For decades, direct mail campaigns have generally started the same way.
Build an audience. Select the people you want to reach. Develop the creative. Produce the mail. Send it.
Digital marketing changed that process by allowing marketers to respond almost instantly to consumer behavior. Visit a website. Click an email. Start an application but don’t finish it. Each action creates a signal—and potentially triggers the next communication.
Until recently, that next communication was usually digital.
Today, it doesn’t have to be.
Advances in data, identity resolution, marketing automation and digital print technology are creating a new opportunity for marketers: trigger-based direct mail.
Instead of sending thousands or millions of pieces according to a predetermined campaign calendar, organizations can use individual consumer behaviors and events to determine who receives mail, what they receive and when they receive it.
In other words, direct mail is beginning to behave a lot more like digital marketing.
What Is Trigger-Based Direct Mail?
Trigger-based direct mail uses a specific consumer action, event or data change to initiate a physical communication.
The trigger might be digital—visiting a particular webpage, beginning but not completing an application, clicking an email without taking the next step, or repeatedly returning to a website.
Or it might come from first-party customer data—an upcoming renewal, a new enrollment, a lapse in activity, a missed payment, a change in account status or another significant event.
The important distinction is that the mail isn’t being sent simply because someone appears on a campaign list.
Something happened.
And that event creates the opportunity for a timely, relevant communication.
From Digital Signal to Physical Mailbox
Consider a consumer shopping for health insurance.
They receive an email encouraging them to review their coverage before Open Enrollment. They click through to the health plan’s website, review their current plan, explore alternatives and begin the renewal process.
Then they leave.
A traditional marketing program might send that consumer the same follow-up email everyone else receives.
A trigger-based program could do something very different.
The incomplete renewal could trigger a personalized direct mail communication explaining exactly what the member needs to do next. It might include the member’s deadline, relevant plan information, a QR code or personalized URL that takes the member directly back into the renewal process, and a phone number for assistance.
Instead of:
“It’s time to renew your health coverage.”
The communication effectively becomes:
“You’re almost finished. Here’s what you need to do next.”
That’s a very different—and potentially much more useful—message.
Website Retargeting Is Moving Into the Mailbox
An even newer application takes the concept one step further.
Technology is now available that can identify some website visitors, match them to postal addresses and initiate direct mail based on defined online behaviors.
A marketer might establish rules that trigger mail when a visitor returns to the website multiple times, visits several high-value pages, spends a certain amount of time researching a service or demonstrates another high-intent behavior.
Rather than continuing to pursue that prospect exclusively through digital retargeting, marketers can add a physical communication to the journey.
This creates an interesting reversal.
For years, marketers have used direct mail to drive consumers online.
Now online behavior can drive direct mail.
Why Timing Changes the Value of Direct Mail
Relevance has always been one of the fundamentals of successful direct marketing. But relevance isn’t only about the message.
It’s also about timing.
A perfectly crafted communication delivered three weeks after a consumer makes a decision may have little value. A simpler communication delivered when someone needs help may have enormous value.
Instead of asking:
“When should we launch our next direct mail campaign?”
marketers can begin asking:
“What customer behavior should cause us to communicate?”
That is a fundamentally different way to think about direct mail.
The Opportunity for Marketers
For health plans and other healthcare organizations, the opportunity is particularly interesting because there are so many moments when consumers need to take action.
Enrollment and renewal. A member begins an enrollment or renewal process but doesn’t complete it. A personalized communication provides a reminder, deadline and simple path back into the process.
Member onboarding. A newly enrolled member receives communications based on actions they have—or haven’t—completed, such as registering for the member portal or selecting a primary care provider.
Preventive care. A member who has not completed an appropriate preventive screening receives a personalized reminder with information about how to schedule care.
Digital adoption. A member who hasn’t activated an online account or downloaded a health plan app receives a communication explaining the benefits and providing an easy way to register.
Retention. Changes in engagement, renewal status or other first-party data can trigger communications before a member becomes disengaged or coverage lapses.
The same philosophy applies outside healthcare. Financial institutions can respond to account activity. Universities can respond to prospective-student behavior. Nonprofits can respond to donor engagement.
The trigger changes.
The principle doesn’t.
Direct Mail Doesn’t Have to Work Alone
Trigger-based mail becomes even more powerful when it is part of a coordinated communication strategy.
Imagine a member begins but doesn’t complete an important action:
Day 1: Email reminder.
Day 3: Personalized direct mail enters production.
Day 5: SMS reminder.
Day 6: The mail piece is expected to arrive.
Day 7: Digital advertising reinforces the same message.
The exact sequence will vary by audience, objective and regulatory requirements. But the concept is important: the channels are no longer operating independently. They are responding to the same customer behavior.
USPS Informed Visibility® Mail Tracking & Reporting can also provide near-real-time information about mail moving through the postal system, helping marketers better coordinate other communications around anticipated mail delivery.
The result is a truly coordinated omnichannel experience.
Data and Privacy Matter
Connecting digital behavior, identity and physical addresses also creates important responsibilities.
Organizations—particularly those operating in healthcare, insurance and financial services—need to carefully evaluate how data is collected, matched, stored and activated.
Privacy requirements, consent, suppression rules, HIPAA considerations where applicable, state privacy laws and internal data-governance policies all need to be part of the strategy.
Just because technology makes a tactic possible doesn’t mean every application is appropriate.
The goal should be to use data to create communications that are more helpful and relevant—not intrusive.
Direct Mail Is Becoming a Responsive Channel
Direct mail will never move at the literal speed of an email or text message.
But that’s increasingly beside the point.
With the right data, technology and production infrastructure, direct mail can become responsive.
A consumer does something.
The organization recognizes the signal.
The next communication changes accordingly.
The future of direct mail isn’t simply better lists, better creative or more sophisticated personalization.
It’s connecting those capabilities to behavior.
Because sometimes the most important question isn’t:
Who should we mail?
It’s:
What just happened that makes this the right time to mail them?
Turning Customer Signals Into Action
At Direct Choice, we believe effective direct marketing begins with understanding the customer—not the channel.
By combining first-party data, segmentation, predictive analytics, personalized communications and coordinated direct and digital strategies, organizations can identify the moments that matter and determine the right communication to deliver next to influence enrollment, onboarding, engagement, utilization and retention.
The technology is making those communications faster and more sophisticated.
The strategy is making sure they’re useful.
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