Smartideas

Straight talk about major, mid-level and legacy gift fundraising to help you be a better fundraiser

The number one thing to do in order to close a sale.

Shut up! Really. I’ll never forget one of the harshest lessons I ever learned in business. I was 22 years old selling advertising space for… Read More


Real handwriting generates 14% response rate. Wow!

How many times have you received direct mail with your name on it?  How many times has the letter had a signature at the bottom?… Read More


The press release, the bin and the trash can.

The press release, the bin and the trash can. Waaaaaayyyy back… I worked for a newspaper called The Journal.  There was a fax machine that… Read More


UPDATE to: 4 ways to really offend people with your email marketing efforts.

So the super-short post about emails and how they offend people got some people to ask me to elaborate.  So here goes… 1- Offer no… Read More


Increase sales more cost-efficiently- 3 steps to get your data cleaned up.

Everyone knows that marketing and sales is a numbers game.  But I bet your numbers are sloppy because your data is sloppy.   Don’t feel bad. … Read More


Success vs. Achievement (smart philosophy from MarketSmart)

People are mixed up about two very important words- success and achievement. A Thesaurus will tell you that success is achievement and achievement is success…. Read More


The Superbowl, the web, social media and "did it work???"

The Superbowl happened and the results are in. This year more marketers tried to infuse a multi-channel marketing approach into the Superbowl than in any… Read More


4 ways to really offend people with your email marketing efforts.

1- Offer no way to unsubcribe. 2- Make it really difficult to unsubscribe. 3- Try to trick people in one way or another. 4- Send… Read More


Three things you should never do when making a cold call.

Reading time for this entry: Under 3 minutes. 1- Never start off by saying, “Hi.  My name is (insert name the prospect could care less… Read More


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