How to determine whether or not you should fire your planned gift marketing vendor

If you’re concerned that you might be getting marketing advice from a firm that’s behind the times, ask yourself the following questions: 
Do they use the word “bequest” in their donor communications? That’s the single best way to TURN OFF a prospect.
Do they get giddy about open rates of emails not realizing that they really don’t matter?
Do they hide their email click-thru rates?
Do they encourage you to blast your supporters with “educational” information once a month more or less? By the way, that’s spam! Not nice!
Do they measure each supporter’s engagement online so you can understand who (by name) is interested, why and when?
Do they try to sell you lots of expensive printing?
Do they own printing presses leading you to wonder if they are recommending print (an expensive channel) only because they need to feed their pressroom?
Do they know how to cross-pollinate major gift opportunities with planned giving offers? In other words, does their marketing pay for itself many times over with major gift revenue?

Do they tell you that your website needs to be updated frequently with “information about the latest tax laws” even though most of those tax laws only affect a tiny portion of your target audience?
Do they try to tie you into a year long contract no matter whether the marketing is working or not?
 

Recommendations

>> 5 Questions to Ask Your Planned Giving Marketing Vendor
>> The Fundraising Coach: Relationship Fundraising in the 21st Century
>> Getting Attention: Power of Productive Partnerships
 

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