After constructing a basic direct mail audience, you may want to further customize it by excluding certain donors, adding additional donor segments, and fine-tuning the list size.
For instructions on building a basic direct mail audience, make sure to read the previous article in this playbook, Building a Simple Direct Mail Appeal Audience in Dataro.
Applying exclusions to your audience
There may be certain donors that you wish to exclude from the campaign for a variety of reasons. Perhaps they have opted out of direct mail, or are active in another program, etc. For a full explanation of how to apply exclusions to your audience, read more here.
Exclusions commonly used in Direct Mail campaigns include:
- Donors with no address (filter your list by Address Available / is / Yes)
- Donors who exist in another audience, such as a saved “Do Not Mail” list (filter your list by In Audience / not in / [Audience name])
- To learn how to upload a Saved Audience from your CRM to Dataro, check out this article.
- Major donors (filter your list by Major status / not in / ‘Active’)
- Donors who were included in a past campaign (filter your list by Inclusion in past campaign / not in / [Campaign name])
- (NXT only) Donors with certain Constituent Codes (filter your list by Constituent Code / not in / [code])
Adjusting your list size
Check the ‘List Overview’ column to see how many contacts match your filters after you've applied new filters. Applying exclusions will reduce the size of your audience. If the final list size is less than your preferred size, you can "top up" the list by selecting the next highest-ranked donors until the final list count matches your target list size.
Note: Sometimes it’s better to send a smaller list than to include donors who are very unlikely to give. Consider the savings available by sending a smaller list size.
Adding additional segments to your audience
Almost every direct mail appeal can be improved by using additional Dataro models alongside the DM Appeal Model. To learn how to add a segment to your audience, check out this article.
Segments commonly added to Direct Mail campaigns include:
- A higher-value segment, using Dataro’s DM Appeal (500) model to identify the donors to receive a more expensive mail pack.
- Pro tip: We recommend that this segment should be about 1/10th of your total list size. You can choose a size using Dataro’s ranks, or our campaign size suggestion for the DM Appeal 500 model.
- A mid-level donor prospect segment, using Dataro’s Mid-Level Giving model to identify potential mid-level donors and ask them for an increased gift size or to fund a specific mid-level program.
- Pro tips:
- Remember to remove active mid-level donors (filter your list by Mid-level status / not in / ‘Active’).
- You may also want to remove donors who have already given greater than a certain amount in the past year (filter your list by Gifts Given in the last 12 months / Total Given / <[amount]).
- Pro tips:
- A reactivation segment of lapsed donors using Dataro’s Mail Appeal 24 Lapsed model.
- Pro tip: We recommend that this segment should be about 1/20th of your total list size. You can choose a size using Dataro’s ranks, or our campaign size suggestion for the 24M Lapsed model.
- Pro tips:
- Remember to remove active major donors (filter your list by Major Donor status / not in / ‘Active’)
- You may also want to remove donors who have already given greater than a certain amount in the past year (filter your list by Gifts Given in the last 12 months / Total Given / <$[amount])
FAQ: I'm using multiple Dataro models to build my audience segments, what order should I use them in?
It is possible for a donor to score well in multiple Dataro models. For example, a donor who is likely to give greater than $500 will usually score well on both the Mail Appeal >$500 model and the Mail Appeal model.
To ensure each donor is allocated to the correct group, you will want to structure your query in the correct order based on your requirements. We would usually recommend starting with the higher value groups first, as follows:
- Major donor (if used)
- Mid-value donor (if used)
- Mail Appeal >$500 (if used)
- Mail Appeal
- 24M Lapsed reactivation.
Ready to launch your campaign? Check out the final article in this playbook: Launching and Tracking Your Direct Mail Campaign.