Direct Mail Exceeding Expectations

Wed, June 18, 2008

Tags: 65+

Here is a great story (thanks Roger G for the lead!) that speaks to the fact that the overall effectiveness of direct mail continues to remain strong. According to a survey released at a fund-raising conference presented by the Greater New York Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, “direct mail is thriving and will probably do well for another 10 years or more.”

Read the following excerpt from the article that I think offers some very important marketing insight for live entertainment marketers:

“Mark Mellman, a pollster for liberal causes in Washington, and Charles Pruitt, a marketing consultant for liberal charitable and political causes, said the results of their most recent survey surprised them. A 1995 survey by Mr. Mellman predicted direct-mail solicitations would receive lower response rates as older generations of donors who were used to relying on the mail died.

Instead, Mr. Mellman said he found in the new survey that response rates have remained about the same, and that older generations are being replaced as direct-mail givers by baby-boomers — people born between 1946 and 1963 — as those Americans enter retirement. It turns out, he said, that the generation of the donor doesn’t matter nearly as much as whether or not they have the time and the discretionary income to respond to direct-mail solicitations.

'Direct mail seems to be a lifecycle phenomenon, it’s more efficacious with older donors,” he said.

Not only are direct-mail campaigns still getting similar response rates, but in both surveys 68 percent of direct-mail respondents were aged 60 and older. The percentage of donors aged 40 to 59 years who responded to direct mail remained the same at 23 percent, Mr. Mellman said. The average age of direct-mail donors has increased slightly, he said, from 65 in 1995 to 68 in the new survey.”

As for younger audiences, the Internet is clearly their medium of choice.  But if this data has any truth to it, this shows that direct mail could remain a channel of choice for targeting the key Broadway demographic (women, 45+) for some time to come.

Read more here.