31 Direct Mail Tactics to Drive Revenue and Grow Profits [2024]

I think of direct mail as a nearly limitless marketing channel. I’ve leveraged it in dozens of different ways for brands I’ve run and helped turn around over the years. 

No other preamble here.

Here are 30 direct mail tactics for your brand. Every one has been tested by dozens (or hundreds or thousands) of PostPilot's customers, and they're proven to work:

1) Easy Winbacks: Every brand Drew Sanocki and I have turned around was only reaching ~10% of customers. Is it the same for you? Go check: create an active customer segment in Klaviyo and compare it to your total customer list. Hit the other 90% with direct mail.

2) Converting email subs to customers: Use MailMatch^TM to retarget subs who haven’t bought yet (easy hack: add it to the end of your welcome flow). We’ll automatically match that email address to a mailing address, then trigger a card to go out with a reminder + incentive to order.

3) Holiday promotions: Every holiday, it feels like every brand is bombarding customers and attempting to get their attention. Plus, target audiences become even more competitive on search and social (CPMs & CPCs = 📈). Cut through inbox/SMS chaos and enjoy the virtually fixed cost of postage. 

4) Converting one-and-dones to subscribers: Most customers want to try you out first before committing to a subscription. Brands like Ka’Chava predictably convert one-off new customers to subscribers with direct mail by highlighting the benefits of their subscribe and save programs.

5) Reactivating churned subscribers: Post-churn, customers often unsubscribe emails/SMS. The longer they’re unsubscribed/out of comms, the less likely they are to come back. A postcard with an offer reminding them of benefits can prompt that resubscription, get them back into the fold, and keep them subscribed.

6) Retargeting anonymous site browsers: Retarget those warm leads at their front door with SiteMatch™. Match cold website to current addresses + dynamically fire off retargeting mail if they don’t convert in a specified timeframe. No opt-in required.

7) Converting abandoned carts: Create a Klaviyo segment of subscribers who have placed no orders all-time and completed your abandoned cart email sequence. (Remember, we give email a chance to work first before pulling out the big guns.) Then, MailMatch comes in and works its magic. 

8) Product launches: Email & SMS are necessary components of a launch, but there’s only one way to reach EVERYONE. (It rhymes with "shmirect shmail.")

*Bonus direct mail tactic*: Holidays can be a great time to do a product launch. Instead of using massive discounts to grab attention, you can use the newness factor. Jones Road Beauty did this brilliantly last BFCM with mini miracle balms and exclusive kits – and it crushed.

9) Cardalogs^TM (a catalog alternative): There’s a lot to love about catalogs. But if you don’t have a lot of products, are newer to the DM game, or just looking to add some mailer diversity, we invented trifold Cardalogs (6 panels) to give a lot more space than a postcard at the same flexibility and production speed.

10) AI Lookalike Prospecting: We’ve been building the most robust dataset of prospective US consumers, combined with the most advanced AI models ever created for programmatic direct mail. Thousands of attributes. Target new customers like your current best ones. Better targeting -> better results.

11) Boost retail velocity: A major pain point for brands selling retail: keeping retail partners happy by maintaining sales velocity. So, we created ShopDrops. Lookalike models that factor in IRL retail buying behavior -> geotarget those customers -> send them offers to nearby stores (Target, Kroger, Walmart, etc.). 

12) Quiz follow-ups: A neat trick for brands who use a quiz for lead gen and to help customers find the right product for them: if they don’t buy within a couple days, trigger a personalized card based on their answers. This worked like a charm for a cosmetics brand suggesting makeup by skin type. 

13) Automating handwritten cards: How often do you receive a personalized note card in the mail? Our army of robots hold real pens and write with the nuance of human handwriting. Trigger cards automatically and on demand, writing out individually personalized notes for any reason. Create an unforgettable customer experience for under $2.

14) Retaining your whales: Your whales drive the most $, and you should treat them accordingly. A recent study shows sending a thank you note leads to 2X higher LTV. Set up an automated VIP campaign triggered when a customer makes a certain number of purchases or spends a certain cumulative amount with your brand. 

15) Automating birthday cards: Personalized birthday cards + offers to your best customers? Without even knowing their birthday? Yep. PostPilot can do that. We’re seeing ROIs around 10x from these.

16) Enhancing loyalty programs: They’re about more than points; they’re about making customers feel special (why we integrate with LoyaltyLion + Inveterate). Trigger personalized postcards or handwritten cards when a customer has hit a certain tier or remind them if they have rewards waiting to be redeemed.

17) 1:1 personalized campaigns: We can print each recipient's name dynamically on their card, which leads to significantly higher engagement and conversion rates. Combine that with offers based on their behavior (e.g., last product purchased, when they purchased last, etc.). More targeted offers = higher ROI. 

18) Reaching email unsubscribers: Mailboxes don’t have an unsubscribe button (of course we respect customers who ask not to be sent mail + make it easy to permanently opt someone out), and occasionally sending offers to those who’ve churned + unsubscribed may affordably drive a long-lost customer to purchase. 

19) Using LifeMatch™ to target life milestones: LifeMatch™ leverages our proprietary data to target customers based on major life changes. Get your offer in front of them when they need you most.

20) Targeting movers or home buyers: LifeMatch, pt. 2. A new home is like a blank canvas. Whether you just relocated or purchased a house, movers present great opportunities for marketers. Hitting customers with well-timed offers when they’re as primed to purchase as they will ever be… That means a strong ROI for you.

21) Catalogs, by PostPilot: The original direct mail tactic. They’ve worked for 100+ years, and they still work today. But many brands don’t launch them—6-fig minimums, 6-mo lead times, hard to track, harder to create. So we rethought them, with the Modern Catalog:

• Significantly lower minimum quantities
• Launch in weeks, not months.
• Done-for-you design
• Real-time ROI tracking in a dashboard
• Powered by the best prospecting audience data 

22) Engineering 2nd purchases: Many brands aren’t profitable on their first order. (Kudos to you if you are – not an easy feat.) If 1x buyers haven’t converted from your post-purchase email flow, try a postcard. You can even customize it based on what category they purchased from originally. 

23) Cross-selling: The perfect time to educate customers about the rest of your catalog: after their first purchase. The best brands do this to great effect. Hexclad uses a Cardalog to introduce all the amazing accessories they offer beyond their core products. 

24) Swapping audiences with similar brands: Ever wished you could partner with another brand with the same target audience to prospect each other's customers? Now you can: DropSwaps. You’re friendly with other brands in your category + looking for new customers? We’ll facilitate it. No customer data ever exchanged.

25) Customer reactivation: You have your retention, your winbacks, but what about those long-lost customers? When Drew and I acquired a turnaround, the brands often had years (or decades) of customers. Most were dormant. Yet we found it was possible to “wake them up” with mail. You can, too. For the cost of a postcard. 

26) Keepsake items: Direct mail already has an exponentially longer lifespan that digital ads or emails (~17 days vs. seconds). Create something that recipients want to hold onto and use even longer? A workout calendar, shoe size charts for kids, the possibilities are limitless. They create lasting reminders of your brand in the home.

27) ANY triggered events: If you can do it in Klaviyo or Sendlane, you can replicate it with mail to boost performance. Anything. Leaving a review. Referring a friend. Redeeming rewards. Signing up for a loyalty program. Significantly boosts the eyeballs on your efforts.

28) Targeting unengaged subs: We’ve touched on the churned subs, but there are probably thousands (even millions) of people on your email list who are less engaged and not seeing/opening anything. It could be 80-90% of your whole list. Mail can slide in to reach the rest. 

29) Dropping postcards into existing email flows: Already built out a killer sequence in Klaviyo, complete with beautifully branched flows of multiple personalized touch points? Tack on direct mail at the end of any flow. That's what we call a "tacktic." 

30) Jump into Shared Mail: Begone, coupon books & envelopes. Our beautiful, hyper-targeted shared mailers provide superior pricing, presentation, and performance. Prospecting never looked better. Or more affordable. Get into homes for only $0.10/send. Betcha haven't seen acquisition prices like that since Facebook circa 2008.

31) Scale with mail: On retention: if you get a 10X ROI targeting previous customers who haven’t been back in 6 months, keep going back further and further until it’s no longer profitable. You’ll be surprised how far back you can go. 

• On acquisition: if you get a 3X on lookalike prospecting, keep going until the next best cohort is no longer profitable. Sometimes even sending to an audience again helps convert more of them. 
• Your goal should be to rapidly add an extra 5-10% of total revenue via direct mail – though there are also plenty of examples of brands using catalogs as their primary marketing channel.

Direct your direct mail questions to us.

Places to start:

• Learn more about PostPilot
• Check out some direct mail examples designed by our superstar in-house design team.
• Read one of our direct mail case studies

Or, if you're just ready to chat with us, head over here.