Direct mail campaigns powered by data that resides in data files (like CSV and Excel files) are the most common form of direct mail campaigns. While Postalytics created the fast, easy “Smart Send” campaign style to enable these types of campaigns, many customers have asked us to create continuous, ongoing campaigns using the same creative powered by new data files on a repetitive basis. That’s why we are so excited to introduce the Automated File Campaigns feature, a new way to send continual, highly automated campaigns using CSV or Excel data files sourced from any data provider.
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Automated File Campaigns let you “Build Once, Run Continuously”
As a pioneer in the booming direct mail automation category, Postalytics created continuous, ongoing campaigns we call Triggered Drip Campaigns back in 2017. These are campaigns that you can plug into your CRM, Marketing Automation or thousands of other marketing tech tools that use industry standard integration techniques. One of the benefits of these campaigns is that you only need to build the creative once, proof it and put it in production, yet use it continually over a long period of time. Automated File Campaigns build upon this idea by enabling marketers to use data that resides in data files to have the same “build once run continuously” benefit.
How Will Marketers Use Automated File Campaigns?
A vast industry of 3rd party data providers (such as the built in Postalytics list buying tool or specialty list providers we connect our customers with) enable marketers to capture new leads or enrich an organization’s owned, first party data with additional personalization information to enable better targeting and higher response. Postalytics customers will be using Automated File Campaigns across a wide variety of use cases. Essentially, any type of campaign that can use the same creative over a long period of time and where the data resides in data files (rather than in a CRM or other marketing tech tool) is a great candidate.
A few common campaigns we are seeing include:
- Lead Generation – ongoing lead generation campaigns with data sourced by 3rd parties
- New Mover – continually sending welcome and discounts offers to new movers on a weekly or monthly basis, with the new mover data living in CSV or Excel files
- Nurture & Win Back – existing customer data that needs “enrichment” or additional data from a other systems or 3rd party sources to generate maximum impact (such as customer purchase/donation data or purchase/donation intent data)
How do Automated Filed Campaigns Work?
The Automated File Campaign creation process is remarkably similar to that of a “Smart Send” or file-based campaign in Postalytics. You upload the initial list, map the data fields, choose your creative, choose your postage, etc. The main difference in the setup is that rather than scheduling a date to send the campaign, you have the option to choose a “Delay” (in terms of number of days) that you’d like to send the campaign out on.
Once your campaign is initially configured, it is super easy to send the same creative to a new set of targets by uploading new data files to the campaign. There are several places to access the file upload feature, including the top of your Automated File Campaign Dashboard.
It’s important to note that each data file must have identical columns and be mapped the same way. If by chance you make a mistake and try to upload a data file that doesn’t follow the column convention you created initially, Postalytics will give you an error message and stop you from proceeding.
You Need to Purchase Direct Mail Credits
Like our Triggered Drip Campaigns, you’ll need to “fund” your campaign(s) with Direct Mail Credits, with a minimum purchase of 100 credits to start. You can setup your credits to automatically repurchase when your credits get low in order to keep your campaigns running continually.
Automated File Campaign Knowledgebase
We’ve created several new Knowledgebase articles that go into extensive detail on how to setup and manage Automated File Campaigns. Here’s a link to the setup article.
What Postalytics Plans Can Access Automated File Campaigns?
Currently, Automated File Campaigns are available to Postalytics Pro and Agency Plan customers. If you’re a Free Plan or Marketer Plan customer and would like to use the feature, you can upgrade in the Postalytics app or speak with your sales or client success rep about upgrading.
What’s Next?
We have a pipeline of several new features that will be released over the coming weeks, including:
- A new format 8.5×14 letter with enclosed Courtesy Reply Envelope
- A new list suppression tool
- A new method of capturing direct mail campaign response
- A revised Salesforce integration
- And much more
Stay tuned for these upcoming announcements, and thank you for choosing Postalytics! If you’d like to speak with us about any of these announcements, please reach out to us.
About the Author
Dennis Kelly
Dennis Kelly is CEO and co-founder of Postalytics, the leading direct mail automation platform for marketers to build, deploy and manage direct mail marketing campaigns. Postalytics is Dennis’ 6th startup. He has been involved in starting and growing early-stage technology ventures for over 30 years and has held senior management roles at a diverse set of large technology firms including Computer Associates, Palm Inc. and Achieve Healthcare Information Systems.