One word can make a difference. When that word is the right pronoun.
An email test reported at MarketingExperiments (Email Optimization: A single word change results in a 90% lift in sign-ups) shows how:
In an email, a call-to-action button featured two different phrases:
Start your free trial vs. Start my free trial
Result: Start my free trial got a 90% lift in sign-ups over Start your free trial.
That's pretty easy money.
Direct mail practitioners have known this little secret for years. That's why reply coupons typically read like this: YES! I care about your cause. Enclosed is my gift of...
It works to put the action copy in the words of the donor. As if she is the one talking -- even though you're the one who wrote it.
If you aren't doing this, test it.
(By the way, one of the surest signs that someone is a fundraising neophyte is that they "fix" action copy so it's in the voice of the organization, not the donor. It's more logical that way, right? Too bad it doesn't work as well.)
