The overwhelming majority of marketers believe that personalization significantly increases business profitability. But while it’s mostly associated with digital experiences, personalization can also extend to offline touchpoints, such as personalized direct mail.

With the emergence of marketing automation, personalized direct mail has become a powerful marketing channel you can include at any stage of your marketing funnel. For example, if a customer stops opening your emails, personalized direct mail can be an effective way to catch their attention. Did someone abandon their cart? Convince them to come back with an offer on a remarketing postcard.

In addition to the actions that trigger personalized direct mail, you can also customize the content. It’s not only about filling the name of the person after the greeting, but also the tone of voice, design and every detail you want to adapt. You can also include personalized URLs or QR codes forwarding recipients to your website, Google Maps locations, social media accounts, and more.

4 Ways Personalization Can Optimize the Average Cost of Direct Mail

Mail automation and personalization don’t only positively impact your marketing efforts across other channels. This approach to mail also cuts the average cost of direct mail and increases ROI for four reasons.

  • More precise targeting. When you calculate direct mail costs, the volume of printed materials is one of the main expenses. If you target an overly broad audience, printing costs and postage rates will exceed your expectations — in a bad way, of course. Personalization and advanced targeting allow you to invest only in those accounts that are likely to convert. As a result, you waste less money on printing or mailing postcards that won’t speed up conversion or generate profit.
  • Outsourcing to advanced personalization services. Without outsourcing to a third-party mail service like Inkit, you won’t be able to achieve a high-level of mail advertising personalization manually. Only advanced software can do this, typically with batch printing and reduced rates from the United States Postal Service.
  • Automated direct mail management. Time is money. When you try to organize mail personalization manually, you get distracted from your core business activities. The automation necessary for personalization frees you from many everyday tasks, allowing you to focus on the big picture.
  • DIY design capabilities. If you cannot afford to hire an additional designer, you should know that Inkit supports a custom postcard builder. This feature allows you to design mail on your own — or reuse the design that has proven to be successful for your digital campaigns in the past — and personalize it with customizable fields. Although we generally recommend professional design services, the DIY postcard builder is great for marketers on a budget.

How Marigold Engage by Sailthru’s Partnership with Inkit Powers Personalized Direct Mail

Together, Marigold Engage by Sailthru and Inkit enable you to automatically detect events and triggers that make direct mail relevant. It records all customer interactions and creates detailed profiles. That way, users can treat every customer as a unique individual and better satisfy their needs.

Whereas Inkit enables Sailthru to automatically initiate mail print and delivery, Marigold Engage by Sailthru supplies quality mailing lists. Smart Lists dynamically updates user lists in real time, so you always have relevant customer information. This data then enables you to deliver the right mail pieces to targeted contacts, running truly personalized direct mail campaigns.

Click here to learn more about this integration and how it can help you drive business results with personalized direct mail campaigns.

Michael McCarthy is Founder and CEO of Inkit.