographics similar to hers — and respecting their opinions.
- From the renewal mailing that revived the generic cards gimmick, she learned not let past results dictate future testing ideas.
- From the pastel package only her creative agency liked, she gleaned the importance of being objective, and not subjective, when choosing creative efforts.
- Finally, she observed, “Show me the results, and I’ll tell you how beautiful the package is!”
