4 reasons direct mail is still going strong

You probably have a board member or other authority confidently telling you that direct mail is a huge waste of money and you should abandon it ASAP.

Not yet. Direct mail isn’t the powerhouse it used to be, but it still works. Here are some of the reasons why, from the Top Nonprofits blog, at Why Donors Love Direct Mail: 4 Key Differentiators:

1. It’s tangible. Even if it’s “junk mail,” it’s still more than pixels on a screen that can be eliminated with a single click. There’s a reason mail gets 10 times or more the response rate of email. And you can increase that tangibility with your design, paper stock, and adding things into the envelope.

2. It feels personal and authentic. An envelope in the mailbox signals a lot more human touch than an email in the inbox. It’s not just visual, but also tactile. It’s part of the human world.

3. It stands out. The fullest mailbox doesn’t begin to compete with a normal email inbox volume of messages. Everyone deletes the large majority of the emails unopened, unseen, not engaged with at all.

4. Recipients trust direct mail. Donors know that in their inbox are messages that will wreck their lives if they open them or deal with them at all. There are plenty of direct mail scams, but they can’t hurt you just by being touched. Research finds that that 76% of consumers trust direct mail.
   

Don’t give up on direct mail just yet!