Competition is fierce, and once you’ve acquired new customers, the real challenge—and opportunity—lies in nurturing that initial sale into a lasting relationship.
With its unmatched physical presence, personalized direct mail provides a human touch that can result in a lifetime of loyalty.
For example, when businesses show appreciation for their customers through personalized direct mail rather than an automated email personalized with a first-name token, they demonstrate a higher level of commitment and investment in the relationship.
If you’re looking to turn transactions into relationships and build long-term customer loyalty, you’ve come to the right place.
Keep reading to learn how to:
- Welcome new customers with personalized direct mail.
- Use personalized direct mail for onboarding new customers.
- Boost customer retention and loyalty with personalized direct mail.
Welcome New Customers with Personalized Direct Mail
The first interaction after acquiring a new customer is your golden opportunity to solidify your brand in their memory and pave the way for long-term customer loyalty.
Direct mail marketing delivers a personalized welcome in a physical way that digital channels can’t replicate. By sending a piece of your brand that customers can touch, you’re telling the customer that you value their business enough to invest in a physical connection.
Here are some examples of how businesses can welcome new customers with personalized direct mail.
- A personalized thank-you letter with the customer’s name, the item or service they purchased, and a special offer on a future purchase.
- Welcome postcards with a QR code that links to the app or new member welcome page.
- In lieu of offering a discount on a future purchase, consider including a small, lightweight promotional product with the thank you letter. This adds an extra touch of appreciation, and smaller items like stickers, pens, notebooks, and calendars can be added to the envelope without significantly increasing shipping weight or costs.
Remember, this is the time to wow new customers. To maximize the wow factor, consider custom packaging.
Custom packaging can be designed to fit the size and shape of the items inside. This approach not only looks more professional but also helps ensure the safe arrival of items and can even lower shipping costs.
This is also a critical opportunity to start gathering insights about new customers.
Why? Understanding your customers' preferences, habits, and values is the secret to long-term customer retention. If you don’t have this type of first-party data about new customers, be sure to include a link or a compelling insert in your welcome materials to motivate new customers to share their information through a survey or questionnaire.
For example, e-commerce and retail brands can use the checkout experience to gather information beyond the standard name, email, and address to personalize the onboarding experience. Here are two non-invasive ways to gather data during the checkout process:
- If assembly is required, ask about their experience level and include assembly instructions tailored to their skill set.
- Beauty brands can ask customers to share information about their body type, age, or skin type and include relevant tutorials in the shipment or in personalized post-purchase email campaigns.
Use Personalized Direct Mail for Onboarding New Customers
Now, you might think the term onboarding is only for the SaaS industry, but onboarding new customers is business-critical across all industries. Having a strong onboarding process in place sets the stage for a positive relationship right from the get-go. It also ensures that customers utilize your products or services to their fullest potential.
- Effective onboarding can boost customer retention rates by 50%.
- Customers appreciate the effort put into onboarding, with 76% reporting that they are much more likely to continue using a service or product if they had such an experience.
Businesses often shower new customers with attention – welcome emails, thank you letters, even swag – but then communication drops off. This initial burst of enthusiasm followed by silence leaves new customers feeling valued only for a fleeting moment.
To truly make customers feel valued from the start, consider mailing a personalized and thoughtfully curated onboarding kit. In a world of fleeting emails and automated digital interactions, leveraging the advantages of direct mail marketing makes a powerful statement. It shows a level of investment that customers recognize and appreciate. While emails can be easily ignored and automated messages lack a personal touch, a physical package demonstrates that your company is willing to go the extra mile. It signals that you have the resources to invest in your customers and are committed to providing a premium experience.
The goal is to make sure they are satisfied after their initial experience by providing helpful resources to warm them up for future success with your product or service, such as:
- Information guides for product longevity or steps to take post-purchase or post-service.
- Reminders to register their warranty or schedule subsequent appointments.
- A postcard or magnet featuring a QR code linking to essential resources for easy access.
For example, B2B or service-based businesses can mail a content kit loaded with printed versions of popular digital resources, reports, and guides. This allows new customers to engage more deeply with all your business has to offer. If you offer multiple services or target multiple verticals, personalize each kit's contents based on each customer's unique needs. Pro tip: a marketing portal makes it fast and easy to produce personalized print materials for content kits.
And personalizing these mailings is easier than you might think. A modern digital printing technology called variable data printing (VDP) makes it fast and easy to personalize every printed piece with details like the customer's name, interests, and purchase history by integrating data from your CRM into a design file for letters, mailers, packaging, and more.
Boost Customer Retention and Loyalty with Personalized Direct Mail
After successfully welcoming and onboarding new customers, the journey toward building deep, lasting loyalty truly begins. It’s crucial to keep the momentum going with engagement strategies that make every customer feel valued, not just for their purchases, but as an integral part of your business.
Sending a special thank you for customer anniversaries is one of the most common ways to foster continued engagement. For example, AAA sends a personalized letter to customers on their 50-year anniversary along with an embroidered blanket.
Sending a birthday card with a special offer is another common way to keep customers engaged. However, a birthday discount may feel out of place from a car dealership or accountant.
Rather than offering a birthday discount, which may not be appropriate for every industry, focus on timely reminders or incentives that encourage early bookings or return visits.
For example:
- A car dealership can send a personalized postcard reminding a customer that it’s time for annual service on their 2020 vehicle and invite them to schedule a VIP test drive of the new 2024 model during the service.
- Service reminder postcards can also be used to incentivize early booking, such as “Book your next carpet cleaning by May 15 to receive 20% off.”
- Retail businesses can share advanced notice of upcoming sales or new products with a special offer based on their shopping history and preferences.
Personalized Direct Mail Marketing with Artisan Colour
At Artisan Colour, we specialize in creating personalized direct mail campaigns that build brands and generate revenue. Our comprehensive suite of direct mail services includes everything from design and printing to addressing, inserting, tracking, and delivery. Our expertise extends to specialized areas such as integrated print and digital marketing solutions.
As one of the nation’s top print, catalog, direct mail, and color management partners for brands like Neiman Marcus and Patagonia, Artisan Colour has continuously invested in innovative solutions and expanded our service offerings to meet the demands of modern business, including:
- Print Services: Marketing collateral, catalogs, branded packaging, vehicle wraps, personalized printing, and specialty printing.
- Signage and Branding: Business signage, wall and window graphics, indoor and outdoor banners, trade shows and events, retail displays, and wall wraps.
- Marketing Fulfillment: Web-to-print, warehousing and storage, inventory management, kitting and assembly, and promotional products.
- Digital Services: Prepress, premedia, online image libraries, photography, graphic design, image retouching, and color management.
- Digital Marketing: Digital marketing strategy, graphic design, website design, content marketing, SEO, social media, software integrations, and Hubspot ecosystem management.
Though our suite of services has expanded and our technology has evolved since our founding in 1998, Artisan Colour’s commitment to quality and craftsmanship remains unchanged—ever driven by the artisan ethos that marked our beginnings.
Contact our team today to learn more about our direct mail marketing solutions.
