September 17, 2025
Ready to increase your revenue?
Join thousands of ecommerce brands using PostPilot to acquire more customers & keep them coming back again (and again).
No contracts. No minimums.
7 Ways to Reengage Inactive Email Subscribers (with Direct Mail)
Customers stop opening emails. It supermegasucks, but It's part of our game.
It also doesn't meant that they’ve stopped caring about your brand. It just means you need to take a different approach.
A different approach like... direct mail.
Direct mail lets you pick up the conversation in a way that feels more personal, less interruptive, and a lot harder to ignore.
Plus, postcards stick arooooooooound. (That means they really stick around.) On tables, fridges, desks, and even on bedside tables. Emails, unfortunately, have a much shorter half-life.
With that in mind, we’ll highlight seven proven ways leading brands are using direct mail to reengage inactive email subscribers and turn them back into loyal buyers.
1) The Classic Winback Card
Email subject lines fight for attention in a battlefield of promotions. Most never get opened. A postcard always gets seen, even if just for a moment on the walk from mailbox to kitchen counter. That glance is often all you need.
Example: Roswell NYC targeted unengaged and unsubscribed one-time buyers over the holidays for Medik8 and saw 11.7x ROAS. No crowded inbox. No “marked as read.” Just a visible reminder that brought buyers back.
2) Triggered Lifecycle Campaigns
If someone is unengaged, your beautifully built email flows won't reach them. But direct mail can trigger the same lifecycle touchpoints and it cannot be filtered or deleted.
Example: Kindred Bravely uses automated PostPilot sends tied to lifecycle moments, such as pregnancy. Their retention campaigns run at 10x+ ROI, and they retarget to non-buying subscribers delivered 10.4x ROI. Visibility plus timing beats the spam folder.
3) Abandoned Cart, But IRL
An abandoned-cart email is easy to miss, and if an unengaged customer adds something to their cart, they're not likely to see your abandoned cart email flow. One click and it is gone. A postcard sits on the counter or fridge and keeps whispering, "BUY ME."
Example: Made In fires automated abandoned-cart postcards 5–7 days after the drop-off and sees 8.35x incremental ROAS. They also run automated winbacks that drive up to 10.29x iROAS.
TLDR: It's hard to scroll past postcards.
👉 Want inspiration for your own reengagement campaigns? Browse dozens of direct mail examples from top ecommerce brands.
4) VIP Treatment for Big Spenders
If a VIP customer stops opening your emails, it does not mean they are done with your brand, but it does mean you need to pull out all the stops to get them back. Which, at least to us, means sending them postcards.
Example: Good American moved to PostPilot to make VIP postcards easier to launch and scale. The team A/B tested creative for lapsed high-value buyers, then kept the winner on as an always-on automation. When a customer hits specific RFM rules, like last purchase about 60 days ago, 3 or more total orders, and lifetime spend over $100, a postcard fires automatically. That card is not competing with a Promotions tab. It arrives where it will be seen.
The result: 8x+ ROI and about $1.40 in incremental revenue per postcard send. They now use the same playbook across the funnel, including prospecting, with clean reporting to prove lift.
5) Sneak Peeks and Product Launches
Fans may stop seeing your weekly promos, but they will still care about new launches, products, and news. Deliver product news in a way that feels exciting, not exhausting—with direct mail.
Example: Dr. Squatch uses PostPilot for launches like limited-edition Spider-Man soap, Star Wars collabs, and holiday products. Squatch has seen winbacks generate hundreds of thousands in revenue and up to 11x ROAS on segments that were ignoring email.
6) Seasonal and Holiday Reactivations
Holidays are inbox-overload-central. Your best email offers get buried, but a postcard has physical space. There's no promotions tab in a physical mailbox.
Example: HexClad scaled into BFCM with PostPilot. They drove $1.7M over BFCM 2022, $2.9M over BFCM 2023, and across a later four-month window hit $3.2M at 12x+ ROAS. Seasonal sends evolved into always-on automations that also reached unengaged VIPs.
7) Surprise and Delight Campaigns
Direct mail’s staying power is not just about visibility. It is how it feels. A playful or unexpected postcard makes an impression long after the first glance.
Example: Portland Leather Goods runs delight-driven “Unicorn Whisperer” and VIP birthday flows as part of a full-funnel program that has generated 8 figures in revenue. One birthday automation alone drives 7-figure revenue at 15x+ ROI.
Direct Your Direct Mail Questions to Us
If someone stops engaging with your emails, it's far from the end of your relationship with them.
And with PostPilot, you can reengage them automatically with direct mail, at scale.
What you get with PostPilot:
- Guaranteed visibility. Every postcard gets seen. No spam filters. No “mark all as read.”
- ESP-style automation. Trigger postcards like Klaviyo flows. Abandoned cart. Winback. VIP rewards.
Precise segmentation. Target customers by behavior, value, or timing so outreach feels relevant, not random.
Full-funnel attribution. Track incremental ROAS, revenue per recipient, and even halo on channels like Amazon. - Concierge creative. Our team helps you produce mail that stands out in the mailbox… Not the recycling bin.
Brands like Kindred Bravely, Made In, Laird Superfood, Dr. Squatch, HexClad, and Portland Leather Goods are turning unengaged email subscribers back into high-value repeat buyers with PostPilot.
You can too.
What to read next.
