How Do I Integrate Direct Mail into a Marketing Strategy?

Digital channels are tapped out. CACs are rising. Meta is unpredictable and insanely expensive over the holidays. 

And email ORs? Yikes. 

It’s why the most successful DTC (and omnichannel) brands are plugging direct mail into their marketing stack.

And it’s why others are bringing it back. Brands like J.Crew reintroduced their catalog programs after major downturns. 

Because catalogs, and direct mail in general, really works.

Not as a retro throwback. As a high-performing, full-funnel channel that actually moves the needle.

Here’s how to do it right.

1. Start With Your Funnel Goals

Don’t start with a postcard. Start with the problem.

Where are you bleeding revenue? What can be improved?

• (Acquisition) Need to diversify off Meta/Google? Prospect an entire new fleet o’ customers based on your best customers with a lookalike audience.
• (Acquisition) Need to drum up more retail traffic? Send mailers to a geo-targeted lookalike audience to drive them into your retail locations (mass or owned retail).
• (Retargeting) Email list not converting? MailMatch™ lets you target up to 70% of your non-buyers on your list with direct mail. Even if they never gave you their mailing address.
• (Retargeting) Want to juice your abandoned cart flow(s)? Drop a postcard at the end of them.
• (Retargeting) Driving a lot of traffic and not enough email signups? Use mail to convert anonymous website visitors (using a tracking pixel and AI).
• (Retention) First-time buyers ghosting you? Trigger a replenishment or cross-sell postcard 15–30 days post-purchase to keep the relationship alive.
• (Retention) Churned VIPs? Send a handwritten card that makes them feel seen (because no one’s handwriting anything in 2025).
• (Retention) Need another weapon against subscriber churn? Send anti-churn messages through the mail to reactive previous subscribers.

Whew. 

TLDR: Pinpoint where your funnel breaks down. Then use direct mail to patch it.

2. Factor in Behavior

Direct mail shouldn’t live in a silo. It should work like your email flows: automated, timely, and based on customer behavior.

Examples:

• Cart abandonment? Run your abandoned cart flows. No conversion? Drop a postcard three days later.
• Checkout abandonment? Same thing. Run your abandoned checkout flow (if you have a distinct one vs. abandoned cart). If there’s no conversion, trigger a postcard a couple days later. 
• New subscriber, no purchase after 7 days in your welcome flow? Send a printed offer that actually gets seen.
• Customer hasn’t ordered in 90 days? Trigger a timed win-back card tied to their last purchase.
• Customers unsubscribed from your list? Reaching them is direct mail’s superpower. They unsubscribed from email, but not direct mail, baby.

If you're already building these segments in Klaviyo/Yotpo/another ESP, you're 90% there.

PostPilot connects with your ESP via webhook, so you can add direct mail to your flows with one-time setup. 

Then let it run.

This is how brands like Taylor Stitch turned their automated retention flows into a direct mail machine.

3. Match the Format to the Message

Not all mail is created equal. Use the format that fits your goal.

4x6 postcards: The all-arounder. Good for nudges + warm lead retargeting:

‍

“Handwritten” Postcards: Fantastic for post-purchase thank-you notes (can set this at a higher spend threshold, like $100 in a first order), birthdays, and end-of-year thank-yous:

‍

Oversized 6x9 postcards: Ideal for drops, time-sensitive offers, or seasonal pushes. They stop the scroll… IRL.

‍

Cardalog™: Perfect for product discovery and cooler leads. Think of it as a mini-catalog that will demand even more attention than a postcard.

‍

‍

Catalogs: When you need a lot more space, there’s room to seriously flex your (product) catalog. Recommended for more established brands with more products, or large seasonal collections.

‍

4. Track It Like Digital

(Yes, you can do that.)

Old-school direct mail was a black box. Spray. Pray. Cross fingers. Get reporting spreadsheets 8 weeks later and struggle to interpret the results.

We’ve (PostPilot) flipped that experience on its head. Instead, get…

• Real-time dashboards showing revenue, ROAS, and conversions
• Unique discount codes tied to campaigns
• Holdout testing for true incrementality

Your CFO will ask for them, and you’ll be ready.

5. Layer It In

Direct mail works best in tandem with your digital channels.

If email, Meta, and SMS are your day-to-day drivers, direct mail is the conversion assist. It fills the attention gaps, hits unreachable segments, and reinforces your core message in a physical way no screen can.

Brands that layer direct mail and email to the same segment see up to 3x higher incremental ROAS (we ran that analysis on a sample size of over half a million postcards with holdout groups).

And unlike digital channels, direct mail doesn’t get throttled by iOS updates, ad fatigue, or Gmail tabs. 

There’s no promotions folder in an IRL inbox.

Bottom Line

Used properly, direct mail is a high-ROI, high-intent channel that drives retention, acquisition, and everything in between. 

And when it’s automated and trackable like email, there’s no excuse not to use it.

If you want to integrate direct mail into your own marketing strategy. . . Let’s talk.

We'll handle strategy, design, printing, mailing, and we can do eeeeeverything you read about in this piece.

‍