I bet you couldn't wait to jump into your mom's or dad's lap and listen to a story. If we all love a good story, then why have so many marketers forgotten this incredible tool for selling their products? Nonprofits usually do a better job of telling stories in their direct fundraising than businesses do in their direct marketing, but neither one is really taking full advantage of this resource.

If businesses tried to tell Goldie Locks' story, the copy might read something like "Young Blond Girl Goes House Hunting."

Bed Features:

• Hard

• Soft

• Just Right

Appetizers Served:

• Hot

• Cold

• Just Right

I think you get the picture. Pretty boring!

In developing your next direct marketing package, tell the story of how your product or service changed someone's life, made things better or exceeded a customer's expectations. Then tell your story to a 9 year old. If she looks bored and you will know, rewrite your copy.

Stories sell.

Everyone wants a beautiful garden. And, now's the time to be working your garden to see which plants survived the winter and which ones need to be replaced. If you don't replace the dead ones, eventually your garden suffers. You also need to be doing the same thing with your organization.

You have loyal donors who are with you year after year. Then there are the donors who give one year but not the next. These are the donors you have to keep replacing or your organization suffers.

One solution is to find more donors like the loyal ones who don't have to be replaced. If you plant an annual plant, its life-cycle last only one year. However, a perennial plant is like an old friend who comes back year after year. Doesn't it make more sense to get the perennial donors who will come back every year?

The best way to find more loyal donors is to develop a profile of the loyal ones you have now. Here are a few of the items you want to learn about your loyal donors:

1. Demographics

- Old vs. Young

- Single vs. Married

- Homeowner vs. Renter

- Male vs. Female

2. Geographic - Where do your loyal donors live?

- Rural vs. Urban

- North vs. South

3. Fundraising Source - Are loyal donors more responsive to direct mail, email, telemarketing, events, etc? You may notice the annual donors mainly came through telemarketing and events. While loyal donors came through direct mail and the website.

4. Psychographics - What are the interest of your loyal donors? Your annual donors may only be interested in premiums.

Do these things and you'll add more and more perennial donors. Plus you'll have a beautiful garden. These same ideas apply to customers.

It's almost spring and everything will be turning green soon...the trees, grass and your organization? That's right. Is your organization doing all it can to help the environment from a direct mail fundraising aspect?

Here's where we are today:

• Studies show all direct mail makes up only 1.8% of all waste and 4.7% of paper waste.

• The paper and wood industry is planting 1.7 million trees a day to more than make up for what is harvested.

• Production of household ad mail consumes only .13% of the energy used in the U.S.

• Direct mail fundraising's impact on the environment is even smaller than the percentages shown above.

However, we can do better.

1. Ask your printer about all the green options available for example environmental-friendly inks, recyclable papers, and paper from suppliers with sustainable forest certification. There are now envelopes made using wind power, envelopes with biodegradable window film and much more.

2. List hygiene can significantly reduce the number of pieces mailed. Removing duplicates and bad addresses help you and the environment.

3. Apply donor models to better target prospects and lower the number of pieces mailed.

4. For more ideas, see the Green 15 at http://www.the-dma.org/.

Make everyone green with envy this spring with your environmental efforts.

Have trouble buying a gift for certain people? That's because everyone is different. There is a wonderful book by Dr. Gary Chapman called The Five Love Languages. Dr. Chapman shares in the book that we all feel love differently and it's important to understand the other person's love language.

The five languages are words of affirmation, touch, service, quality time and gifts. For example, your love language may be service. You are busy doing things around the house and expect your spouse to see this as a loving act. The problem is your spouse's love language is quality time. Instead of you washing clothes or working in the yard, your spouse would much rather sit with you and talk.

Customers are no different. You may think you're providing an incredible offer or service to your customers when in fact your customer doesn't see it that way at all. Your job is to start learning what makes your customers feel loved. One customer might love getting a good deal while another customer might love the convenience of doing business with you.

Your relationship with a spouse and customers will improve dramatically if you just take the time to learn their love language.

My "language" is words of affirmation, so please tell me how much you love getting Direct Marketing Tips and how it has changed your life.