Of all the marketing strategies out there, direct mail receives the best response rates.

Yet, it takes time to design, plan, print and mail out your direct mail pieces.

By the time they reach your audience’s hands, it’s time to get started on your next direct mail campaign. And your time is valuable, which means you need something that will speed up the process and allows you to focus on more important matters.

That’s where automating your direct mail comes into play. It’s quick, easy, affordable, and outrageously effective.

What is Automated Direct Mail?

Automated Direct Mail—also known as Direct Mail Integration, CRM Integration, and Direct Mail Automation—is the process in which direct mail is sent as easily as an email.

Imagine you’re in your CRM, point or sales platform, or marketing automation platform like HubSpot, Salesforce, etc. Now imagine you’ve sent an email out of that platform to the same lead about a dozen times with no response. What if you could send that same lead a postcard (a more effective medium) with just a click of a button in the same platform you sent those emails from?

That’s Automated Direct Mail. No designing, uploading, waiting for a proof, gathering a list of contacts, or running to the post office. No strings attached because everything is already set up. All you need to do is choose the design you’ve already created and press send.

What’s even better is that you can set up triggers to send direct mail based on certain events or actions. For example, say that same lead responds to your postcard and purchases an item online and becomes a customer. A postcard can automatically be sent to them to encourage repeat business.

Why Should you Automate Your Direct Mail?

Direct Mail Automation takes the hassle out of the complete direct mail marketing process so you can focus on optimizing your marketing campaign rather than worry about if your materials will be printed on time, if your design team got the art files over correctly or if your address list is accurate.

The old way of sending direct mail was sluggish, manual and expensive. Direct Mail Marketing Automation makes it easy so you can still take advantage of direct mail while prioritizing your valuable time on more important matters.

Not to mention it’s extremely affordable. With only a few cents per postcard, you can send as few or as many postcards as you want with just a click of a button and with bulk mailing rates in place.

How to Run Your Automated Direct Mail Marketing Campaign

Step 1: Understand Your Goals

The first step to running an automated direct mail campaign is understanding your goals.

Direct mail can help with virtually any marketing goal you have including:

• Communicating new information about your company
• Driving prospects to your website or location
• Increasing your sales
• Building brand awareness
• Strengthening your customer relationships
• Standing out amongst your competitors
• Promoting a big sale or event

When you understand your goals, you will be better prepared to design your automated postcards and choose how many versions or campaigns you would like to run and send out.

For example, if you’re looking to increase your sales you could set up a trigger within your CRM to automatically send a postcard after a specific email is sent to take advantage of multi-channel marketing and more than triple your response rates.

For something like strengthening your customer relationships, you could include holiday cards within your direct mail automation campaign so you can send a friendly note or offer with just a click of a button. You can even set up triggers to automatically send a “happy birthday” message to contacts with birthdays each month.

Another example of building customer loyalty through Direct Mail Automation, is by sending “thank you” cards to customers who participated in an event your company hosted or to customers who purchased a product or service from you. Consider including a special offer to intrigue them to purchase or sign up for another event.

Step 2: Design Your Automated Direct Mail Postcards

Depending on what your goals are will determine the design and message you include in your postcard.

Direct Mail Automation uses brilliant, full-color, and durable 6x9 postcards. To begin your design, it can be helpful to use a design template to ensure your postcards are printed perfectly. You can simply click on this link here to download a 6x9 postcard template, then place the template in a new layer in your design platform.

Make sure to include an eye-catching headline and colorful design so that your postcards stand out in the mailboxes of your recipients and to ensure that you're optimizing your results.

Step 3: Install Your Direct Mail Automation Plugin

When you're ready to integrate direct mail into your automation platform, your printer will provide you with a link to install an app. After that, a new workflow action will become available within your CRM or marketing automation platform, similar to the “send an email” option you already utilize.

Simply provide your postcard art in PDF format to your printer. They will set everything up.

Step 4: Send Postcards Like You Would an Email

After you have provided your postcard designs, within that new workflow option you will see your different art versions available.

Just set the fields you want to use for the mailing information including first name, last name, etc. and select the postcard you want to send.

Then press send and your postcard is on its way to your contact.

Step 5: Track Delivery and Responses

You will receive emails updating you on when your postcards are being printed and when they are on the way to your recipients.

By including a unique URL, QR code or call tracking number, you can easily track your responses as well, similar to the way you can track your email and other online advertising results.

The Benefits of Automated Direct Mail

79% of consumers act on direct mail right away compared to only 45% who respond to emails. That statistic alone is just one of the many benefits of direct mail. And when you pair direct mail with automation, you are able to gain benefits just like that one in a quicker, more affordable, more effective, and seamless way.

Direct mail consistently shows better results than any other form of marketing. It’s more personal and tangible and recipients are able to hold onto it for a longer period of time thus building better brand awareness. And people simply just prefer direct mail over other advertising methods.

Thanks to automation technology direct mail is now:

• Trackable when utilizing a QR code or unique URL so you can measure results.
• Personalized thanks to Variable Data Printing.
• Targeted due to identifying data capabilities including harnessing information in your CRM.
• Affordable even with low quantity mailings due to Postcard Commingling where bulk mailing rates are applied even with a single postcard mailing.
• Triggered based on certain events or actions.
• Immediate and can be sent with just a click of a button.

At Conquest Graphics, we began with the ability to order print automatically online for an easier print ordering experience and have grown our capabilities in the world of automation including our Ordering Portal storefronts, Mailbox Retargeting solution, and even Direct Mail Integration where the ability to send postcards as easily as an email is a solution you can take advantage of starting today. Click below to learn more or to schedule a meeting!