DMA Nonprofit Conference: Beating the long-standing control
Posted on Tue, Mar 06, 2012
By Amy Morrison, Senior Strategist, Interactive Department
Not very often is an early Friday morning conference panel a highlight of anyone’s week. Except of course if Jenny Allen is one of the presenters.
Jenny Allen
 |
Last Friday at the 2012 DMA Nonprofit Conference here in DC, Jenny along with Vivianne Potter and Bonnie Catena from Amnesty International USA kept everyone laughing—and learning—in the session entitled, “I Think I Can…I Know I Can: Beating a Long-Standing Control Package.”
The panel informed—and entertained—the audience with insights on how to beat a long-standing control package.
And just how do you beat a 20 year-control direct mail prospecting control package? Here are some key takeaways.
Become an expert on your organization
- Jenny shared that by diving deep into the issues close to Amnesty’s mission, her and her team were able to develop direct mail package ideas and messaging custom tailored to the organization.
Channel outrage
- If you develop a message that gets someone fired up to take immediate action, then they will likely want to do more than just give. Though Amnesty used petitions in the past, Potter commented on how this was lacking in the current control they had been using.
Risk is good
- One of the challenges in unseating a long-standing control is the temptation of tweak tests – where only small, nominal changes are made. Yet, as Allen pointed out, such small changes will likely only result in small increases in performance. To achieve significant jumps in performance, you must take bigger risks.
Don’t stop trying
- You will never succeed if you stop trying. Being brave enough to showcase the failed packages, Jenny showed that success demands perseverance. Even though a new control has been discovered, Jenny, Vivianne, and Bonnie continue to tirelessly seek out other packages that will push their newfound success rate even higher!
With much humor and wit, these three intrepid direct marketers provided all of us compelling insights on how to push the envelope…and succeed!
