If you’re like most HubSpot users, direct mail automation probably isn’t a priority for you.
What are you waiting for? Have you ever triggered a postcard from HubSpot?
Now is the time to add direct mail to your HubSpot workflows.

Direct mail remains the top direct response channel in the Digital Age, performing 35 times better than email on average. Half of Americans even prefer direct mail over email, according to Epsilon.

Sending postcards from HubSpot has never been easier or more effective. All you have to do to add direct mail automations to HubSpot is set up the Inkit + HubSpot integration.

And when you sync Inkit with HubSpot, you’re not just sending postcards—you’re automating direct mail, which is even more powerful.

First, What is Direct Mail Automation with HubSpot?

Traditionally,  direct mail has been prohibitively expensive and tedious. And, the biggest problem is that the speed-to-market just wasn’t there. This made direct mail an inaccessible outbound marketing strategy for many HubSpot users.
Things are different now.
Inkit modernized direct mail, taking a different angle than traditional printers. We work with  CRMs like HubSpot to automate direct mail, just like email.
If you’re using HubSpot, you probably already know a thing or two about email automation. Flexibility, agility, and triggers are key to a successful email program, and the same is true with direct mail automation.

Direct mail’s average response rate is 4.4% compared to just .12% for email,  according to The Direct Marketing Association.

HubSpot customers can now create or upload postcards using Inkit’s plug-and-play builder, and trigger mail based on events using HubSpot workflows.
This is direct mail automation for HubSpot—all the power of your data-driven digital marketing tools combined with the high response rates of direct mail.

This is direct mail automation for HubSpot—all the power of your data-driven digital marketing tools combined with the high response rates of direct mail.  

Next, What are the Advantages of Sending Postcards Through HubSpot?

If you’re running multi-channel marketing or even just email promotions through HubSpot, you might not be familiar with the advantages of direct mail automation. There are several reasons to consider automating direct mail through HubSpot:  

Integrate Postcard Triggers in HubSpot for Higher Performance Than with Email Alone

Direct mail is the top channel for direct response because it generally gets the best redemption rates. It’s that simple.
You don’t have to bombard your customers with emails. (Consumers already receive an average of 121 emails each day!) Send a postcard through HubSpot to cut through the crowd and win a response. Postcards have an average response rate of 4.25%. And, at Inkit, we’ve seen postcard campaigns net up to 18% redemption rates. (When is the last time you got a response like that from an email campaign?)

Personalize Postcards Through HubSpot for a Strong Response Rate

Just like email and digital ads, postcards work best when they are highly relevant to the consumer. And this means they should be personalized when possible. When you use HubSpot to trigger postcards, you can get your personalized offer right into your customer’s hands quickly. (The vast majority of consumers, especially household decision-makers, open and sort the mail daily).

Trigger Postcards Through HubSpot for Fast Speed-to-Market

The major issue with direct mail has traditionally been extensive lead times. It used to take anywhere from 4-12 weeks to get a campaign in the mail, meaning direct mail marketers simply couldn’t be very responsive to events in the customer lifecycle. Now you can upload your postcards to Inkit and trigger them instantaneously from your HubSpot campaign events.

A/B Test Postcards with HubSpot + Inkit

What makes digital marketing so effective is the ability to test and pivot quickly. With HubSpot direct mail automation, you can do the same thing with postcards. Create your HubSpot postcard test, send your postcards, and let the data feed back into HubSpot so you can iterate. (Click here to learn more about HubSpot postcard A/B tests).

Now you know some of the main advantages of sending postcards through HubSpot, there is only one thing left to share: HubSpot postcard use cases.

At Last: 10 HubSpot Postcard Examples that You Can Automate and Put to Work

Enough with the suspense. Let’s get to the use cases. While the opportunities are limitless, we’ve put together 10 HubSpot postcard use cases that you can add to your HubSpot workflows today:

1. Welcome Postcard: Most HubSpot users already have triggers to send activation emails to new customers. But what step do you have in place for when there is no response? Are you just waiting for new customers to become increasingly disengaged before moving them into a new workflow? We hope not. This is a perfect opportunity for direct mail automation. Add postcard automation to HubSpot that automatically sends a welcome postcard when someone doesn’t respond to your welcome email.  
2. Lead Nurturing Postcard: Personalized direct mail has an innate emotional appeal that can make leads feel more valued than an email alone. Consider where you might add a step in your lead nurturing workflow to kick off a postcard. For example, make sure a lead has seen your offer by following up on phone calls from your sales team with a postcard.
3. Abandoned Cart Postcard: Because there is no minimum batch size when you use Inkit with HubSpot, you can send highly personalized one-off postcards. Each piece of mail is printed on demand and mailed right away. Trigger a cart abandonment postcard from HubSpot when your cart abandonment email fails to elicit a response.
4. Re-engagement Postcard: The most successful postcards we’ve seen at Inkit are parts of re-engagement campaigns. Direct mail is a no-brainer when re-engagement is the goal. If you know someone used to be interested in what you’re selling, and they’ve stopped opening your emails, they might just be suffering from email overload. Trigger a re-engagement postcard once several emails have gone unopened.

Pro tip: Repurpose a successful email promo as a postcard and trigger it from HubSpot in your direct mail re-engagement campaign. This saves you time on the creative side and lets you start with a proven offer.

5. Reactivation Postcard: When a customer cancels membership or subscription, you probably already have a HubSpot trigger set up to send them a reactivation email. If the email doesn’t receive a response, you need to tread carefully not to spam your former customer’s inbox and hurt deliverability. Canceled customers are already close to hitting “unsubscribe.” Set up an automated reactivation postcard trigger instead.

6. Event or Announcement Postcard: Big event coming up? Announcement to make? Trigger a postcard announcement and send it to those who don’t open or respond to your event announcement email.

Pro tip: Take a cue from The North Face and use bold colors and graphics to stand out in the mail pile. Sticking to one CTA is always a good idea when it comes to postcard announcements.

7. Upcoming Purchase Reminder Postcard: Send a reminder postcard to loyal customers to remind them to reorder an item or make an appointment, depending on your business. Because it’s important to keep attracting existing customers back to you, include an incentive with your reminder postcards. Sending tangible mail can make your customers feel appreciated, especially when they get access to exclusive discounts. The postcard below reminds customers that a deli is open for business again after closure, and offers an incentive to make a purchase.

8. Cross-sell Postcard: Do you implement upsell or cross-sell tactics with every online sale? This is another place in your workflow where you can trigger a postcard when your email doesn’t get a response. Consider tweaking the messaging for your postcard. Direct mail has more longevity than email and this can be important with a cross-sell. If you are selling make-up, for example, you might mail a postcard tutorial to help the customer achieve a look using some of the already purchased items.

9. Loyalty Postcard: HubSpot users can trigger postcards to enroll customers in their loyalty programs or to renew interest. One Inkit user recently netted a 60% lift in revenue per customer in response to a loyalty postcard campaign. The brand sent a postcard that reminded customers of their loyalty points and offered a bonus to redeem them. The company had originally run the promo by email before deciding to test it in a postcard format.

10. Birthday Postcard: Sending birthday postcards is a way to boost the already high open rates of direct mail. Wish your customers happy birthday and include a special coupon code that can be redeemed as a gift. If you don’t have data on your customers’ birthdays, you can send a postcard on your business’ birthday. The postcard should mention that it’s your birthday and treat your customers to a discount for their loyalty.

You might have noticed a common theme with the HubSpot postcard use cases above. Many of them call for triggering a postcard in HubSpot when an email fails to elicit a response. This is a budget-friendly HubSpot direct mail strategy that will also help you segment your customers by channel preference: direct mail vs. email.
Are you ready to trigger direct mail from HubSpot? Get started with Inkit’s basic plan today and pay for only the postcards you send.