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 10: Pavlov’s dog and fundraising letters
by Jerry Huntsinger
It was an experiment that the Humane Society might object to these days. A group of psychologists, including Nobel prize-winner Ivan Pavlov, took a dog and put him in a cage, rang a bell and gave him something to eat. Then they fooled the poor animal by ringing the bell, but not giving him anything to eat. So what did he do?
Read moreTutorial 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.
Read moreTutorial 12: Principles of layout
by Jerry Huntsinger
There are four critical principles: space importance, eye movement, right dominance, and horizontal and vertical lines.
Read moreTutorial 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.
Read moreTutorial 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?
Read moreTutorial 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.
Read moreTutorial 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?
Read moreTutorial 17: Write the way you speak – 10 suggestions
by Jerry Huntsinger
Remember, an oral style is not just recording your ordinary speech patterns. It’s much more. To repeat: it’s writing like you talk, if you edited your ordinary speech patterns. Here are some ways to achieve that goal.
Read moreTutorial 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.
Read moreTutorial 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.
Read moreTutorial 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.
Read moreTutorial 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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