People in the direct mail fundraising world are often surprisingly unanimous about one thing.
The blank envelope is the way to go if you want increased open rates and response. Far better than any envelope with teaser copy and possibly graphics.
“I’ve tested it!” they exclaim. Well maybe. The fact is that an A/B test is a snapshot in time, not a pronouncement from the oracle.
And they never tell you what the teaser was that lost in the test. Maybe it was just bad teaser copy.
But never mind about test results and data. You can see for yourself how you personally would react to two different envelope treatments. Is this a scientific test? Nope. But it does show how people might react, and you’re certainly a person. So let’s take a look at a brief thought experiment.
You’re sorting through your morning mail. You see a stark, plain, blank envelope. Is it a bill? An overdue notice? A letter from the IRS? Could be any of those things or none of them. You don’t know. And that, say the blank-envelope proponents, is the point. You have to find out.
Fair enough. What IS inside, which you don’t know at this point, is a letter from an organization wanting to sue President Trump. Let’s not get caught up in the politics here. This is about envelope teasers, remember.
So you open the envelope, read the letter, and possibly donate. But you have to open the envelope, not knowing what to expect, and then decide whether to read it or not. There’s a disconnect there, between what the envelope conveys and what the message of the letter is.
One of John Caples’s principles of copywriting is that the headline should directly and telegraphically lead into the body copy. Here we have no headline – or for our purposes, no teaser — so telegraphing isn’t possible.
Which leads us to the counter example. You’re sorting through your mail again, and you see an envelope with this teaser, and it’s personalized: “John, we’re suing Donald Trump.”
That’s it. No photo, no graphic. This teaser does what no blank envelope could ever accomplish. It primes the reader for what’s to come in the letter enclosed. Even more to the point, if you’re the target audience for this appeal, you’re already halfway toward donating simply by reading that teaser, even before you see the appeal letter.
Instead of being hesitant to see what’s inside, as you might be with a blank envelope, in this case you’re eager to see the letter because you’re already in agreement with what the letter will presumably talk about. The envelope and the letter are working together. They’re direct and telegraphic.
If you’re the nonprofit sending out this appeal, you’ve primed the donor with the envelope teaser, and when you follow through in the appeal letter, you’re well on your way to winning a donation.
To see a lot more on this, go to https://tinyurl.com/44ystvan
Fundraising Copywriter George Crankovic 