We took you on a little hike, no, we scaled a mountain together throughout this course, and we consider the best practices lesson as the summit. You'll remember the sites, sounds, and conversations you had on your way to the top, but here is where you stop to take your selfie.
If you leave this course with anything, remember these four best practices.
Build your segments before you send
Look around at every case study we covered. Dr. Squatch didn't mail their whole list. They mailed customers who hadn't purchased in 7 to 9 months and hit a 12.66% conversion rate. HexClad didn't blast their database. They targeted email subscribers who hadn't made a first purchase, VIPs they wanted to retain, and one-time buyers who had gone quiet. Criquet mapped a different postcard to each quiz segment and let behavioral data do the talking.
The pattern is the same every time. A tight behavioral cohort beats a broad send.
Getting a letter is supposed to feel special, not like you're trying to woo the entire neighborhood. So before you build anything, answer two questions: who specifically are you mailing to, and what do you want them to do?
Let your digital strategy run first
There is a fine line between being the letter that nudges your customer toward a purchase and being another piece of mail. Personalization and timing is key. .
PostPilot recommends triggering your abandoned cart postcard at day 7 to 10 to give your customers a chance to convert digitally before you spend on a physical send.. The general cadence of direct mail looks much different than digital, and sequencing with your digital strategy is what makes direct mail feel like a nudge instead of noise.
Test with a holdout group
The way we talk about experiments at Klaviyo would have you thinking you're a scientist and not a marketer, but you know they're one and the same (minus the beakers and lab coats).
The only way to know if your postcard drove the purchase, and not the season, the sale you were already running, your other efforts across your digital marketing strategy, or just natural repurchase behavior, is to split your eligible segment in two: mail one half, and compare what happens. PostPilot recommends waiting 4 to 6 weeks before drawing conclusions.
Match your offer to the customer’s persona
Don't tell your VIP you want them back and spending. Kind of rude if they never left. And don't invite your winback customer to your VIP program before they've earned it. Kind of presumptuous, don't you think?
The highest-performing direct mail campaigns match the offer to where that customer actually is. PostPilot consistently sees 4x+ ROAS on winback campaigns when the offer is calibrated to the lapse window, not just a blanket 10% off.
A customer who hasn't purchased in 90 days gets a different message than one who hasn't been back in a year. A first-time buyer needs a reason to return. A VIP needs to feel seen. Get that match right and direct mail stops feeling like a cost and starts feeling like a lever.