March of Dimes
Maximum Value Using Premiums
Related Services
Industry
Health Care
Project Overview
March of Dimes leads the fight for the health of all moms and babies. Through research, support, education and advocacy, March of Dimes works tirelessly so every family can have the best possible start.
For 80 years, March of Dimes has helped millions of babies survive and thrive. Now they are building on that legacy to level the playing field for all moms and babies, no matter their age, socio-economic background, or demographics. This expanding mission created the need for more efficient direct mail program capable of generating more consistent, predictable income with a minimum of investment.
March of Dimes came to Edge Direct with a very mature direct mail program and a long-time acquisition control package. Our challenge was to generate higher response rates and revenue to help stabilize the organization’s direct mail file.
For March of Dimes and their agency partner, Edge Direct, the goals were:
- Improve acquisition response to help improve file health.
- Lower the cost to acquire metrics to improve campaign efficiency.
- Minimize the risk to the overall revenue by iterating from the existing control.
The March of Dimes leads the fight for the health of all moms and babies. The March of Dimes supports moms throughout their pregnancy, advocates for policies that prioritize their health, and pioneers research to find solutions to the biggest health threats to moms and babies.
Locally, March of Dimes helps moms take charge of their health and supports families when something goes wrong. The March of Dimes also acts globally: sharing best practices in perinatal health and helping improve birth outcomes where the needs are the most urgent.
Our Solution
The Edge Direct team wanted to minimize the risk associated with testing, so we leveraged our historical knowledge from years of testing and began to add components to the existing control.
Historically, Edge Direct has found that bundling additional premiums improves response because of the increase in the perceived value of the package. We successfully tested the addition of a small non-personalized notepad in the label/dime acquisition campaigns in 2020, lifting response by 10%. To move the needle even more with additional bundling components, we added three small “mini-cards” with matching envelopes to the acquisition control in 2021. The concept was tested across Q1 and Q2 acquisition efforts.
The mini cards were designed to leverage the existing control creative to minimize risk to response and revenue. Single elements from the control labels were featured on the cards. All-occasion messages were developed to increase the usefulness of the cards.
Results
The addition of the Mini Cards succeeded in increasing the perceived value of the acquisition package and delivered outstanding results. Response rates increased 11-30% across 4 different tests, while maintaining average gift levels in both cold acquisition and lapsed reactivation segments. Cost-to-acquire metrics averaged a 30% improvement and delivered more new donors to the direct mail program as a result. The Labels with Mini Cards became March of Dimes’ acquisition control beginning in June 2021 and continues to provide excellent results.
