Direct Mail Campaigns

Let’s talk about direct mail. (Yes, I’m a digital marketer about to sing the praises of snail mail.) Direct mail isn’t dead. It’s back—and it’s delivering. We’ve launched several campaigns recently, and the results have been some of the strongest we’ve seen all year. Here’s the key difference between junk mail and growing sales: Intentionality. No generic postcards. No “Current Resident” nonsense. The campaigns that work are laser-focused. And better yet, they’re based on action and intent, not just having a mailbox. I’m talking: ➡️ Clean lists of actual homeowners in the service area with indicators they need you. ➡️ Messaging that solves real problems—seasonal repairs, time-sensitive offers, high-ticket installs that cannot be DIYed ➡️ Simple, scannable CTAs that get your prospect from mailbox to phone call in 10 seconds or less ➡️ A digital follow-up funnel that keeps the brand top of mind When you treat direct mail like a one-touch billboard, it fails. When you treat it like a first handshake in a tight sales pitch, it converts. This strategy is data-backed and proven: According to the ANA, direct mail drives an average of $4.09 in revenue for every $1 spent—more than paid search and online display. Pair it with digital, and conversion rates increase by up to 28%. The hill I’ll die on? Execution trumps tactics. Every. Single. Time.. Direct mail still works—especially when everyone else is zigging digital-only. Are you skeptical about it? I’d love to hear why. #b2bmarketing #directmail

Everyone's wrong about direct mail... including me. I just reviewed performance data from PostPilot (disclosure: I'm an investor) covering millions of postcards sent during BFCM 2024. The data completely breaks what I thought I knew: First shock: Direct mail is actually BETTER at acquiring new customers than retaining them. 4.49x returns on cold audiences vs 3.56x on existing customers (holdout tested). We've been using it backwards this whole time. Second: millennials crushing it. Women 35-44 have a 10.76% conversion rate. So much for the "only boomers read mail" narrative. Third: you can mail people who visited your site but never gave you their email. Just... mail them. Browser abandonment campaigns pulled 2.95x ROAS. No opt-in required. What really got me is people who receive mail spend more everywhere. Not just on the postcard offer. Their AOV jumps 7.4% and they order 8.6% more often across all channels. The mail somehow makes your emails and ads work better too. The vertical breakdown is wild. Baby brands at 11x returns. Food/beverage at 8x. Even the worst performing vertical pulls 1.2x. Link in comments.

Drawing from 300+ campaigns we’ve run for B2B clients like Shopify over the past 8 years, I wanted to share a few key observations on how Direct Mail is driving results in B2B today. Here are 4 trends we’re seeing: 1) FREQUENCY LOOKS DIFFERENT IN B2B In consumer DM, spacing matters. You usually want ~30-60 days between drops to avoid cannibalization. In B2B, shorter windows often perform better. We’ve seen touch 2 (sent <30 days after touch 1) drive much higher response. Not always -- but enough that we test this with every client. 2) SHARED MAIL FOR B2B IS FINALLY REAL Our standalone B2B clients kept asking if there was a shared mail option to lower CPM. There wasn’t, so we developed one! It’s the only B2B shared mail solution we know of that blends low cost per piece, targeted B2B reach, and the premium branding/design SLM is known for. 3) ENVELOPE + LETTER STILL WORKS, BUT.... Envelope with letter or brochure still wins in many high-consideration B2B categories, it gives space to make the rational case. But in testing, self-mailers and panel formats are gaining ground. Less copy. More visual. Still converts. We’re seeing clients rotate these in as “change-up” formats with strong results, and in some cases have now become their new control versions thanks to their performance. 4) PROGRAMMATIC DIRECT MAIL IS A SECRET WEAPON Trigger-based DM is a perfect fit for B2B sales cycles, allowing you to slot direct mail touchpoints into a CRM lead flow. → Lead hits high-intent page but doesn’t convert → DM shows up 3 days later → You meet a lead at a conference → DM shows up with their name on it next week All powered by CRM integration, fully personalized, no manual work. ~~ B2B direct mail is having a moment. Because when you're targeting a narrow prospect pool, you need channels that can reach the right people consistently and efficiently. And direct mail accomplishes just that. The ultimate goal? Building a channel mix that drives awareness and conversions but also compounds ROI across multiple touches. And what’s exciting now is how fast direct mail is evolving to meet that need…from shared mail formats that lower CPMs to programmatic flows that slot into your CRM. If you want to benchmark your B2B DM program or see examples of what’s working across our hundreds of campaigns- just shoot me a message. Happy to share what we’re seeing.

We mailed phones to 274 people who'd been ignoring us. Actual phones. In boxes. To their offices. These were senior agency buyers who'd ghosted our sales team for six months straight. We knew they bought what we sold. We knew they had budget. They just wouldn't talk to us. So we stopped trying to be smart and started being weird. The phone arrived with a message: "You'll want to take this call. We guarantee it." 77 of them took the call and booked a meeting. That's $2 million from people who wouldn't even respond to "just following up on my last email." I've run dozens of these dimensional mail campaigns. Most fail because people send random crap. Coffee mugs for software companies. Stress balls for consulting firms. Zero connection to what you actually do. We sold mobile advertising solutions. We sent phones. The connection was instant. 28X ROI from admitting that traditional outreach methods weren't working.

Years ago, the late billionaire Charlie Munger asked his head of sales: "Are we lying, cheating, or stealing? I've never seen growth this fast." His head of sales was Chet Holmes. Author of The Ultimate Sales Machine. Chet sold advertising for one of Charlie's magazines. When he started the job, they were struggling: Dead last in market share out of 15 magazines in their space. But Chet had an idea: He learned that out of 2,000 advertisers in their space, 167 of them accounted for 95% of the industry revenue (!) He made a list of those 167 and stopped pursuing the other 1,833 altogether. Cold turkey. His new approach was sending direct mail with physical objects every two weeks, and followed up with a phone call and fax (this was before email). Twice a month like clockwork he'd mail. Twice a month like clockwork he'd call. Twice a month like clockwork he'd fax. Four months later: Zero responses. But he knew he had to break through the noise and refused to give up. The next month, things changed. He landed his first big customer: Xerox. The biggest advertising deal in the company's history. By month six? He landed 28 of the 167. And had doubled advertising revenue. His magazine went from 15 to 1 in market share. He continued to double sales every year for three years. At the end of three years, he acquired all 167 of those accounts. Every. Single. One. In his book, Chet talks about this strategy: "The goal is this approach is to take your ideal buyers from - I've never heard of them, to - What is this company I keep hearing about, to - I do business with them." Here's the modern-day lesson: Your dream accounts don't need a single great cold email. You think sending a few great emails is going to do the trick. Yet here's the reality of your buyers: - Hundreds of emails every day - back to back zoom calls dusk to dawn - cold call after cold call, most of them ignored - Slack's lit up like a Christmas tree by noon They probably never even SAW that email you spent 20 min writing. If you're going to break through the clutter? - make a list of your top accounts - design a long-term series of touches - continue the drum beat for a long time You can't do this with every account. But you certainly can with your top 20%. Lock in and go.

We've built 3200+ outbound campaigns at ColdIQ. Here's how we ideate every single one: 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟭: 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗖𝗣 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗶𝘅 Every client gets one in before we touch anything. We look at: → Industries where they already have traction → Company sizes they typically win → Titles that actually buy (not just influence) If there are multiple segments, we pick the one with the most clarity first. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟮: 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 Simple question: "Who else looks like the people already paying you?" We run Clay enrichments to find patterns. Industry, headcount, region, tech stack. Then we use Ocean.io to build a match list. We're looking for repeatable wins. Not unicorn edge cases. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟯: 𝗟𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗿𝘀 The best campaigns don't just target the right person. They target the right person at the right moment. Triggers we look for: → Fundraising rounds → Headcount growth → New tech adoption (Salesforce, HubSpot, Shopify) → Job openings in key roles → Leadership changes (new VP of Sales, new CRO) Combine triggers with firmographics and the campaign gets tight. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟰: 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗵 Before we build anything, we ask 3 things: → Is there enough volume? (at least 500–1,000 accounts) → Does it align with what the client actually wants to sell? → Have we confirmed the idea with the client? Alignment > Assumptions. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟱: 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝘁𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗽𝘆 Now you have the persona, the trigger, and the data. The last step is writing copy that speaks directly to their situation. Reference the trigger Address the pain it implies.  Then offer something that solves that exact problem. Generic copy talks to everyone. Trigger-based copy talks to one person at the right time. That's the difference between a 2% and a 10% reply rate. Most teams skip ideation and jump straight to copy. That's why most campaigns underperform. The best outbound starts before the first email is written. What else would you add?

Physical still cuts through digital noise. We spend a surprising amount of time hand-building branded boxes of Vermont products. We ship 70–80 of them every month to customers and prospects across the country. Why would a B2B software company invest in direct mail? Because attention is scarce, and trust is earned in moments that feel human. A thoughtful, local, tactile experience starts conversations that email alone won’t. Plus it reinforces what we help our partners do online: build reputation through genuine engagement. It works best when the ask is light, just a thank-you, a clear next step, or maybe a QR code that leads to quick feedback or a short testimonial. And the real power comes from consistency by sending to a focused list, tracking responses like you would any campaign, and following up personally. Local and multi-location businesses live on reviews and word of mouth. A small physical touch could be the spark that drives more digital engagement. Try a physical touchpoint this quarter and measure the lift in response and conversations.

While everyone's chasing digital ads, restaurants are quietly crushing it with direct mail. Here's what the data actually shows: Direct mail delivers 112% ROI and 4.2:1 ROAS for restaurants. Let that sink in. For every dollar spent on direct mail advertising, you're getting back $4.20 in revenue. Compare that to digital advertising, where most restaurants are seeing 1.8:1 ROAS if they're lucky. But here's the kicker: 84% of marketers now agree that direct mail provides the highest ROI of any channel they use. Up from 67% just two years ago. Why are smart restaurant owners doubling down on direct mail? Because when someone gets a beautifully designed menu in their mailbox, they don't scroll past it in 0.3 seconds. They hold it. They look at it. They stick it on their fridge. And when Friday night rolls around and they're deciding where to eat, guess whose menu they're looking at? I've watched this play out across thousands of restaurant campaigns. The ones using direct mail aren't just surviving, they're thriving. Average ROAS of 4.2:1 while their competitors are burning cash on Facebook ads with 1.8:1 ROAS that disappear into the digital noise. The best part? Your customers actually want it. 73% of consumers prefer receiving promotional materials through direct mail over digital channels. So while everyone else is fighting for attention in crowded digital spaces, smart restaurant owners are landing directly in their customers' hands with 2.3x better ROAS. Sometimes the old school approach is the new school advantage.

Raising capital today requires creativity. Here’s how we turned 5,000 mailers into a $300,000 check. We pulled a list of 5,000 addresses in Southeastern Wisconsin, targeting affluent neighborhoods with a high concentration of likely accredited investors. We used a direct mail vendor that specializes in this type of segmentation. We mailed an invite to a local lunch-and-learn. The language focused on education and transparency, not a hard pitch. Here’s what happened: - 17 people attended - Several brought spouses - A handful were interested in investing One was a former military member turned stockbroker turned manufacturing company owner. I stayed in touch with him and invited him to our office to meet our team. He told us he liked the model: - Long-term triple net leases - Tangible assets he understands - Our team’s track record He said: “If every deal I’m in goes to zero—which I don’t think it will—it won’t ruin me. But I trust you guys. And I believe in what you're building.” And committed $300,000. The cost of the campaign was around $5,000. One large check made it ROI-positive. Why it worked: - Hyper-local targeting - Offline strategy in a crowded digital landscape - Face-to-face interaction builds faster trust than any webinar Old-school still works. If you know how to use it.