Author: Swati Maheshwari
Published: April 16, 2025
Categories: Interview, eCommerce, Marketing
For many eCommerce startups, marketing is both a blessing and a curse. It isn't just about Facebook ads and Google AdWords anymore. The cluttered digital landscape means that it's harder to make an impression on consumers online. When you're planning your marketing strategy for your eCommerce business, direct mail might not be the first tactic that comes to mind.
Just because your customers are shopping online, it doesn't mean that all your marketing efforts should be there too. Michael McCarthy, co-founder of Inkit, a Direct Mail Automation Software for marketing and retention, talks about how direct mail can help you get new customers and retain existing ones.
Michael McCarthy is the Co-Founder and CEO at Inkit.
Before I met my CoFounder, Abram, I was working as a Senior Marketing Manager at a Fortune 500 company. As someone who was constantly working towards launching a new marketing campaign, I got really frustrated with how inefficient and resource-intensive the process was. Our team had had a lot of success with direct mail campaigns in the past, but pushing the campaign from design mode to launch was a laborious process.
There were times when it took weeks or months. What I really wanted – and couldn't find – was a tool that would enable me to send direct mail as quickly & easily as email. Something that I could integrate and control through my existing digital marketing stack.
Direct mail is a personalized touch with a long track record of boosting retention and win-back rates. We simply improved the process. With Inkit, marketers can now send triggered direct mail based on certain actions or events to their customers within seconds. And it arrives in customers' mailboxes within a few days.
Reactivation is our biggest use case. Many times, customers stop responding to an email sequence or order once and forget to come back. Using Inkit, eCommerce companies can set up triggers or actions to send an individualized direct mail piece to lapsed users.
Using triggered webhooks and Inkit's workflow builder, marketers can automate direct mail pieces to be sent at key lifecycle points, such as 30 days inactive. A major meal subscription company has a 30-day win-back direct mail trigger in place and has seen 9-12% redemption rates on customers who received the postcard.
Direct mail used to be a batch-and-blast, manual, time-consuming effort. Inkit's direct mail automation platform comes complete with the tools you need to automate direct mail. Whether it's webhooks, integrations, or Inkit's own direct mail API, automating this process is easy.
A simple promo code or coupon goes a long way and incentivizes the recipient to take action. Make sure your offer stands out, or if you don't have an offer, use a short subdomain to drive traffic to.
Using Inkit, programmatically set up spend or order triggers to reward your best customers and keep them coming back for more.
Using Inkit's integrations with HubSpot, Marketo, Iterable, Sailthru, and more, direct mail can be used as a channel alongside email, SMS, in-app, and more. If a customer unsubscribes or isn't responding to an email sequence, direct mail is a great channel to get them re-engaged.
Right now, Artificial Intelligence is in its nascent stages. In the coming years, yes, it will play a very important role. AI and aggregation of data will ensure the right marketing is shown at the optimal time for a particular use. It will also be influential in determining the timing and type of channel an individual consumer is most responsive to.
Intercom is a leader in this space. Their operator bot is able to walk prospects or customers through a sequence of questions and route them to the proper support articles or customer representative. This saves businesses time and resources by better supporting and servicing their customers.
They used to send everyone the same thing; now they send batches. Tomorrow, they will create and distribute unique content to individuals.
Many startups fell into the trap of growing at all costs and forgot about their existing customers. Expect more E-commerce businesses to refocus attention on getting more out of their existing customers through retention and re-engagement campaigns.
Companies will choose platforms that specialize, connect platforms that mesh well together, and create broad networks of mutually beneficial partnerships.
Leading B2C enterprise companies will be able to trigger channels that were previously not online, as part of their omnichannel strategy.
Large enterprises are still trying to go digital, however, we're noticing that startups (e.g. Oscar, Away Luggage, Casper, etc.) are running increasingly more advertisements on non-social channels, including public transportation, direct mail, radio, newspapers.
Inkit is a Direct Mail Automation Software designed for marketing and retention. The platform enables marketers to send direct mail as quickly and easily as email, integrating with existing digital marketing stacks.
Website: www.inkit.io
Starting an eCommerce business or a retail store? Get your website on a .STORE domain.