An Email About Emails

Is direct mail making a comeback in 2023?

August 24th, 2023

An Email About Emails

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💌 Is direct mail making a comeback in 2023?

📲 Examples of brands using direct mail

📦 How to get leverage direct mail

💌 Is direct mail making a comeback in 2023?

As competition for consumer attention on social media and other digital platforms increases, the importance of touch and feel is making a comeback.

What is direct mail marketing?

One of the oldest forms of marketing, direct mail refers to a promotion tactic where prospective customers are sent brand materials in various mailer pieces - yes, we’re talking about postcards, letters, brochures, flyers, and more that you loved collecting as a kid! 💌

Why do we think direct mail is making a comeback?

Brands are losing a record $29 for each new customer acquired - blame all that noise on social media platforms and the new inbox being bombarded with promotional emails every day.

A single click for “Cat Litter” in Google now costs USD 101.52 per click. For this price, you could reach at least 10 customers instead of one!

Actually if you read our last newsletter, you probably know how messaging apps have opened another channel for businesses to reach their audience.

Here’s why we think mailers aren’t dead:

🤯 Helps combat digital overload
The average American is expected to spend 44 years of their life staring at a screen - laptop, TV, smartphones, gaming, et al - for work and for entertainment!

Direct mail helps alleviate from this Zoom fatigue, nudging people to step away from their screens and really focus on what you have to say - distraction free

🚀 Less competition
With digitization kicking in, businesses have moved to using social media, emails, SMS, WhatsApp and all other channels as their primary way of communication.

From 103.5 billion mailers sent in 2007 to only 66.2 billion sent in 2021, customers are receiving less direct mail - if you ask us, that’s an opportunity right there!


🎁 Capitalize on unique discounts
Postal services offer a number of discounts to businesses. Some examples include adding embossing, crinkly paper, holographic paper, scented paper and more.

If you find the right direct mailer, you may also get to leverage technology such as video in print.

But that’s not all.

- More than 70% of Gen X consumers feel mail is more personal than online digital communications and are more likely to read promotional mail than emails. (USPS)
- A survey of more than 500 marketers found almost two-thirds see “good” (59%) ROI from direct mail campaigns. (Marketing Charts)
Two-thirds of Gen X consumers say they have a positive impression of companies that send out relevant marketing mail. (USPS)

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📨 Examples of brands using direct mail

While there are a number of brands using direct mail marketing, here are some that stood out for us 👇🏼

💪 Obvi
The CEO of Obvi, a health and wellness supplements brand shared how they went from $0 to $30M in 30 months with direct mail.

They kept their focus on running win-back campaigns through direct mail. By targeting repeat purchasers that had exceeded 90 days since their last purchase, the brand got a 1052.8% ROI from direct mailers!

🥘 Pure Plates
Pure Plates, a healthy meals subscriptions brand, used direct mail to make their VIP customers feel special. Using automation, they send handwritten cards to those who hit a certain purchase amount threshold.

Direct mail resulted in a 68% response rate, higher AOV and 11x ROI for the brand using this targeted approach.

🐶 Winpro
A brand known for its pet supplements, Winpro sends physical postcards to email opt-ins who haven’t made a purchase yet.

By targeting their new subscribers with a personal and physical touch, Winpro has been actively reducing their customer acquisition costs.

📬 How to get started with direct mail?

Worried direct mail could be an expensive affair?

Here’s a quick playbook you can use👇🏼

😎 Boost brand awareness
Use tools like Mailing Lists or DirectMail to get a free list of customers in a specific demographic, location or based on product purchases.

If you’re using direct mails for brand awareness, you should reach out to a wider audience - but we do recommend starting small.

🎯 Acquire new customers
Similarly, you can also use direct mail to promote your new business, product or collection.

Keep your mailing list optimized still and include a first purchase discount to nudge a desired action from the recipients.

💌 Increase repeat sales
Returning customers spend 33% more than new consumers. Here are two ways to bring them back:

- Target customers who have bought at least twice from your brand with a special loyalty discount on your direct mail. Make it sound like a personalized and exclusive deal!
- Retarget customers who haven’t engaged in the last 60 to 90 days. Run a ‘miss you’ campaign to get their attention back through direct mail promotions.

🤝 Get more referrals
Word of mouth is responsible for 13% of all sales.

Create a list of your loyal customers and reach out to them with your referral program benefits or discounts through direct mail.

You could even send out custom coupon codes for them to share with friends and family!

PS. There is no one way of using direct mail for marketing. But the one thing that remains important, is knowing who your target audience is and keeping your customer list well segmented!

✨ Best practices to keep in mind
👉Always keep your branding consistent
👉Convey only one message per mail
👉Have a clear call to action for customers
👉Focus on your direct mail print (Let it not fade, please)
👉Experiment with reusability (How about bookmarks out of pamphlets!)
👉Personalize, personalize, personalize!
👉Automate direct mail campaigns with tools like IgnitePost and PostPilot
👉Always measure, test and optimize!

🐦 More from the Twitterverse

Think we’re giving direct mail marketing too much importance? We’re not the only ones:

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