The Crisis of Content – 1

Direct mail is a cheesy form of communications.

The product of decades of painstaking testing of everything from typeface to envelope color, direct mail is about almost everything but the message. DM gurus consider the words of a direct mail letter to be among the least important elements. Much more important are the list and the envelope size and the guilt-inducing array of little “up front” mailing labels and other tchotchkes.

The wording of most direct mail pieces make even the language-challenged cringe. Everything is an emergency. Sentences start with clichéd clauses like “You see,” and “Frankly.”

It’s a cynical business – and it’s really effective, which is why it’s not going away any time soon. Cheesy sells.

But it’s a bad model for Internet communications.

Internet fundraising is still in its infancy, and it is suffering from an identity crisis. Are email appeals destined to become electronic direct mail pieces, with stilted language and offers of crap you don’t need? Or is there a more authentic path? And will authentic raise money?

The dirty little secret the direct mail folks won’t tell is that nothing works anymore like it used to. Response rates are falling. People are renewing less and less. Baby boomers are especially fickle and prone to charity-hopping.

I submit that we have yet to arrive at a common understanding of how the Internet really fits into the philanthropy equation. There is certainly no reliable stable of best practices – it’s all still anecdotal.

But here’s one thing I suspect – that it isn’t going to end up being digital direct mail.