Learn a lesson from professional direct mail copywriters. They
follow a time-tested format in their sales letters, a format
that you can also follow when writing direct mail fundraising
letters for your non-for-profit organization. All you need to
remember is AIDA.
AIDA is an acrostic for the four things you need to do, and the
order you need to do them in, to write compelling donation
request letters.
ATTENTION The A stands for Attention. You need to grab
it. Your envelope has to grab attention, and the opening line of
your letter needs to grab attention. Your sole mission at this
stage is to arrest their donor's attention so that they ignore
the television, leave the other mail on the kitchen table, and
sit down and read your letter right to the end.
You can arrest attention in a number of ways:
* start with a gripping narrative * ask a provocative question
* state a seeming contradiction or paradox * open with a
scintillating (and relevant) quote * crack a joke * start with
the word "you"
INTEREST The I in AIDA stands for Interest. Professional
direct mail copywriters who make their living by selling on
paper know that arresting a reader's attention is not enough.
That's just the start. The letter has to immediately stimulate
some interest in the reader so that the reader continues reading.
Plenty of headlines and photographs grab people's attention as
they leaf through newspapers and magazines, but they only read
the stories that interest them. This means that as soon as you
have grabbed your donor's attention, you must follow up with
content that stimulates interest.
So what interests your donors? Changing the world. Making a
difference. Relieving suffering. Saving lives. Transformation.
Stimulate interest in your readers by showing why your letter
and your message are of interest to them right now.
DESIRE As advertising giant David Ogilvy said, "You can't
bore people into buying your product." Your fundraising appeal
letter needs to move the heart and mind of each donor. It needs
to create in them (or, more accurately, awaken in them), a
Desire to respond to the case for support that you present on
paper. One way to awaken this desire is to offer an opportunity
for the donor to make an impact. Show in clear ways how they can
partner with your organization to impact their world for the
better.
I'll give you an example from a newsletter that I received
during the week that Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans
and the surrounding area in 2005. This is what the publisher
said in his introductory message:
"I've had the news on all day today as I worked on getting this
issue out. I finally had to turn to a ball game. . I was
getting too depressed. It's frustrating to see so many people in
need and not being able to help (at least not right away). I
hope and pray that all our readers in the areas hit by Katrina
made it out okay."
There is a man with a desire. The Category Five hurricane
arrested his attention. The devastation kept his interest. And
the human suffering, played out hourly on his television screen,
created in him a deep desire to help. A desire so deep that he
grew depressed because he could not satisfy it.
That's the level of desire that you want to awaken in your
donor's, except that you want to give them a really easy way to
satisfy it! And that's where the final A in AIDA comes in.
ACTION The A in AIDA stands for Action, or Ask.
Professional direct mail copywriters always ask for the order.
They want their readers to buy, and buy today. This simply means
that every fundraising letter you write has to ask for the gift.
Informing donors is all very well, but your letter is designed
to raise funds. You can ask for the donation in a forceful way
or in a gentle way, but either way you must ask for it.
If you follow these four simple, time-tested steps every time
you sit down to craft an appeal letter, you will find that your
writer's block doesn't last as long. And you'll find that your
letters take on a more logical, compelling format, one that
should increase your response rates.
© 2005 Sharpe Copy Inc. You may reprint this article online and
in print provided the links remain live and the content remains
unaltered (including the
More Information:Alan Sharpe is a professional fundraising letter writer, instructor, coach, author and newsletter publisher who helps non-profit organizations to raise funds, build relationships and retain loyal donors using cost-effective, compelling, creative fundraising letters. Sign up for free weekly tips like this at
http://www.RaiserSharpe.com/ 
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