So, I’m usually buried in online stuff, SEO mostly
But lately I’ve been reading about something totally old school that I've often thought might work:direct mail.
As in, actual postcards showing up in your mailbox.
Here’s something which made me sit up and listen ...
One marketer shared results from a 2025 test (this was a list of existing customers in the supplements niche):
38,896 postcards → 669 extra sales → $120,662 in revenue → 411% ROI.
Each postcard cost around$0.75, and earned$3.10back. Most of those sales came from people who hadn’t opened an email in months. No spam folders. No algorithm roulette. Just something real that lands in your hands.
What really stuck with me was this idea that you can’t scroll past a postcard. It forces a little attention in a world where everyone’s fighting for clicks. It’s almost like the “anti-ad”, quiet, physical, and somehow more human.
Makes me wonder if offline marketing might actually be underrated. Especially for waking up old customers or bringing dead lists back to life.
But is it only effective when someone already has a relationship with your brand? Or does direct mail also work forcoldprospects - people who don’t know you yet?
Would love to hear your thoughts if you’ve tested it.
Interesting one, Rohan and I don't want to rain on your parade but ...
I’ve seen a few of those postcard case studies lately and I’m never sure what to think. It makes sense that real mail stands out, but I suspect most people still toss it straight in the bin if they don’t recognise the sender.
I mean, what do you do with that junk mail? Yeah, thought so.
Funnily enough, I was reading a Reddit thread on this a couple of days ago and the general consensus seemed to back that up. A few people said they got one response out of a thousand, and others called flyers “littering”. The ones who saw results were mailing existing customers or running steady campaigns, not one-offs.
So maybe it’s great for warming up old lists, but I’m doubtful about cold outreach. It feels expensive, slow, and hard to track.
But I could be wrong (it has happened before) lol.
Great subject and one I feel I can actually contribute to!
From my 10+ years experience in corporate marketing (and from what the stats show) direct mail isn’t dead at all - but it’s very context dependent. Warning: I'm gonna go with some bullets here.
One recent(ish) review says that typical response rates for direct mail run in the ~2.7%-4.4% range for prospect lists.
It also found conversion rates often sit closer to 0.5%-2%.
Another source reports that integrating direct mail with digital (QR codes, personalised URLs, follow-up email) can boost results significantly - one stat said a campaign that combined both had about 27% greater chance of high performance than one without mail.
I think QR codes are a big one in direct mail especially because they're easy to track.
When it comes down to it:
If you’re sending to existing customers or warm leads (people who know or have bought from you) the odds improve.
If you’re mailing cold prospects who know nothing about you, you’ll likely need a better offer, stronger targeting, and follow-up both offline and online to get traction.
The cost and logistics are non-trivial : design, list quality, postage, and measurement all matter if you want to track ROI.
In your case, Rohan, if you were to test direct mail for cold outreach I’d recommend starting small, pick a tightly-defined ICP (ideal customer profile), mail maybe a few hundred, include something compelling (not just a flyer), and plan follow-up via email or phone. Then compare cost + acquisition to your typical digital channel benchmarks. If it works, scale up.
See, I can talk the marketing walk all day long (and often do!)
Y'know I never even thought of doing any offline marketing for my website (and probably won't go there any time soon) - but this post has got me thinking!
Targeted local mail drops with QR codes. Anyway, must stay focused :-)
@sarahggal that's really helpful, thank you! I think if you have $200-300 that you don't mind losing then it could be worth a test. I'm not sure I have the time atm though. Spread pretty thin as it is!
I'm still trying to find the time to resurrect my old WA website as I've seen a bit of activity there lately. Although I re-verified GSC out of curiosity and discovered that Google sent me 4 clicks in 3 months ... ha ha ha! Traffic completely died around the end of May (it was already a trickle but pretty much dropped to zero since May).