The Direct Mail Strategy Top Ecommerce Brands Are Using

This mini series ‘4 Marketing Things to Try in Q4’ comes to an end with our final strategy…direct mail for ecom brands. 📬️ Check out past conversations on loyalty, popups, and store pickup and delivery.

I’ve recently received direct mail from Vuori, Kinn Studio, Patagonia, and a few other brands. Physical mail pieces that I actually kept and set aside to check out later. It made me realize: direct mail is not dead; it’s evolving!

For this issue, I interviewed Jack Green, Co-Founder at Paper Run, a fast-growing direct mail platform helping brands reach customers that email and paid ads can’t.

Direct Mail Is Back

Direct mail is resurging for a simple reason: Email is saturated for ecommerce brands.

Open rates plateau. Promotions tabs bury campaigns. Filters tighten. Even great customers, people who genuinely love your brand, may never see your emails. According to Jack, once a subscriber hasn’t opened in 3–6 months, there is a strong chance they will never open your emails again due to filtering and inbox behavior.

“I think everyone knows that email is very saturated,” says Jack. “We see anywhere between 30 and 50% open rates, which basically means whichever way you slice it, one out of two people you send an email to will not open it.

So there's this opportunity now, which is like, hey, this customer really likes my product, they're just not seeing my marketing. It's not that they're not interested in my marketing. You're basically unreachable as a customer. So that leads to an opportunity to get in front of customers you cannot reach with other channels like email and SMS.”

The Right Way to Use Direct Mail (So You Don’t Burn Cash)

Direct mail is the most expensive impression in ecommerce. So if a brand simply blasts its entire list, it will almost certainly lose money. The Paper Run team recommends targeting customers you cannot reach via digital, specifically those who no longer open email or engage with SMS.

Run a Holdout Test:

Send mail to only half of a qualified segment and compare performance against the half that got nothing. This reveals whether direct mail drove incremental revenue, not just revenue that would have happened anyway.

“If I've identified a group of people that I think I should send direct mail to, the first thing I should do is chop it in half and only send to half of that audience,” explains Jack. “What that will tell me is the people that I never sent mail to, how much did they order? What revenue did I get from that audience?



“Basically, that means if I have group A who got mail and group B did not get mail, but group B placed orders at 2%, and I got 3% in Group A who got mail - I didn't really get 3%, because I would have gotten 2% if I had never sent the mail. So really, I only got 1%.

I'm looking to identify what would have happened anyway so that I can understand the incrementality of that campaign.”

What to Test First

Should Direct Mail Be One-Off or Ongoing?

Direct mail becomes the bridge between attention and intent. Teat direct mail scientifically, not emotionally.

“We recommend building programmatic flows in Klaviyo and in other ESPs,” says Jack. “We identify the cohorts, the triggers, a bit like an email flow. Everything that we do is fully trigger-based and printed on demand for each customer.
That allows us to get much better conversion rates because the product is much more relevant.

For example, an abandoned checkout is an excellent example of something where it's highly relevant for the person who got a direct mail piece at the right time. Just remember, someone who ordered 12 months ago is different from someone who ordered 24 months ago.”

Key Takeaways for Brands

• Direct mail works best for customers unreachable by email or SMS.

• Always use holdout testing to measure incrementality.

• Test audiences and offers before creative.

• Combine programmatic flows and seasonal campaigns.

• Consider direct mail as a retention lever, not just acquisition.

Learn more about Paper Run, and connect with them here to test direct mail for your brand. Refundable for the first 2 months. If you aren't happy, Paper Run offers a full refund, no questions asked.

Brand Inspo from Colombian Brand Sajú 🕶️ 

When it comes to standing out and being in your own lane, Colombian eyewear brand Sajú is creating some incredible campaigns. The 2000s high school vibes for their latest campaign are giving nostalgia, timeliness, and a different feel.

Their Halloween shoot was simple and yet felt different. Sajú doesn’t shy away from placing text over their photos, giving the sunglasses brand an elevated look. These BTS content pieces are effective, yet simple.

Thanks for reading! We’re back the first week of December with a lineup of incredible CPG brands and an insight into how they’re scaling on TikTok and in retail.