Postcard Retargeting — Old World Marketing with a New World Strategy
As a digital marketer, I’m honestly surprised at the amount of mail I get. It’s like, we’re still doing this? Sending out offers on paper to people’s homes? But then as a normal person who grew up with the mail being a part of my home life, the honest to God truth is — if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Here are some stats from February of 2020…
When was the last time you received mail (that wasn’t from a friend or family member) that you enjoyed? Something from a business that actually was interesting to read or brought you some value? That wasn’t a clear piece of garbage with neon falsities like “YOU’VE WON A BRAND NEW HONDA CIVIC” ?
It’s probably been a while.
I remember when I’d hit that intense reading phase that most of us experience once we’re finally old enough to read chapter books. A Scholastic Book Club sort of “save the date” would arrive at school. It was a preview of the books and sales that would be in the real thing, and it was the highlight of the semester. We’d run home to tell our parents and grandparents about what we wanted, asking for more chores so we could save up the money. Then the Scholastic Book Club catalog itself would come a few weeks later, sitting there on your desk filled with treasures and addressed to little old you.
My mom would let me use her expensive silver-ink Sharpie to circle what I liked. She has calligraphy-like handwriting, so people in town would ask her to address their wedding invitations and baby announcements with these special markers. But when the Scholastic Book Club came in the mail, I was allowed to use the Sharpie. I was allowed to get two things under $20.
When I was a few years older, I started watching teen movies, and in all of those films, the main character has a killer bedroom — funky lights, cool posters, a bean bag, a fish tank. My mom understood the coming-of-age obsession with awesome bedrooms, so she signed me up for Pottery Barn Teen catalogues. I loved flipping through it after school before I started my homework while I drank an ice cold Coke.
Then when I was in college, I got the glorious Rolling Stone. This of course is a paid subscription magazine, so it was extra special and exciting. I got out a highlighter and a beer when I went through my Rolling Stone.
My point is that nowadays we toss promotional mail almost as soon as we bring it inside, because it’s so readily available online. It’s all turned into “junk mail.” So, it’s funny to think that we all actually have fond memories of getting this “junk mail.” At some point and at whatever age, it was enjoyable to find a pretty piece of paper at the end of your driveway with your name on it.
Traditional mail is successful. It’s tried and true and honest in the eyes of many, but it needs a modern flair and a personal touch to really make a difference for today’s businesses. So we’ve applied print to a digital strategy for the wine industry, which after all, is the definition of omni-channel marketing.
Here’s how it’s working…
Our Account Managers and their winery clients design a postcard together. Imagine a nice image of a branded wine bottle on the front, paired with a few sentences on the back about the winery and the special offer — a code for $5 shipping on 3 bottles, a coupon for joining a Wine Club, or a “join our newsletter for 20% off your first order” CTA.
We place a tracking code on the back-end of our client’s website. This is the real key here, because this code matches potential customers visiting the site with a very accurate mailable address — aka, it gathers a list of people who were interested in buying wine or joining a club on your website, and most of them are new customers. (Current club members and purchasing customers are suppressed from this list)
Then with a little bit of digital marketing magic, the website visit triggers the code which matches a visitor with an address, and mails them your custom postcard within 24 hours. In a matter of days, those intrigued wine lovers receive a glossy print piece from your winery with an incentive they did not have before.
For your viewing pleasure, the “Astra Winery” postcard mockup
Front
Back
We’re truly seeing impressive results from postcard retargeting. 8-18% of people are returning to the website after receiving a postcard in the mail, and in terms of wine sales, ROI is anywhere from 300-1200%. This is a digital marketing effort that’s simple to get started and grabs the attention of your prospective customers who are otherwise browsing your site, unnoticed and unattended. If you’re interested in getting some postcards out to those customers, give us a call or send us an email.
