Just don't call it junk.

If you own a vehicle, graduated from an institution of higher learning, or were ever a hospital patient, it's likely I've been in your mailbox. Not me, per se, but my carefully crafted words in the form of direct marketing solicitations.

You know, junk mail.

Is it junk? For my first post, this is the deeply philosophical question I'm posing.(Watch out, Nietzsche!)

Okay, I'm not exactly impartial, direct mail being the linchpin of many successful business-to-consumer and affinity fundraising campaigns I've written for. But "junk" denotes something that is entirely without value.

So, let's take a deeper dive into the form and vehicle that is direct mail in order to shed some light on why this much-maligned marketing tool still works.

Whether it's your standard 2-color letter, a full-color brochure, or something in between, the direct mail that lands in your mailbox consists of words and images on paper--paper that you can hold in your hand in this digital age. Arguably, this distinction gives direct mail a permanence. (Even if the mail quickly finds its way to the recycling bin.) What was once lost among the printed newspaper, personal letters, credit card statements, and utility bills, is now sitting pretty--and often solitary--in your mailbox. Call it a comeback!

Everything old is new again. Direct mail as retro? Okay, I might be reaching. However, a client of mine at a university alumni association says she's heard young alumni say there's kitsch value to receiving direct mail from their alma mater. Young alums: that ever-elusive group of future donors that university marketers chase around online might just open snail mail. Why?

No matter if the recipient of direct mail is a Boomer, Gen X-er, or Millennial; no matter if the sender is selling car insurance or soliciting operating funds for a university, health system, or museum; the sender is reaching out. The sender is attempting to make a connection with the recipient--and only the recipient of the direct mail package. This is personal, even if not truly personalized, marketing, as opposed to marketing pushed out online to anyone who might stumble upon it. Sometimes there's already an affinity between direct mail sender and receiver; sometimes not. But there is, at least, the potential for a relationship --or the recipient wouldn't have wound up on the sender's mailing list. (A riveting discussion of mailing lists must wait until another day).

"I've got mail. Real mail I can hold. Someone likes me!" No one said EVER upon receiving direct mail. But, you see what I'm saying.

Am I going to make a case for direct mail as high art? No. Can direct mail deliver the recipient something of value? Yes. A message-in-hand; a potential connection; the promise of a relationship, even before the envelope is ripped open.

So, maybe not "junk mail," but something less determinate, less final--at least until we analyze marketing content...next post.