CYSM Hyper-Personalizes 100+ Direct Mail Campaigns

Where does a women’s shapewear and apparel brand go when they need a lift of their own?

CYSM, a family-owned, US-based DTC brand with Colombian roots is on a mission to help women feel more confident without sacrificing comfort.

To reach more potential customers, CYSM relies on the usual suspects; Google & Facebook. And to boost repeat purchases and offset rising CPC & CAC, they also used direct mail.

But using outsourced print-houses for their direct mail program was like running a marathon in scuba gear while blindfolded.  (Picture that for a moment.) No relevancy. No tracking. And it was a slow, tedious process.

The “spray and pray” approach of blasting a single campaign to an entire audience limited effectiveness. And trying to track results manually was a huge pain, not to mention inaccurate.

Meet Wendy Beas, VP of Marketing for CYSM.

Wendy needed a solution to easily launch custom, trackable campaigns that got the right message to the right customer at the right time.

That’s when she turned to PostPilot.

“For us segmentation is key. We tried print services, but it turned into a mess when you wanted to send a specific campaign to a specific kind of customer. With PostPilot, it was easy. ‘These are our VIP customers, send this card. These are first-time buyers, send this card.’ It’s that simple. That enabled us to start testing and tracking a variety of segments to see what worked.”

And that’s exactly what she did.

Postcards are now fully integrated into the CYSM marketing mix, becoming a core channel to drive incremental revenue and retention. Having run over 100 campaigns, they’ve mastered what works.

Their campaigns consistently generate 1000%-1500% ROI (and often more).

In this article, you’ll learn all of the top strategies CYSM uses to drive remarkable results:

• Holiday campaigns
• Special announcements
• Lifecycle/triggered campaigns
• Tips to optimize performance

Let’s break down the different types of campaigns CYSM sends.

One-off campaigns to drive incremental sales

Beat the holiday rush

If you’re a DTC brand, you’re most likely creating promotions around relevant holidays. And you should — holiday events are a great reason to message your customers.

Here’s the problem. Everyone else has the same idea, resulting in overflowing email inboxes and inflated CPCs.

While everyone else is zigging, Wendy zags by adding postcards to the CYSM holiday marketing strategy. No fears of getting banished to the Gmail promotions tab or buried between hundreds of other emails.

Plus, the price of a postcard stays fixed. No competition driving up costs during peak periods.

Check out some of their holiday campaigns below:

Get important messages in your customers hands

CYSM also converts loyal customers into brand ambassadors and keeps existing ambassadors engaged by sending personalized cards.

When a popular product isn’t currently available, CYSM needs to ensure back in stock notifications reach the customers that are eager to buy.

Even the most high-intent emails typically never get seen by the majority of recipients. Adding a postcard notification ensures the message isn’t missed and converts those browsers into buyers.

Next, let’s take a look at automated, or lifecycle campaigns. These campaigns are triggered when a customer meets defined criteria, just like an automated email flow.

Triggered campaigns to put LTV on autopilot

Deliver VIP Treatment

CYSM identifies and acknowledges high value, VIP customers with a special card and discount. This helps keep them loyal.

CYSM also gives their VIPs exclusive early access to sales.  Postcards are a great way to make sure they “save the date.”

Keep customers coming back again (and again)

The #1 priority after acquiring a new customer is to get a second purchase.

Quickly reengage a happy new or existing customer to increase LTV. Plus, with every subsequent order, a customer becomes even more likely to continue making future purchases.

Wendy does this in three different ways based on what they purchased:

More Tips for Campaign Success

Pivot Klaviyo Segments to Postcards

Wendy uses the popular ecommerce ESP Klaviyo almost like a CRM. She creates a variety of customer segments in Klaviyo to easily determine how many customers meet her selected criteria. Then she can build highly relevant messaging for that audience and add that into an automated flow.

With the PostPilot <> Klaviyo integration, it’s a cinch for her to use those same segments to add a postcard campaign to the customer journey. This ensures her message gets through to the customers that aren’t opening the emails, and reinforcing the message to those that are. Tests have shown that customers spend 25% more when combining direct mail with digital marketing.

She describes it this way:

“We first create flows inside of Klaviyo. The great thing is that we can then say ‘If somebody doesn't respond to the abandoned cart flow, send a postcard.’ With PostPilot we can understand where the customer is in their journey, making it easy to send the correct message, at the correct time, to the correct customer. That's the goal of every marketer.”

Reduce Friction and Improve Tracking with QR Codes

CYSM has always used QR codes in their print marketing materials, and postcards are no exception. QR codes make it easy to get customers to the site, automatically apply any discount codes, and add UTM tracking for richer analytics data.

Customers often forget to use the coupon codes in their ads, or find a different one instead. UTM tracking provides additional data to show the efficacy of their print channels. PostPilot also automatically tracks which postcard recipients go on to make a purchase, even if they don’t use a specific coupon code.

Wendy and her team have been thrilled with the results and continue testing new campaigns every month.

Key Takeaways:

• Mix automated campaigns with one-off sends for special events.
• Match your creative and offer to your audience and include personalized elements.
• Test new audience segments and offers. Like with any marketing channel, there’s always room for further optimization.

It’s shaping up to be another great year for CYSM!

We highly recommend PostPilot as a key channel for any ecommerce business. We can segment our audience and send a very relevant message. Plus, with all the digital advertising bombarding our customers these days, we love delivering a more personal touch. Our customers love receiving postcards from our brand. If you haven’t thought about direct mail or think it’s an older technique, check out PostPilot. It’s become an indispensable and highly effective part of our online customer journey.
— Wendy Beas, VP of Marketing, CYSM