Minestra is a soup that Italians (and frankly people from most cultures) have been making for millennia.  There’s no ‘recipe’ per se, but as long as you have something to dish up at the table (minestrare) then you have supper. 

In my family, minestrone soup depends on what’s in the fridge at the time, so it’s a soup ‘of the moment’ that tastes different every time.  Sometimes it’s delicious, other times it’s serviceable.  But it’s always economical.

Should you follow a well-tested, published recipe each time you make your minestrone soup, you’ll achieve consistent, reliable results.  The ratio of ingredients and techniques don’t tax the mind the way an ad-libbed minestra does.  The resulting soup becomes your standby, allowing you to refocus your energy to branch out and experiment with new ingredients or combinations.

Which brings me to direct mail.

Consistent, reliable results come from well-tested ‘recipes’ that are executed consistently. 

That is a data-driven conclusion that’s not only true of CDP’s Member Services Bureau and CDP Direct stations, but is demonstrated by hundreds of agencies and institutions around the world that invest in obsessive message testing for renewals, additional gifts, lapsed recapture and acquisition.

If you’ve built hours and hours of time into each month to revise and tweak letter copy to stay ‘in the moment,’ you have likely seen hit-or-miss results.  You may conclude that speaking in ‘our voice’ is more important than consistent, reliable responses (because you’re still putting a soup on the table, correct?) then I want to suggest another option.

This option isn’t as costly as your current mail program in dollars or precious staff time. 

This option will allow you to and your team to engage with your audiences and donors in meaningful ways, build deeper relationships, and maintain the ‘voice’ you’re striving for, without risking budgeted resources.

It’s CDP Direct, the multi-channel marketing service that combines proven letter copy with concurrent e-mail marketing delivered under station brand, tone, and content. 

CDP has formulated the service in such a way as to make it accessible to stations with 100 members or 100,000 members.  The scaled pricing is the same in Missoula as it is in Miami or Minneapolis.  It includes all purchased lists, paper, ink, printing, creative, and postage.  The good, data-driven news is that scale has delivered solid results—often at a 20-30% savings to the station in hard costs.

Since CDP is doing the work for the station behind the scenes, you and your team are freed up to engage with donors and prospects via digital, video chat, and phone, where ‘in the moment’ conversations can lead to bigger gifts.

I hope you’ll join us for a webinar on December 2nd from 1-2PM EST that dives a bit deeper into CDP Direct.  Respond to the e-mail invitation or contact us for the webinar link.

And then I hope we can all ‘get cooking’ together to bring excellent results to your table economically, reliably, and consistently.