Roger’s post yesterday is well on its way to being one of The Agitator’s ‘most-read’ ever.
How could it not be — Magic Fundraising Machine Boosts ROI. What self-respecting fundraiser could resist a claim like that?!
Numerous readers have emailed The Agitator, asking Roger to open his trench coat … “show me the money”!
We’re pleased to show you the two treatments of the National Wildlife Federation appeal Roger wrote about that illustrate ‘The Magic Fundraising Machine’ at work.
PDF 1 is the original NWF letter … the control.
PDF 2 overlays ReadSmart’s ‘Machine’ treatment onto the control … giving you a sense of the degree of formatting/spacing change.
PDF 3 is the ‘Machine’ version … that substantially out-performed the control.
Sorry to make you work so hard, but given the nature of the changes, there’s no easier way to illustrate the differences between the two versions.
OK, let’s hear from you skeptics!
Tom & Roger
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I am impressed. I am always trying to get charities to use courier or American typewriter font, and do hand underlining and star points etc, but they all want it to look like a business letter.
Now here’s even more evidence for making letters look authentically impulsive – rather than polished and practiced.
Love it!
This was great information and a new angle. I went through and looked at the overlay yesterday on the Readsmart website but thanks for sending the whole letter.
Fascinating stuff. Anything that makes for an easier reading experience is going to keep eyeballs on the page longer, giving your great copy a chance to make an even greater impact.
Very helpful – thanks!
We were super excited to try this tactic and really wanted it to work, but were disappointed! We tested on two different clients in both an acquisition and a renewal and while both saw minimal boosts from this formatting (6% revenue boost on an acquisition and 3% revenue boost on a renewal), neither had the overall performance to make the results statistically significant or to rollout for future mailings.
I just got our first-ever Readsmart-enhanced letter back from the vendor. Now it’s showtime, stay tuned!
Thanks for the update, Matt. Please keep us posted on the results.
We’re staying tuned!