Raising Money with No Heavy Lifting!

I just read an attention-grabbing article extolling a new print service called Read Smart by Production Solutions and it piqued my interest – maybe it really piqued my brain.  Read on to find out how that might have happened.  ReadSmart, they say, is the result of over 20 years of research examining how messages are transmitted to the brain and how to best format message text to achieve maximum effectiveness.

To test the research’s findings, Production Solutions worked with the National Wildlife Federation, to test their new technology in a recent donor appeal mailing.  The results:  response rate increased by 9.67%, average gift increased by 4.2% and net revenue increased by 26 %.  All that from changing the text format?  Curious to learn, or should I say, “see” more?   You can read the full article and see an example of how their service makes small variations to the widths of the letters and spaces, and to the line endings.  They claim that these minuscule adjustments improve eye movements and word perception to optimize the overall message.  Frankly, I think they may be onto something.

*Katherine Swank is a consultant for Target Analytics. You may contact her at [email protected].