Direct mail: not dead, doesn't want to go on the cart

They like to say direct mail is dying. They carry its not-so-limp form to the bring-out-your-dead guy, who's not sure he should take it. Direct mail protests the whole way out.

Not so fast. Direct Mail Beats Predictions, Study Finds. The study, reported in the Prospecting blog, found that as people age into direct-mail responsive life stages, the show behavior similar to previous generations at those same ages:

... older generations are being replaced as direct-mail givers by baby-boomers.... The generation of the donor doesn't matter nearly as much as whether or not they have the time and the discretionary income to respond to direct-mail solicitations.

Your results may vary. But there's an important point here: direct mail is not dead. It's not even dying. It's changing. In some cases, it's not changing all that much, while in others the change is radical.

So keep your eyes open. Watch your results. Talk to your list brokers and other experts. Make your decisions on facts that relate directly to your program, not on blanket assertions that direct mail is dying -- or that direct mail is charging along unchanged.

Technorati Tags: fundraising, boomers, direct mail

Comments

[Ted Grigg]

Yes. Direct mail is still growing and dwarfs online budgets across the board.

Why? Because we are in love with what we know? Hardly.

It is growing because it works! In fact, I believe mail's growth and persuasive power continues to grow as spam proliferates.

Email's low cost to entry and easy access reflect both its strength and weakness as well as some forms of online marketing.

Any huckster can send millions of emails in a few minutes. Direct mail's high cost of entry requires more planning, forethought and cost. This tends to attract a more serious advertiser and filter out the fly-by-nighters. And consumers know this well.

I use email extensively in upgrading customers and converting leads to sales. It is powerful medium in the areas of retention and upsell. This is "permission" email. A different animal from acquisition.

The name of the game is to be media agnostic. But many "new age" online practitioners have yet to learn this important lesson.