The most successful planned giving marketing contains three components:

• Targeting. Or: Know your prospect. Your marketing efforts are more likely to bear fruit if you can tailor your message to a specific audience. For instance, your materials might feature deferred-payment gift annuities or charitable gifts that could help pay for college if your mailing base features people primarily in their thirties and forties. Understanding the typical needs and dreams of your donors and prospects can help you make the message about your organization relevant to their situation.
  
  
• Frequency. Whether you put the message of your mission out there in newsletters, postcards, planned giving e-mails, or a combination of these, a key to success is frequency. Why do companies run the same commercial for their products over and over on television? Because that repetition increases the name recognition and viewers' possibility of buying that product.
  
  The same concept applies to planned giving materials. These are not solicitation pieces—they are educational pieces meant to keep your organization's name in front of donors and prospects. The more often you send these materials, the more likely a prospect is to think of your organization when considering making a charitable gift. These are relationship-building tools and, as with any relationship, keeping in touch helps strengthen the bond.
  
  
• Follow-up. A prospect sends back a response card or e-mail or makes a phone call asking for a response booklet or more information. Think of this as opening the door to a discussion, one that will lead to a relationship (and hopefully a gift). Or you might compile a list of 50 people who have made gifts to your organization or responded to newsletters or e-mails in the past. Call them. Ask them what they thought of your latest offering. What would they like to see changed? The call serves two purposes—1) you gather information that allows you to fine-tune your marketing materials and make them more effective, and 2) you're building your relationship with your prospects and donors.

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