Triggered direct mail brings in major results for marketers. In an increasingly digital landscape, personalized and timely postcards provide the personal touch marketers need. Postcard automation can help you make meaningful connections with customers and drive purchases.

From bringing in new leads to converting prospects and fostering loyalty, triggered direct mail may be the secret weapon in your multi-channel marketing strategy. But if you want to maximize ROI with direct mail triggers, you’ll first need to understand how it works.

What is Triggered Direct Mail?

Direct mail garners much higher response rates than digital channels, but it can get expensive as a tangible asset that must be printed and mailed. So, while it may seem like no big deal to send an email to all website visitors, it isn’t practical to send direct mail in that fashion. It is far more cost-effective to send highly targeted direct mail based on consumer behavior data.

To trigger direct mail, set a condition in your CRM or marketing automation platform to kick off a postcard. This is similar to email automation and it is possible when you use Inkit’s direct mail software with one of our integration partners.

You can trigger direct mail even if you’re not using a CRM that integrates with Inkit. You just won’t be able to sit back and automate direct mail in real time. To manually batch and mail campaigns based on behavioral triggers, pull a CSV and import it into Inkit’s campaign builder.

Trigger-based postcard marketing allows brands to create integrated multi-channel marketing strategies, using data collected online to engage customers offline. Read on for five times it pays to trigger direct mail.

5 Direct Mail Triggers You Should Set Up Today

Just because you can trigger direct mail as easily as email doesn’t mean you should in every case. (Check out our post on Iterable’s blog to learn when to send direct mail vs. email.)

Here are a few direct mail triggers that may pay off for your brand:

1. The New Customer Direct Mail Trigger

Direct mail has a more significant emotional impact than email, resulting in a stronger recall up to one week later. This makes it the ideal channel to send thank you notes or even a letter from your company president upon an initial sale.  

2. Shopping Cart Abandonment Postcard Automation Series

When consumers visit your website and leave without completing a purchase, chances are you trigger a series

of emails to entice them to come back. This makes sense, as email automation has been shown to have a major impact at recovering these sales. (Almost 50% of cart abandonment emails are opened!) However, you can and absolutely should add direct mail to your shopping cart abandonment sequence.  

3. Meeting Confirmation Through Direct Mail Trigger

According to a Gallup poll, not only do most Americans read and sort their mail, but they actually look forward to it. When someone books an appointment or even RSVPs for a meeting or webinar, send out a confirmation/reminder postcard to set the agenda and increase chances of attendance. This personal touch can make all the difference.

4. Renewal Reminders via Direct Mail Automation

Meetings aren’t the only events worthy of reminder postcards. When it is time for your customers to renew or re-up, a triggered postcard is a highly effective way to offer an enticing discount on the next purchase.

5. Re-engagement Direct Mail Triggers

You’re going to lose about 25 percent of your email list this year, according to Marketing Sherpa. However, when you lose access to a customer’s inbox, you can still show up in their mailbox. Some of our most successful customers are using Inkit with their CRM to automate postcard re-engagement series. Head over to this post to see what effective re-engagement postcards look like.

How to Create a Triggered Direct Mail Campaign

Do you need help getting started with your triggered direct mail marketing campaigns? Here are a few things to keep in mind as you get going:

• Integrate direct mail triggers with the rest of your marketing strategy to make sure you’re engaging users across channels and achieving the biggest lift (direct mail has boosted online campaigns by over 60%).
• Follow modern postcard design best practices for effective mailers.
• Create your strategy based on your customer profile and purchase data to find the ideal triggers, and remember to split-test your postcards and continue to iterate, as customer behavior is always evolving.