Yesterday’s email about how I’m helping the Great Dane rescue with their direct-mail got a lot of interest…
So I’m gonna dig into more of my thinking behind the marketing on that campaign today…
If you missed yesterday’s email, here’s the deets…
I’m writing an 8-page direct mail letter for a Great Dane Rescue in Ohio called Harlequin Haven.
We’ll be soliciting end-of-the-year donations from their current donor list.
These are all people who donated $100 or more.
The mega donors (people who have donated $5000 or more) will be handled separately.
The letter will hit mailboxes on Dec 9th and 10th.
That’s the basics of it…
Now that you understand that…
Let’s dig into the biggest decision I made on this project.
And that’s the story we’re using in the letter.
The owner of the rescue sent me a story that she thought would be good for me to use.
It was about a dog that lived on a porch for like two years. He was chained up and was never let inside. He wound up chewing off part of his leg because he had no toys, no food etc…
Eventually the dog warden took him away, and brought him to the rescue.
That’s the story they wanted to use.
And there’s nothing wrong with this story.
I just didn’t think it was strong enough.
It was like a 5 on a scale of 1-10.
So I decided to find a better story.
So I went to their website and dug through the 90+ stories they have on their site of dogs they’ve helped.
Out of those 90, one of the stories really stuck out.
And that was Rylee’s story.
Rylee was a dog who was like any other dog. She lived in a house, had a bed and had dog toys.
But after a few years, her owners decided they didn’t want her anymore.
And instead of taking her to a rescue (or giving her to a friend) like most dog lovers would…
Her owners drove her out to an abandoned road, opened the door on their van, and kicked her out of the car.
It was the middle of winter in Ohio. And they just left this poor girl all alone to fend for herself.
I can only imagine how scared she was.
Watching her family drive away…
And wondering what she did to deserve this.
That part was heartbreaking in itself.
But what made it worse was the fact that Rylee wound up getting hit by a car a few days later.
And the guy who hit her didn’t even stop to help.
He just kept on driving.
So she was laying on the freezing cold pavement, with bones and tendons coming out of her back leg. And blood squirting everywhere.
She basically laid there for over an hour, whimpering in pain hoping someone would help her.
Luckily for Rylee, a woman spotted her who was driving by.
That woman stopped her car. And raced over and comforted her. After helping Rylee calm down, and stop the bleeding, she eventually helped Rylee into her car.
And took her directly to Harlequin Haven (the rescue I’m helping).
Rylee immediately got all the medical help she needed.
And she was given a nice warm bed, food and lots of love.
Over the course of about a year, they nursed Rylee back to health.
After a long, hard road, she was finally able to play again.
PLUS they also found her a new loving home.
One where she has a family that actually cares about her.
I thought her story was pretty amazing.
It was heartbreaking.
And something that really hit me hard.
So I decided to go with her story for the direct mail letter.
I wanted to point this part out because the story is the most important part of the copy in a letter like this.
A GREAT story will do 3-4x the response that a mediocre story will do.
And that holds true for non-profits like this…
As well as selling products online.
If I would have gone with the first story the woman at the rescue gave me, the letter would not be as strong.
And it wouldn’t bring in as many donations.
So to reiterate…
The story is the most important part.
That’s why I spent close to 6 hours digging through every single story on their website.
And why I was so fanatical about finding a GREAT story.
Cause the story is THAT important.
And when we mail this letter in December, it will show when the donations start to come in.
Anyways…
Wanted to share that with you cause it’s a good example of how to find a GREAT story.
They usually don’t just fall into your lap.
You need to put in some work.
And Rylee’s story was worth putting in the work, cause it’s a very emotional, heartbreaking story.
It will connect with people.
And they’ll be moved to donate to help her, and dogs like her.
I’ll make sure I update ya in December when we actually mail it.
And share the results…
Now before I wrap this up, I want to give a little shout out to the people who wound-up donating to Harlequin Haven yesterday after I wrote my email about them.
I got an email from the rescue and they were overjoyed at the donations that came in.
They’re quite small and don’t get a lot of donations, so this was a big deal.
So I wanted to specifically thank…
Craig Clemens
John Barry
Andy Drish
Bob Beverley
Adam Weinstein
Jim Hacking
Rex Wisehart
Greg Noland
Jason Moffatt
Thanks again to all of you.
I’m sure there are others who donated who did not email me, so a big thanks to you if you did that.
It’s not hard to see that this is something I’m very passionate about.
I have a Great Dane myself.
And I love that dog like a son.
So I truly appreciate the people who pitched in and helped a cause that means so much to me.
That’s all I got for today…
Enjoy your Friday.
– Justin
P.S. – A lot of people email me from time to time and said they’d love to pay me back for all the insight my emails have provided for them.
If you feel the same, then I’d be thrilled if you made a donation to help these dogs.
No pressure at all to donate…
If it’s not for you, or you donate to some other cause, then by all means, don’t feel guilty…
But if you want to help, you can do so at the I posted below.
Not only will you be helping to save some vulnerable dogs who need our help…
But you’ll be making my day as well.
Here’s the link to donate…
-> Help Justin’s favorite dog rescue
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