There’s a new generation of digitally-savvy companies that integrate direct mail into their cross-channel marketing. Unlike the drab, generic flyers your parents received, these mailers are sleek, eye-catching, and personalized—and they have a high ROI, outstanding response rates, and encourage recipients to convert.

Still, some brands continue to shy away from direct mail because they wrongly believe that it can’t be interactive, automated, or tested. Thanks to digital direct mail, nothing could be further from the truth. Customer engagement platforms such as Braze increasingly integrate with direct mail software such as Inkit, letting you automate mailers that are triggered by customer behavior. The trick is to know when and how to send them. To get you started, let’s take a look at three use cases that will help you get the most from your cross-channel marketing.

1. Cross-Sell and Upsell

There’s a reason brands will include product recommendations in order confirmation emails: It works. Yet it’s more difficult than ever to stand out in someone’s inbox. When you really want to grab their attention, say it with direct mail. A direct mail piece with a convincing call to action and a QR code can bring them back online to see what else you have to offer. By giving recipients QR codes, short URLs or other paths to digital engagement in your direct mailers, you can do everything from forwarding customers to a product page to highlighting a business location on Google Maps, providing extra convenience and making the customer journey more interactive.

What does that look like? Well, a specialty coffee brand could entice a regular buyer to try a newly launched blend with a mailer that creates an idealized morning at home.

Using live-updating customer profiles within the Braze customer engagement platform, you can set up triggers to send personalized mailers from Inkit to reach out to customers who bought a similar product within a certain timeframe. Beyond mailing conditions, Inkit makes it possible for brands to customize the content of their mailers by adding in customizable fields that can be adjusted to reflect each individual recipient.

2. Cart Abandonment

A customer added a product to their cart, but they didn’t buy it. While that’s frustrating, it doesn’t mean you’ve lost a sale as a well-planned cart abandonment strategy may win them back. This can include a push notification that’s triggered immediately, an email follow-up, and a direct mail piece. A personally addressed mailer may just prompt them to make the purchase when nothing else has. You could even sweeten the deal by including a discount code or special offer. That said, it’s wise to be thoughtful about discounts—if that’s your only customer attraction or retention strategy, you run the risk of undermining your overall marketing program or conditioning users to expect constant discounts.

How can this approach play out? Well, an electronics brand could send a clever direct mail postcard to bring someone back online to buy the digital camera they left in their app’s digital shopping cart.

With Braze, marketers can trigger the delivery based on a customer’s lack of response to your previous nudges, while Inkit’s customer postcard builder and variable data printing capabilities creates the right messaging for an effective direct mail follow-up.

3. Location Targeting

Location targeting is an essential tool for marketers looking to drive additional in-store purchases. Once you have a customer’s location, you can send a direct mail piece with the address of their nearest store to drive foot traffic. You can even customize it further by including store specific information or offers.

What does that look like? Well,a clothing store could send a flashy flyer that directs customers to their nearest location to take advantage of a summer sale.

If your brand doesn’t have retail stores, location targeting can help you tailor your messaging based on geographic-specific information. You could adapt the tone of your communications to better fit the targeted area and use wording that is more likely to appeal to folks in that region. For example, you could use weather (hot weather messaging in Houston and cold weather messaging in Minneapolis) or play off local events, landmarks, or cultural markers.

You can segment customers by location using the Braze platform’s location marketing capabilities and trigger customized Inkit postcards with a customer’s nearest store address and/or other local messaging. Since Inkit fully automates remote mail printing and delivery, it’s possible for marketing to run mailing campaigns in any location where mail can be delivered, supporting a region-by-region global engagement strategy.

Supercharge Your Platform with Braze Alloys

When you combine Braze and Inkit, you’ll create a powerful tool that lets you optimize direct mail campaigns throughout the customer lifecycle. But that’s not all. Braze Alloys makes it easy to integrate other technology platforms to design personalized brand experiences at scale.

To learn more about Braze Alloys and how we can build a partnership, visit our content hub. To dig deeper into Inkit and how its mail automation platform can support effective customer engagement, check out this exclusive demo.