too personal?

OK... I admit, the last post was a little cheeky...
(For those of you who know my husband, Gareth, that line was dedicated to him!)
Chris, your questions are great.. and each of us grapples with creating communication that appeals to those who support and partner with us.
At risk of being reductive, let me throw out some general guidelines for personalization and managing your data. Remember, these are generalizations -- effectiveness in marketing comes from understanding the foundational marketing principles and then using them creatively. The sage marketer blatantly borrows from others.
So here's some principles to remember:
1. If your data base consists of 10,000 names or less, segmentation will not give you the lift that warrants the cost. WARNING: don't confuse segmentation with personalization. Personalization will lift results.
2. Mail deep. About 3-5 years ago the wisdom of marketing encouraged lapsing donors at 18 months to avoid waste in mailing. While segmenting lapsed and dormant and treating them differently is a good practise, if you are small charity, be very careful about lapsing early. Our experience teaches us that donors often are still committed to organizations even if they only give once every two years. We encourage organizations to mail deep on a regular basis -- we would consider mailing to everyone who has given in the past 5 years at least 4 times a year. WARNING: mailing deep will reduce your percent response. But it will also increase your overall revenue and reduce your dormant file -- we think mailing deep is worth it -- especially if you are a young or small charity. Larger charities will benefit by smart segmentation.
3. Interests of your donor are directly proportional to their response. We often hear charities struggle to understand where their donor's interests lie. But it's not all that complicated. The answer is in your data base. Donors are most interested in the appeals they respond to. WARNING: focus groups are interesting. But take care in analyzing the results and comparing them to actual response. People regularly say they do things that they don't (like buy environmentally friendly products even if they cost more). Every focus group we have been a part of has told us that they would give more if they were mailed less. Yet every organization that we have worked with has raised more by mailing more.... go figure.
4. Software is only as good as the person using it. There is a great gap in understanding what a data base can do... and I'm not going to get into it here because it's complex. But let me say this. Ask other organizations what they use and how they like it. Train your team and if your staff changes, train the new staff. Be wary of automated programs that "do it all for you." This is fodder for another blog, but data is the horrific monster haunting almost everyone we know. The potential for information through data is infinite -- actually understanding, accessing and executing effective campaigns with this data???? A rare and exciting event. WARNING: it's old, tedious and over stated but here goes.... "garbage in, garbage out."
5. Get help. While this seems self serving, let me say it anyways... consultants and agencies can help you. I have been on both sides of the fence and they both have their advantages. So let me try to teeter on the fence a bit. Consultants and agencies that understand you, partner with you, listen to you, have a heart for your work bring a more objective perspective and are not burdened by your organizational structures. Sometimes the agency can see things that you have buried. Agencies and consultants also have the privilege of seeing many different organizations' work and spread sheets. That gives markers that organizations cannot access. While we are careful to protect the privacy of our clients, we build our strategies from multiple experiences.
OK -- I'm going to take a breath -- because this is really getting too long to read in a gulp... but there's lots to talk about!