The Jerry Huntsinger tutorials

This special showcase within the direct mail section of SOFII comprises a complete series of tutorials from the dean of direct mail fundraising, the USA’s legendary Jerry Huntsinger. In 57 parts plus supporting materials, this insightful, practical series is building, over time, into the complete step-by-step guide to direct mail fundraising.

Tutorial 11: how to design a fundraising letter: the function of design.

by Jerry Huntsinger

Letters are not supposed to be pretty or attractive, or large or small, or long or short, or colourful or stylish... they are supposed to be read. That’s all.

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Tutorial 12: principles of layout.

by Jerry Huntsinger

There are four critical principles: space importance, eye movement, right dominance, and horizontal and vertical lines.

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Tutorial 13: the PS: how to have the final word.

by Jerry Huntsinger

Your PS is a vital selling tool – just as important as the headline. In fact, the PS is often the first and last words your donors read! Why? Human nature, I guess. A postscript arouses curiosity. It’s irresistible.

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Tutorial 14: how to communicate with photographs.

by Jerry Huntsinger

If ‘a picture is worth a thousands words’ why do nonprofits persist in creating appeals with 2,000 words, or more, with no pictures?

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Tutorial 15: creating a chemical reaction.

by Jerry Huntsinger

When you put a letter, a reply card, a reply envelope and an enclosure in a carrier envelope, you are mixing together five separate elements. But suddenly, when they are all in the package, you no longer have five separate items. Instead you have a chemical reaction.

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Tutorial 16: how to write in a warm personal style.

by Jerry Huntsinger

A professional writer knows that a letter must have more than technical exactness. Personality has to radiate through the words. But what kind of personality?

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Tutorial 17: write the way you speak: 10 suggestions.

by Jerry Huntsinger

Psycho-copy is not crazy copy. I’m not always sure how to communicate the deeper levels of a ‘warm and personal’ style to letter writers. Perhaps it has to be caught, rather than taught.

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Tutorial 18: magic words: the formula for success.

by Jerry Huntsinger

What do Shakespeare, the Bible, the Gettysburg Address and a successful fundraising letter have in common? Magic words. And what makes certain words magic? Their length. Any common word of five letters or less is magic. Therein lies a formula for success.

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Tutorial 19: master grammar and write for action.

by Jerry Huntsinger

As a writer, you need to understand the basic parts of speech – verbs, nouns, objects, adjectives, adverbs, articles, and so on. But you don’t have to worry about the structure of a sentence. Just remember that every sentence usually has a subject, a verb and an object. ‘The house is red’: article, subject, verb, object.

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Tutorial 20 - paragraphs: forget school English.

by Jerry Huntsinger

You were taught in school that a proper paragraph had a beginning, a middle and an end. It was a self-contained idea. And that’s true, when you write a school exam.

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Tutorial 21: ‘really, it just doesn’t sound like me’.

by Jerry Huntsinger

Once upon a time I wrote a letter for the president of a nonprofit organisation and I thought it turned out rather well – that is, until she sent me this crisp critique: ‘I really don’t like this letter because it just doesn’t sound like me.’ Sigh. How many times have I heard that? So, dutifully, I called her and asked: ‘What do you sound like?’ She paused.

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Tutorial 22: whatever happened to real stories about real people?

by Jerry Huntsinger

You are probably going to have more successes than failures if you begin most of your letters with an illustration. Your readers are usually in neutral when the letter is being scanned; but once they get involved in the story, then suddenly you have captured their attention.

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