re: Why sweat over charity direct mail?

David Burrows, TDA — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:32:11 GMT

Be careful, you can't simply put the two stories together and conclude that digital fundraising is lovely and direct mail fundraising is rubbish.

Direct mail is a push media - it interrupts people and asks them to respond. Most digital campaigns are primarily pull media - you have to visit the site and/or opt in to take part. Both have important roles to play in fundraising.

Direct mail remains a much more important channel for charities for recruiting new supporters, for making the ask and getting the money. However, digital is a great channel for receiving response that has been generated by other media, and is a brilliant channel for adding to the donor experience, for thanking people (like the Actionaid example), and involvement (like RBL).

It is because direct mail is so impactful and so good at interupting people that it sometimes irritates. And yes, in the battle for donations some charities are resorting to dubious direct mail tactics like including bribes to guilt-trip people into responding. This is what the IoF is cracking down on. It doesn't mean these techniques don't generate response - quite the opposite. (If you ever see a trade body cracking down on something you can be sure that it works. If it didn't, nobody would do it anyway!)

Also, charity direct mail rarely uses shock tactics and these are not banned by the IoF code. The code has more to say about charities using 'financial guilt' by sending unrequested gifts.

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Topics about Seo » Make good use of 30 mins… — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:44:31 GMT

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re: Will Google tweet people off?

UK Web Hosting — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:01:53 GMT

Hasn't google been tiptoeing around the idea of buying twitter since it was launched? Normally if they want something they take it.

re: Will Google tweet people off?

John Gallen — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:19:01 GMT

It won't happen. For starters it defies all that Twitters - posters and sheep... I mean followers, alike - Brevity !

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re: Why sweat over charity direct mail?

Topics about Seo » Make good use of 30 mins…

re: Will Google tweet people off?

re: Will Google tweet people off?