One of my favorite pointless questions is "Is direct mail dead?" I'm glad to find someone else who also thinks it's a dumb question. Ken Burnett says the question is "fatuous and redundant" at Is direct mail finally dead?
Ken's take:
At its heart direct mail fundraising is not about direct mail. It's about one individual writing to another to describe an issue or cause they both care passionately about. If it is to work well, that written communication has to be engaging, compelling, urgent and important. Which means it has to be very well crafted. We may use technology and the postal service to convey our message simultaneously to hundreds of thousands, even millions, of people all at the same time. So what? That's just a technical organisational challenge.
There's some common sense. The truth is, direct mail might be dead, or maybe comatose, for some fundraisers whose pool of donors are younger or otherwise not responsive to mail. But for most, it's not dead -- it's not even particularly sick.
Fundraising is about connecting with people. You find the medium that connects you to the right people. If it works, it's not dead. Asking if direct mail is dead without first knowing a lot of other information is getting it backwards.
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