Should you ask visitors to your website to provide their email? The answer depends on what you’re offering in exchange. I was perusing a nonprofit’s planned giving website and came across an option to download an eBrochure. “Great!” I thought. “Time to do some homework on the competition.”* I clicked the link, and was immediately […]
The Mind Hates Confusion
Did you know that the average American in a major city is bombarded with over 3000 messages a day? Each day the Web grows by millions of pages. Wherever you travel, satellites are beaming endless messages a minute to every corner of the globe. We see rotating billboards on expressways, take calls from telemarketers, and […]
Edgy Marketing vs. Vanilla Marketing
You can play it vanilla, or you can be heard. What will you choose? Edgy planned giving marketing gets results.
Are you a Binge Marketer?
The classic cry of the binge marketer is “Oops… business is slow. I guess I’d better do some marketing and send out a mailing.” If you find yourself in the middle of a quiet spell, thinking that a few actions, a couple of phone calls and a mailing here and there will get things moving […]
Who’s Your Tom Bond?
You’d never guess by looking at Thomas Chandler Cruikshank Bond, III, that he battled drug addiction for two decades, that he was jailed half a dozen times, or that he spent four years living in abandoned houses in East Baltimore. In fact, even if you had met him during most of those dark years, you […]
Google Uses Direct Mail Like Crazy
So it’s settled. Direct mail is a good idea. My husband and I run a small business. A very small business. So I was a little surprised to find out that we’re on Google’s mailing list. I’d understand if they sent me an email, or maybe a personalized video pop-up on YouTube. But no … […]
Gifts of Appreciated Stuff Are Much Appreciated
Don’t Keep Them Bottled Up! Some of you who never read Forbes Magazine might think it’s just a stuffy business periodical, but how stuffy can a magazine really be when it runs an article celebrating “investment-grade” Scotch whiskey, as Forbes recently did? Sounds whimsical, but it’s for real. And with dollar values per fifth […]
Year-End Giving 2012
With the presidential election behind us and the status quo retained, what does this mean for charitable giving as we approach year-end? Over the last three months, this was the number one question on people’s minds – “What happens if after the election, we have the same parties in control of the House, Senate […]
Comfort Zone Treadmill
Are You Sure You’re Ready to Excel? If you continue to do things in the same manner you have always done them, your results are not going to change. Continuing to do things the same old way basically puts you on a treadmill where continuous, ineffective effort and lackluster results flow in a endless loop. […]
“Inoffensive” is the Wrong Star to Wish On
“The appeal letter has had a huge impact! We are starting to get in responses to the appeal — some very positive … and some very angry. We can’t do this again.”