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The Great Debate: Direct Mail vs. Online Acquisition

July 2007 By Karen Taggart
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To help your organization determine the proper blend, consider your membership acquisition goals. Are you looking to maximize your upfront income? Break out into new markets? Develop future audiences? Increase retention? Offset increased postage costs?

The challenge for each organization is to create a strategy that best reaches its membership goals. This means constantly testing the most effective use of online leads while continuing to utilize the known benefits of traditional direct-mail campaigns.

Karen Taggart is director of nonprofit services at Care2, where she works with nonprofits to strategize about online/integrated marketing campaigns. Reach her at karen@earth.care2.com
 

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FROM THE BOOKSTORE

(PDF Download) Direct mail, email, mobile, social media, video, search ... the marketing landscape can either be a minefield where mistakes can kill campaigns, or a perfectly integrated mix of channels that maximizes the reach of the message and gives a nonprofit the best chance to capture more donor dollars. <b>In <i>"The Art & Science of Multichannel Fundraising" </i> from DirectMarketingIQ, the roadmap to that "perfectly integrated mix" is thoroughly laid out in over 130 pages -- <u>it's specifically created (and priced) for nonprofits</u>. </b> First, 9 chapters from leading fundraisers give you the latest best practices in multichannel fundraising, including how to: • Choose the right channels for your campaign • Develop creative that works across multiple channels • Revitalize the direct mail component of your multichannel mix • Make sure email plays its increasingly important role perfectly • Seamlessly integrate mobile marketing into the fundraising campaign • Boost your online strategy with social media • Create a multichannel donor renewal campaign • Figure out that you're doing right — via testing and results measurement • Use all the pieces of the multichannel puzzle Second, in 8 robust case studies, find out the secrets behind multichannel fundraising campaigns that worked. About DirectMarketingIQ The Research Division of the Target Marketing Group, DirectMarketingIQ (www.directmarketingiq.com) is the marketers’ go-to resource. Publishing books, special reports, case studies and how-to-guides, it opens up a new world to those who seek more information, more ideas and more success stories in order to boost their own marketing efforts. DirectMarketingIQ has unparalleled access to direct marketing data – including the world’s most complete library of direct mail as well as a massive library of promotional emails across hundreds of categories – and producly produces content from the most experienced editors and practitioners in the industry. <b>Note: You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to read , The Art & Science of Multichannel Fundraising which is in PDF format.</b> The Art & Science of Multichannel Fundraising

(PDF Download) Direct mail, email, mobile, social media, video, search ... the marketing landscape can either be a minefield where mistakes can kill campaigns, or a perfectly integrated mix of channels that maximizes the reach of the message and gives a nonprofit the best chance to capture more donor dollars....

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Your everything-you-need-to-know guide to personalized URLs, including: <b>Best Practices </b> on why they work, campaign strategy, multichannel creative, analytics, and <b>10 Case Studies</b> PURLs for Profit

Your everything-you-need-to-know guide to personalized URLs, including: Best Practices on why they work, campaign strategy, multichannel creative, analytics, and 10 Case Studies...

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COMMENTS

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Most Recent Comments:
Richard Fox - Posted on November 29, 2007
I have heard very little about the cost of moving TOWARDS online fundraising and incorporating it into the overall online fundraising cost.

Specifically, the cost of acquiring and making ready the email lists (mostly data entry work) and considering you will reach a point after a while where you have the emails for 30-40-50% of your donors... and not all donors even have emails or computers...what is the cost of doing BOTH email mailings AND direct mail to those without email addresses. Surely there is an extra cost to managing who get what mailing?

Richard
Carolyn Goodman - Posted on July 17, 2007
With the proliferation of SPAM, email open rates are continuing to decline. In our experience, direct mail, when executed against the right targeted list, will always perform. The challenge is timing and message. How often is too often to contact your donor file? Examine the strategic message that inspired them to respond in the first place. Spend more time in analytics, customer segmentation and thoughtful strategic/ creative development and response rates should hold steady or increase. Think outside the box and try fresh approaches. Our campaign for KCSM-TV and KCSM-FM exceeded all previously held numbers and we sent less mail, spent less and created a campaign that had lots of legs for years to come.
Click here to view archived comments...
Archived Comments:
Richard Fox - Posted on November 29, 2007
I have heard very little about the cost of moving TOWARDS online fundraising and incorporating it into the overall online fundraising cost.

Specifically, the cost of acquiring and making ready the email lists (mostly data entry work) and considering you will reach a point after a while where you have the emails for 30-40-50% of your donors... and not all donors even have emails or computers...what is the cost of doing BOTH email mailings AND direct mail to those without email addresses. Surely there is an extra cost to managing who get what mailing?

Richard
Carolyn Goodman - Posted on July 17, 2007
With the proliferation of SPAM, email open rates are continuing to decline. In our experience, direct mail, when executed against the right targeted list, will always perform. The challenge is timing and message. How often is too often to contact your donor file? Examine the strategic message that inspired them to respond in the first place. Spend more time in analytics, customer segmentation and thoughtful strategic/ creative development and response rates should hold steady or increase. Think outside the box and try fresh approaches. Our campaign for KCSM-TV and KCSM-FM exceeded all previously held numbers and we sent less mail, spent less and created a campaign that had lots of legs for years to come.