5 Ways to Use Direct Mail to Dominate Valentine’s Day 2023

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and it’s a major opportunity for ecommerce brands to score some love, AKA sales.

When you’re really trying to woo someone, you don’t just fire off a quick text or email. You want to create an intimate and memorable experience. You want the object of your affections to feel special, like you’ve taken the time to think about them. 

The same principles apply in business. Sending a real, personalized note makes your brand stand out and creates an emotional connection. 

That’s one reason postcards are such a powerful way to create an impression—and drive sales—for Valentine’s Day. With the right strategy, ecommerce brands  can cut through digital clutter, boost sales, and drive profits. 

Some marketers have the outdated impression that direct mail is expensive and time-consuming. Wrong. But direct mail—and specifically postcard marketing—has caught up with modern marketing needs. With the right platform, it can be easy, cost-effective, and highly trackable. 

Here’s why direct mail helps ecommerce brands dominate holiday shopping: 

• It reaches everyone‍

With direct mail, you can contact all the customers and prospects on your list–not just the ones who opted into email or SMS messages. 

• It gets seen 
  ‍These days, customers are inundated with email. Much of it (typically 80%+) will go straight to the promotions tab or trash. Even the email that gets opened may only have a shelf life of seconds. Direct mail can hang around for days–in a good way. 

• It’s predictably priced
  Especially during peak demand periods like the run up to Valentine’s Day, competition for eyeballs can drive search & social CPCs to insane heights. But with direct mail, pricing stays consistent—and is often lower than the cost of a click.
  
  
• It’s tangible
  Direct mail feels more premium and personal than digital channels. Research has shown that unlike interruptive online ads, people actually like receiving physical mail. 

• It works
  Customers pay attention to—and act on—direct mail. According to the Association of National Advertisers, personalized direct mail is the most effective channel for reaching a target audience. The average response rate for direct mail is 9%, compared to just 1% for email. Plus, adding it as a touchpoint can boost the effectiveness of digital marketing campaigns by over 25%. 

PostPilot, the direct mail platform trusted by thousands of DTC brands, has decades of ecommerce experience. Here’s our expert advice for crushing this Valentine’s Day. 

1. Target Last Year's Shoppers

This is a prime time to reach out to customers who have ordered in the past—particularly if they purchased last Valentine’s Day but haven’t bought anything since.

That’s what Adinas Jewels did during the 2022 Valentine’s season—and saw ROAS from 8X to more than 20X.

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2. Prospect Your Email List

Next, hit the fence-sitters—people who are interested enough in your brand to be on your email list, but haven’t made a purchase yet. Perhaps they were eyeing a gift for a special someone and are hesitating to pull the trigger. Put a super-romantic offer in front of them to get them to finally convert. 

No physical addresses? No problem. PostPilot’s proprietary MailMatch ™️ feature can match 60-70% of street addresses from email addresses. 

3. Automate an Abandoned Cart Campaign

Combat abandoned cart syndrome by syncing email and direct mail for a powerful one-two punch. 

When a customer leaves their card, send an abandoned cart email right away. If your customer doesn’t bite, follow up with a postcard—sometimes an IRL nudge is all the love they need. (This is easy to automate with PostPilot’s native Shopify and Klaviyo integrations.)

4. Get Creative with Your Promotions

A smart offer is one of the essentials of a successful postcard campaign. That goes double for holidays—customers have been trained to expect attention-getting deals. 

That doesn’t necessarily mean you need to provide a big discount—different brands have different needs and priorities. Salt & Lace offered a chance to win a free gift along with targeted discounts on gift kits.

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5. Use Direct Mail Best Practices

Just like with other marketing channels, postcard campaigns are most effective when done right. Keep these guidelines in mind: 

Dial In the Creative

If your brand is like many others, you’ve never created a direct-mail campaign. So how do you design an effective postcard? Think of it as a cross between a Facebook ad and an email. 

As with Facebook, a powerful postcard has a strong visual and a single call to action. Multiple calls to action can be distracting and even confuse customers. 

Leverage Personalization

Postcards can also feature 1-to-1 personalization, just like email. So make sure to include your customer’s name, to increase conversion rates and build a personal relationship.

Include a QR Code

You want your customers to be able to act as soon as they receive one of your postcards. With a QR code, they can be on your site with a snap of a smartphone. You can also use custom URLs to automatically apply coupons, send customers to special landing pages, and help with attribution. 

Ready to fall in love with postcard marketing? Let’s make a date to see how PostPilot can supercharge your brand’s growth.