Why Is Direct Mail Making a Comeback?

While everyone else is fighting for attention in crowded inboxes and noisy social feeds, DTC brands are launching and scaling a channel that actually gets seen.

Direct mail.

The numbers tell the story: 

HexClad drove $2.8 million with postcards over BFCM alone. 

Portland Leather Goods drives 8 figures annually with mail. 

&Collar drove 6 figures with a single automated handwritten postcard.

And that’s just the tip of the ROIceberg.

Let’s discuss.

Direct Mail Hits Every Stage of Your Funnel (Without the Chaos)

Direct mail isn’t just prospecting catalogs sent by retailers over the holiday season. 

(Although that’s still definitely a thing, for good reason. It works incredibly well.)

It hits the full funnel, and it has extraordinary capabilities that complement your digital advertising and existing owned marketing.

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Acquisition: Target lookalike audiences based on your best customers' data. Cozy earth uses PostPilot’s AcquisitionAI to drive crazy high returns (7x+ incremental ROAS) with catalogs.

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Retargeting: Convert warm leads who abandoned carts or browsed without buying. Gozney uses PostPilot's SiteMatch to identify anonymous visitors and mail them postcards—no email required. HexClad uses direct mail to retarget email list subscribers who haven't purchased yet.

Retention: Win back dormant customers and keep VIPs engaged. Morris 4x4 Center saw postcards outperform email 18-to-1 for reactivating customers.

The brands with the most successful direct mail programs run (and automate) all three simultaneously, driving major full-funnel revenue.

And while your competitors are stuck optimizing single channels, you're building a marketing engine that captures customers wherever they are in their journey.

It's Easier Than Setting Up a Facebook Campaign (Yes, actually. Because you won’t have to do very much.)

Let's address the elephant in the room: traditional direct mail was a nightmare.

Or, if we may be so bold, a frickin’ nightmare.

And many vendors still offer the traditional approach.

It requires months of planning, massive minimums, zero flexibility, and results that showed up weeks to months later (if you were lucky).

Modern direct mail automation changed everything. Brands launch campaigns in days, not months. They send 1000 postcards or 20,000—whatever makes sense. 

And they track performance in real-time, just like digital channels.

Here's how simple it actually is:

1. You connect your data: Native integrations with Shopify, Klaviyo, and your existing tech stack. Takes minutes, not weeks.
2. You set your triggers: Just like email automation. Abandoned cart? Send a postcard. Haven't purchased in 90 days? Winback campaign. VIP made their 5th purchase? Handwritten thank you.
3. You let it run: Once you set up automatios, they work in the background. HexClad runs seven different automated flows that drive "hands-off, high-ROI results.

The design part? Done for you. 

Strategy? Your account team handles it. 

Even the targeting uses AI to find customers who look like your best buyers.

You Can Track Everything (Yes, Really)

The biggest myth about direct mail? That you can't measure it.

Wrong.

Modern direct mail platforms track everything: 

• Number of deliveries
• Revenue
• ROAS
• CVR
• # of conversions
• Revenue per send

HexClad's team uses this data to continuously optimize. 

They tested (relatively) small before BFCM 2022, identified winning audiences, then scaled to drive $1.7 million. The next year? They increased revenue by 66% using insights from their dashboard.

This is data-driven optimization that rivals any digital channel.

The Other Reason Direct Mail Is Back

Digital advertising is a brutal game, and somehow, it gets brutal-er every year.

CACs keep climbing. Email open rates keep falling. Everyone's competing for the same attention in the same places.

Direct mail works because it zigs where everyone else zags. 

Now, don’t get us wrong. While you absolutely should maintain your full digital strategy, adding a physical reminder that literally gets your message and offer into customers’ hands is a killer tactic.

While someone may look at a digital ad for half a second or ignore an email, they’ll quite often leave your mailer(s) on a kitchen counter, desk, or bedside table (or even in the bathroom) as a tangible, constant reminder that actually drives sales.

It’s a touchpoint that actually gets touched.

Getting Started with Direct Mail Is Simpler Than You Think

You don't need a massive budget. You don't need a design team. You don't need months of planning.

You need a Shopify store and customers who've bought from you before. 

Start with one simple campaign—maybe a winback to customers who haven't purchased in 180 days. Test with a few thousand postcards. Watch what happens.

Your customers' mailboxes are less crowded than their inboxes. Maybe it's time to meet them there.

We can help. Everything you read here is part of our core offering.

We’ll plan, design, print, and mail your campaigns for you. And in the PostPilot app, you’ll be able to track your results in real time.

Learn more here.