I just got back from a direct response conference in the US, where my focus was on the digital sessions. There was some great stuff shared, particularly from the folks working in the commercial sector.

I’ve talked a lot in these articles about the use of personal data, finding emotional triggers, delving into the real reasons why individuals are enamored with what you do.

So you can imagine how excited and intrigued I was while immersing myself in the world of online intent data. In short, this is where you’re able to connect with people based on their purchase or browsing behaviour on other sites. Intent data helps you find online those people who are already exploring the territory in which you operate.

Michael Kaufman, marketing and business development VP for Vismail, offers six quick tips for making the most of an email campaign.

Branding

Your email should visually match your website. A familiar banner, logo and/or colour scheme will help to confirm to the email recipient that the message is from your organization.

An unsophisticated, no-budget but captivating fraud proves the old fundraising maxim that a compelling story almost always gets the gift. Ashley Anne Kirilow, 23, shaved her head and eyebrows, plucked her eyelashes and lost weight to convince people she was a chemotherapy patient with no surviving family.

Her appeals swung between personal support and contributions to a bogus charity she claimed would support cancer research. She began with friends, but soon reached out to idealistic young people in the greater Toronto area through a rudimentary Facebook page and the region’s music and skateboard networks.

In a year, she managed to raise between $5,000 (her claim) and $20,000 (according to volunteers who worked on her behalf) from hundreds of people, none of whom asked for a tax receipt. She even persuaded a legitimate cancer awareness organization to fly her to Disney World – supposedly the last wish of a terminally ill individual.

On June 30^th the Ontario Superior Court of Justice released a decision in a case that was likely inevitable. In Lemberg v Perris (2010 ONSC 3690), husband and wife participants in an art donation program sued their accountant for promoting the plan to them.

The art donation program in this case was appealed to the Tax Court and then the Federal Court of Appeal in a group of cases known generally as the Klotz cases.

The plan required the donor to buy art in bulk from a seller sourced by the promoter and then donate the artwork to an American university, again in a transaction organized by the promoter. The American recipient of the artwork then issued a donation tax receipt for a value much higher than the purchase price.

To generate more donations from your website, think like Wal-Mart. If you visit a Wal-Mart looking for a spare tire, you don’t walk in the doors looking for a sign that says “Spare Tires.” You look for a sign that says “Automotive.”

You don’t want “Housewares,” “Fashions” or “Electronics.” You walk towards the sign that says “Automotive,” and when you get there, you look for a wall of tires. When you see those, you know you’ve arrived. Shoppers who can’t find what they want in one store leave for another. That’s why retailers spend millions of dollars each year on improving their wayfinding, store layout and signage.

Walk into a Wal-Mart today and you’ll notice two things about the store layout: