Why Do Charities Waste Money on their Marketing at Christmas?
So far this year, I’ve received letters from three different charities asking for donations in the run up to Christmas. They all seem to be taking the same approach to their marketing, but I’m not sure it’s the best one.
The first charity sent me a number of nice little cards that I can use. They are blank inside, so I can use them for thank you notes or birthday cards. They came with a bookmark, a fridge magnet and a car sticker. I put the magnet onto the fridge just to wind up my husband, who doesn’t like clutter.
The next charity sent some nice Christmas cards that I can use, along with a sheet of address stickers – but not with my correct address on – so they went in the recycling bin. They came with a couple of coasters and a sheet of gift tags for Christmas presents, which were rather thin and flimsy, so I didn’t keep them.
The next ‘parcel’ that came from a third charity contained an almost identical selection to the second one, but with different coasters. They are quite festive so will be used in the office until they get too soggy from coffee, as they are very thin.
How much does it cost for charities to put together this collection of items and to post them? How many people do they randomly post them to? Does this sort of marketing really work? I’ve not made donations to any of these charities, because I have specific charities that I support, so I would really like to know what return the charities get. If you know, please let me know!
In the meantime, I have two theories:
- Charities either send all these items to thousands of people on a mailing list they’ve bought, because the companies that sell all the promotional materials are great at persuading the charities that it’s a good thing to do. This would explain why the items being sent are so similar.
- Or, charities send all these items because it actually works and the hit rate – the amount they can raise in donations at this time of year – makes the cost of the promotion worthwhile.
There are a number of lessons that you can take away from this type of marketing:
- Stand out from the crowd. If your competitors are doing certain marketing, do something different. Just because they’re doing it, doesn’t mean that it will work for you. If they all do a big promotional push at Christmas, keep quiet and do more marketing in January.
- Research your market. Whether you’re contacting people by email, phone or post, make sure that you have the best list of prospects who will actually buy from you
- Find out what sort of marketing really works for your business, so that you can spend your marketing budget wisely. Don’t do anything that you’re not certain will give you a great return; don’t do anything that someone else says you should do, without knowing what results you’ll get.
Follow these simple tips and spend time planning any marketing you do and you’ll get the results you need.
