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Just a quick musing on a post I read today: I’m thinking we need a crash course in direct mail…

As an industry we tend to laugh at creatives who design for direct mail because they often have trouble staying within the confines of the USPS DMM. What we lose sight of is that these creatives, who help determine which channels to use, will stray away from direct mail if they feel confined with no results to keep them there…

And we, as an industry, do ourselves no favors by playing into the junk mail/snail mail stigma that direct mail often conjures up in today’s flashy world of Apps! Social! Online! If we act the part of the dinosaur, well, then we should know what will happen next…

What we need to remember – and promote - is that organizations (namely nonprofits who are largely dependant on the acquisition of donations to exist) continue to use direct mail — because it works.

Direct mail is different from other traditional pillars of marketing in that, when done correctly, it elicits a response. You can determine the success or failure of a campaign based on who took action. And with near-real-time tracking and integration with other channels, it’s as flexible and responsive as any other online medium.

From the post author:

And that tends to be a big part of our problem with direct mail success (or lack of)… When designing for mail, it’s imperative to remember that you aren’t just dropping a message bomb on the masses, but instead - if using the channel successfully – are fine-tuning your target audience, developing messaging appropriate for that audience and asking them to respond (show up, call, order, meet, donate, maybe even “like”).