Using Direct Mail For Lead Generation

Let’s talk about direct mail. (Yes, I’m a digital marketer about to sing the praises of snail mail.) Direct mail isn’t dead. It’s back—and it’s delivering. We’ve launched several campaigns recently, and the results have been some of the strongest we’ve seen all year. Here’s the key difference between junk mail and growing sales: Intentionality. No generic postcards. No “Current Resident” nonsense. The campaigns that work are laser-focused. And better yet, they’re based on action and intent, not just having a mailbox. I’m talking: ➡️ Clean lists of actual homeowners in the service area with indicators they need you. ➡️ Messaging that solves real problems—seasonal repairs, time-sensitive offers, high-ticket installs that cannot be DIYed ➡️ Simple, scannable CTAs that get your prospect from mailbox to phone call in 10 seconds or less ➡️ A digital follow-up funnel that keeps the brand top of mind When you treat direct mail like a one-touch billboard, it fails. When you treat it like a first handshake in a tight sales pitch, it converts. This strategy is data-backed and proven: According to the ANA, direct mail drives an average of $4.09 in revenue for every $1 spent—more than paid search and online display. Pair it with digital, and conversion rates increase by up to 28%. The hill I’ll die on? Execution trumps tactics. Every. Single. Time.. Direct mail still works—especially when everyone else is zigging digital-only. Are you skeptical about it? I’d love to hear why. #b2bmarketing #directmail

Everyone's wrong about direct mail... including me. I just reviewed performance data from PostPilot (disclosure: I'm an investor) covering millions of postcards sent during BFCM 2024. The data completely breaks what I thought I knew: First shock: Direct mail is actually BETTER at acquiring new customers than retaining them. 4.49x returns on cold audiences vs 3.56x on existing customers (holdout tested). We've been using it backwards this whole time. Second: millennials crushing it. Women 35-44 have a 10.76% conversion rate. So much for the "only boomers read mail" narrative. Third: you can mail people who visited your site but never gave you their email. Just... mail them. Browser abandonment campaigns pulled 2.95x ROAS. No opt-in required. What really got me is people who receive mail spend more everywhere. Not just on the postcard offer. Their AOV jumps 7.4% and they order 8.6% more often across all channels. The mail somehow makes your emails and ads work better too. The vertical breakdown is wild. Baby brands at 11x returns. Food/beverage at 8x. Even the worst performing vertical pulls 1.2x. Link in comments.

How we drove over $50k in new revenue by cold-mailing households for a fashion brand: It’s called a Cardalog and it delivered 3.4x return on advertising spend (ROAS) … Misook came to us wanting to increase its customer base. Because it had regular drops of new clothing, we recommended a Cardalog, a tri-fold mailer which can be mailed at the speed of a postcard but can pack in info and images like a catalogue. We used our AI-powered lookalikes capability to find 20,000 potential new customers based on the demographics of existing buyers: That included high net worth parents with a graduate degree who shop at stores like Nordstrom and buy luxury women’s apparel. Overall, they spent $15,000 on the mailers and made $51,335, for a 3.4x ROAS. The lesson: Cold-mailing works if you know who you’re targeting and use the right medium to showcase your stuff. Direct mail means you’re reaching a new audience if you’ve saturated your digital marketing spend.

We’ve taken lots of demos and signed up for lots of things at &Collar, all in the name of finding creative ways to connect with our customers beyond the usual channels. *We also tell any vendor with whom we are considering onboarding that an ideal situation is we become a case study because things went so swimmingly well.* That’s why we decided to go old-school with a new twist—super realistic handwritten thank-you cards (they passed the lick your finger and smudge the ink test…), powered by our friends at PostPilot, some of the best operators in e-commerce. The thank-yous didn’t have discounts or sales pitches. We were just trying to genuinely thank our VIPs. We’ve used direct mail to hit the rest of the funnel, too: prospecting, retargeting, & retention. The results have been fantastic. - Drove a 4.9x ROI with cold prospecting postcards for men. - Hit a 10x+ ROI with MailMatch retargeting campaigns (send mail to our never-buyers who subbed to our list) - Bring in over 7x ROI with Sunset Winback campaigns for our VIPs (no purchases in 365+ days) - $200k in revenue from a simple “thank you.” Direct mail isn’t just alive—it’s thriving and I’m absolutely a believer. With the right partner (and maybe some handwriting robots), you can make your customers feel valued and drive serious ROI. Huge shoutout to the PostPilot team for making this happen. Take a look at our Case Study (we actually did it!) -> https://lnkd.in/gKeyMrDc