Effective Execution of Physical Mail Campaigns

Email gets deleted or vectored to a subfolder. Ads get scrolled past. But that postcard? It's sitting on your kitchen counter for weeks. I've got PostPilot postcards scattered across my desk right now (occupational hazard), but here's what's fascinating: every time I walk through my kitchen, I'm subconsciously processing whatever brands are magneted to my fridge. This isn't just anecdotal feel-good marketing BS. We can actually measure this "lingering presence" effect. The cleanest way to prove direct mail's incremental value? Holdout testing. Take your audience of lapsed buyers (say, customers who haven't purchased in 90 days). Send mail to 80% of them, hold back 20% as a control group. Both groups see your: • Meta ads • Email campaigns • Google ads • TikTok content • Superbowl ad • Whatever other channels you're running The ONLY difference is the mail piece. It’s the fricking gold standard of attribution. When the mail group outperforms the control group (which happens consistently), you can definitively attribute that lift to direct mail's unique staying power. Unlike digital touchpoints that disappear the moment you scroll past them, physical mail creates persistent brand exposure in customers' daily environments. Brands like Vuori, Allbirds, and Glossier have figured this out, they're not just competing for momentary attention in feeds, they're establishing physical presence in homes. The math consistently shows: customers who receive both digital AND physical touchpoints have higher lifetime values than those reached through digital alone. Are you testing this "lingering presence" effect in your own marketing mix?

With tariffs squeezing margins, it's never been more important to find low cost customer acquisition. Yet most brands are sitting on a gold mine and don't even realize it. Look at your Shopify dashboard. Count how many customers you've served over the years. Tens/hundreds of thousands? Millions? Now check Klaviyo. What percentage of of those customers opened an email in the last 30 days? 10%? Less? What happened to the other 90%? They didn't die. They don't hate your brand. They're just... unreachable. - Unsubscribed or unengaged from email - Never opted into SMS or ignoring it - Overwhelmed by digital noise - Changed email addresses - Filtered to spam/promotions While you're spending a fortune chasing strangers on Facebook, there's GOLD in your database – customers who loved you once and will again. Check the data from a recent client campaign. (LOD = Last Order Date.) Reacquiring customers 2-4 years old for <$40. When digital channels fail, physical mail delivers. Why? Because: - 90% of your customer base is unreachable via email (they unsubscribed, never subscribed, or just don't open) - Digital ads have the half-life of a fruit fly in consumer memory Meanwhile, direct mail: - Gets 90%+ open rates (literally impossible to ignore) - Creates a tangible touchpoint that sits on a counter for 17+ days - Works on customers who explicitly unsubscribed or are unengaged - Has fixed costs that don't surge during competitive periods - Delivers consistently high ROI Start mining for gold: 1. Target customers who purchased 6-12 months ago 2. Work backward: Test cohorts from 1-2 years, then 2-4 years 3. Automate everything: Set up triggered flows just like email While your competitors chase increasingly expensive strangers, you'll be reactivating customers at a fraction of the cost.