Direct mail: news of its death may be premature

Oh my. Not again.

This time it's The Chronicle of Philanthropy's Give & Take blog, asking, Is Direct Mail Dead?.

Seems everyone is ready to hold Direct Mail's funeral. But let's get real: Direct Mail is not dead! It's not even terribly sick. (It may have a bad cold, achy joints, and a little trouble seeing -- but that's not terminal.)

There's no question that direct mail faces profound changes, but it's still the biggest fundraising medium around. By a long shot. But ...

Online is coming up behind it. Fast. Nearly every nonprofit fundraiser is now raising meaningful amounts of money online. Even if they aren't trying very hard.

So you need to be thinking ahead. As a response medium, direct mail is losing ground to online. That change is likely to accelerate in the coming years. If you aren't getting good at raising money online now, you may find yourself suddenly in a world of hurt in the not-too-distant future.

But even in the most online-centric future possible, there will still be a role for direct mail.

Rather than talk about Direct Mail like it's already deader than a doornail, we're better off dreaming about how we can add to the ways we motivate donors. Experiment, innovate, test.

As usual, a more constructive look at the issue comes from Seth Godin, at I gave at the office. He's worried about the larger nonprofits -- the ones that have done the most with direct mail:

I despair for most of the top 50 non-profits in the US. These are the big guys, and they're stuck. Unlike the Fortune 100, not known for being cutting edge in themselves, the top charities rarely change... if you're big, you're used to being big and you expect to stay big. That means that generation after generation of staff has been hired to keep doing what's working. Big risks and crazy schemes are certainly frowned upon.

Let's hear it for crazy schemes.

Technorati Tags: direct mail, nptech

Comments

[Ted Grigg]

Here's the big question Jeff.

The productive copywriters in direct marketing and fundraising cut their teeth on direct mail and other traditional media. Does their hard earned knowledge in traditional media make them obsolete now that online has become the media with tremendous expansion opportunity? Are these proven and experienced direct response copywriters in the best position to help nonprofits or companies as a whole maximize the power of online marketing?

If not, then who is?

I think most organizations would say that they would prefer to hire someone with 3-5 years of pure online marketing experience rather than the proven direct response copywriter with 15+ years of experience who has little hands on experience with online marketing. That seems to be the case for direct marketers in all functional areas.

After all, most companies silo online away from the marketing department, so here is little opportunity to gain online experience for many traditional marketers. And the medium's true marketing potential has been around for maybe what, 5 years or so?

I sense that something's wrong with this picture. But that is my perception of the situation. This commonly held belief by hiring managers has created yet another silo in the age of integration.

Your thoughts? If you agree, can that belief be altered with education, or do we just learn to live with it?

Ted Grigg
Direct marketing blogger