WE WANTED TO SHOW YOU THIS direct mail appeal, hot off the press for the North Carolina Museum of Art.

The Museum has just celebrated the grand opening of its new West Building. This 127,000-square-foot expansion has created a beautiful new home for the Museum’s world-class permanent collection and is surrounded by exquisite outdoor gardens showcasing large-scale sculpture.

Membership Growth

The grand opening has provided an extraordinary opportunity to grow the Museum’s membership base, both through on-site sales and direct mail acquisition.

We mailed 100,000 appeals in February for the Museum that focused on the Members Preview of the West Building, introduced a new logo and typography designed by Pentagram, offered a new membership designation (Masterpiece), and included other marketing strategies unique to grand opening campaigns.

Prospect names were drawn from the Museum’s lapsed members, in-house database, local exchanges, and the commercial list rental market. The February mailing also included an upgrade appeal where current members were invited to increase their membership support in celebration of the grand opening. E-blasts were sent to all internal names two weeks after the mail date.

The Results

The Museum’s direct mail campaign has generated the best grand opening results we’ve seen in a decade. 2,249 new and upgraded members produced $188,148 in revenue. This represents a 2.43% response rate and $77.46 average gift. Net income has exceeded $121,996 to date.

An additional 50,000 appeals were mailed late last month to coincide with the opening celebration; instead of the Members Preview, we invited prospects to an Open House in June where they can tour the new West Building. The Museum may send a third and final mailing in the fall.