This month, thousands of marketers have something new in their automation toolbox.
Those marketers? They use the email marketing automation platform Drip—which we’re excited to unveil as Inkit’s second integration partner, joining Hubspot as a way to send email and direct mail from the same platform.
Actually, make that the same platform and the very same automation rule or workflow.
If you’re thinking that adding direct mail to your digital strategy just got surprisingly easy—well, we’re inclined to agree.
In fact, once you’ve designed your postcard in Inkit, you can integrate it with Drip in under 2 minutes.
No joke. Here’s how.

How to Integrate Inkit with Your Drip Campaigns

You can make any Drip automation workflow or rule send out an Inkit postcard to your customer or prospect.
First, make sure your postcard is ready inside the Templates section of your Inkit account. Find the postcard you want to add to your Drip campaign and choose Get Drip Link from the menu.

Then, copy the URL that appears.

Now, jump into your Drip account and open up the automation rule or workflow where you’d like to add your postcard. Add a “Send an HTTP post” action and paste the link you copied into the Endpoint URL field. It’ll look something like this:

And you’re done! From now on, whenever someone in your Drip account meets the conditions you set (and has a mailing address on file, of course), they’ll get mail from Inkit at exactly the right moment in their customer journey. Each Inkit template has its own Drip link, so you can even build a multi-part Drip campaign with several different perfectly timed postcards.

3 Direct Mail Drip Campaigns to Try

If you’re like most marketers we know, you’re already brainstorming ways to use this integration. Here are a few more ideas to add to the mix:

1. Reward subscribers with a discount

Here’s something that happens to me. I’ll order food online, and then remember moments later that I probably have a coupon code from somebody somewhere in my inbox. Sure, I placed my order online, but when I made the decision to order delivery I wasn’t looking at my email—I was staring into my fridge.
You want to be in front of your customers at crucial decision points, and direct mail can put you in the right spot.
You might decide to create a Drip rule like this:

When a customer’s address field is updated in Drip, send them a postcard from Inkit.

… and get customers in the habit of watching for your special offers by mail.
Or you might tie postcards to specific Drip campaigns, like this:

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In this workflow, when someone subscribes to get a “$10 free for new customers” offer, they’ll get their discount code via email and a followup offer via Inkit mail.

2. Send reminders

Some people need an extra nudge to do what they intended, whether it’s updating their account or showing up at an event. With Inkit’s Drip integration, you can send reminders via mail if someone’s not responding.
For instance, here’s a workflow that starts when someone signs up for an Eventbrite event, checks to make sure they’ve clicked a confirmation link, and sends out a reminder postcard if they haven’t:

Note: It typically takes 4–6 days for your postcard to reach your customer’s mailbox once Inkit sends it, so factor that into any delays you add to your Drip workflows.
Drip’s workflow delays and decision points make it really easy to fine-tune who’s getting your reminder and re-engagement postcards. You can even automatically create a segment of email contacts who’ve stopped opening your emails and trigger an Inkit campaign to revive their interest.

3. Show customers how much you care

There’s something about something you can hold in your hand. It just feels more special than an email, doesn’t it?
Inkit’s Drip integration facilitates those warm fuzzy feelings by sending hyper-targeted postcards. You could…

• Use time delays to reward customers for sticking with you for a certain number of months (perfect for personal-improvement-based businesses like fitness studios)
• Use Drip’s lifetime value tracking option to mail something special to big spenders
• Send postcards reflecting the content contacts have engaged with on your site (which you can track in Drip)

… and a lot more.
Drip is a powerful automation platform, and these suggestions only scratch the surface of what you can do when you weave direct mail into your Drip campaigns. My recommendation: jump in and start building a digitally integrated direct mail campaign to see what’s possible for your business.
Is there another automation platform you’d like to see Inkit integrate with? Tell us in the comments, and be sure to follow us on Facebook to get updates before anyone else.