Two nurses started Nuclear Care Partners while working with former Department of Energy and uranium workers. The organization helps make a difference in the lives of this special group of people who worked in the atomic industry. Many of these men and women are now sick with chronic illnesses and cancers caused by their workplace exposure.

The Department of Labor’s EEOICPA program provides financial and medical benefits to qualified recipients. Nuclear Care Partners helps qualified workers apply for benefits and then provides in-home care according to the needs of individual patients.

The company also assists the family caregivers of former atomic workers by providing direct employment, training and resources. Nuclear Care Partners helps them learn about the government program, educates them about benefits, and connects them to assistance.

The company relies heavily on direct mail to inform workers of their benefit options and the services available to them. Postalytics has enabled them to scale their direct mail program to serve atomic workers in over 20 states across the US.

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The Challenge: Traditional Direct Mail Minimum Orders and Personalization Limitations

Working with a traditional direct mail service provider, Nuclear Care Partners faced minimum order sizes which forced the company to mail large batches. They would have preferred to be more selective. They also experienced problems with consistency and customer service, prompting them to seek an alternative approach.

The company’s direct mail strategy includes lead generation, lead nurturing, event promotion, special offers, and welcome kits. The company assigns patients to various local EEOICPA Benefits Specialists scattered across the country and they wanted to personalize their outbound messages to each individual. This wasn’t possible with their current vendor.

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The Solution: Personalization at Scale with Postalytics Variable Data Creative

Nuclear Care Partners began with Postalytics by taking advantage of the free trial to test the platform and see how it worked. Within thirty days, they’d signed up and the company now uses the software extensively to support their lead generation and lead nurturing efforts.

With Postalytics, Nuclear Care Partners creates their postcards and letters with Adobe InDesign and then adds variables to the templates via Postalytics’ built-in editor. “It’s nice to have that kind of mixture and it’s worked well so far,” remarks Krystal Mitchell, the marketing team’s graphic designer.

The Nuclear Care team has developed several proprietary methods of gathering potential clients for their campaigns. Many potential clients are referrals from existing patients.

Monthly Touches With No Minimums Keeps Nuclear Care Partners Top of Mind

The company keeps in touch with potential clients by sending them direct mail generated via Postalytics. Prospective clients hear from Nuclear Care Partners via the mail about once per month. Using the variable data capabilities of Postalytics, many of the mail pieces former atomic workers receive feature the names and photos of their local support team. Kendra Knauer, the company’s Marketing Supervisor, noted, “That’s been really helpful to have one template for all those different state versions, using variable data.”

I think the variable data was probably one of the biggest pieces of Postalytics that we started using. We are able to do a more targeted campaign since we don’t have those minimums. We aren’t just mass sending because we have to mail to a certain number of people. Being more intentional, we can get more granular about who we’re reaching.”

Kendra Knauer
Nuclear Care Partners

Personalized Lead Generation with Postalytics Variable Data

With simple drag & drop Variable Data functionality and a “bulletproof” digital proofing process, the Postalytics creative tools enable marketers to quickly deploy highly targeted, personalized lead generation direct mail without needing to endlessly iterate with design and print and mail partners.

Automate Different Mailers for Each Stage of the Customer Lifecycle

While personalized lead generation via automated mailers is the workhorse for Nuclear Care Partners, the program also includes lead nurturing programs focused on different stages of the customer lifecycle. This welcome letter from the CEO is a good example, and a best practice. A real letter that serves as a new customer welcome leaves a far stronger impression on the mind of a client than the typical thank you email that most companies send.

Dashboards Track Delivery and Response Metrics

All of the data about the campaign is tracked in a campaign dashboard, including:

• The printing status of each mailpiece
• The delivery status of each mailer (U.S. recipients)
• Invalid address data
• Data about each individual response
• The aggregate campaign totals for all of the above

Account level views of all campaigns are easily analyzed in the home dashboard where cross campaign data can be filtered and analyzed to see the overall impact of the direct mail effort.

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The Results: Highly Scalable Personalization Deployed Across Multiple Campaigns Per Month

Nuclear Care Partners now sends multiple personalized lead generation campaigns per month through Postalytics, leveraging the speed and scale of direct mail automation. Direct mail is one of their highest-producing channels for developing new leads. Potential clients receive notifications about local events, giveaway offers, and educational material covering their benefits. The company sends new clients a series of letters to welcome them to the program.

Messages in the mailings vary, depending on topics relevant at the time and what the company is hearing about from their clients. The messaging addresses pain points the company’s clients typically encounter. Because mail pieces are created on-demand, the marketing team can easily keep messaging current and relevant without wasting money by discarding obsolete postcards.

Many of the mailings now feature QR codes, which clients are scanning more often than the marketing team expected. “We’re primarily working with seniors but we’re finding more and more that they’re online,” says Ms. Knauer, “They’re more tech savvy than we gave them credit for and they’re using the QR codes to go online to the landing pages we’ve created for campaigns, so that’s been great!”

The direct mail approach is working. Potential clients for Nuclear Care Partners are making appointments to speak with benefit specialists or community outreach managers. They are accessing landing pages to RSVP for events, and they submit questions that will be answered online. All this activity is driven by the postcards and letters generated and sent through the Postalytics platform.

We are definitely seeing engagement in our campaigns. One of our biggest lead generators is direct mail. Postalytics allows us to customize our interactions with these atomic heroes, creating connections and relationships as unique as each of these workers and atomic stories.”

KENDRA KNAUER, NUCLEAR CARE PARTNERS

Once patients respond and decide to work with Nuclear Care Partners, the company remains in touch with them. The benefits application process can be lengthy. It’s important to keep patients informed about their status and remind them about the many services Nuclear Care Partners can provide once the patients are accepted into the government program. Postcards and letters supplement electronic messages the company generates along the way.

During the height of the COVID pandemic, extra messaging was required to inform about procedural changes, such as informing patients of telemedicine opportunities or informing them of the PPE that nurses would be wearing during home visits. Postal letters and newsletters helped keep everyone informed about fluid situations.

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What’s Next: Email Integration, New Bifold Self-Mailers and More Personalization

Coming up next for Nuclear Care Partners is an effort to integrate their direct mail campaigns with their email platform. This is an area they’re excited to tap into. Also on the horizon is adding folded self-mailers to the program. The company currently uses a separate vendor for self-mailers and is excited that Postalytics now offers this option to augment postcards and letters.

Additionally, the team at Nuclear Care Partners are looking to personalize the material even further, using information about individual patient illnesses to highlight information specific to their needs.

The care program we offer our clients is quite complex, we often have a lot to say. The extra space available on folded self-mailers is useful. It will be nice to have Postalytics do those too.”

KENDRA KNAUER, NUCLEAR CARE PARTNERS

Conclusion: The Power of Personalization Can Drive Great Lead Generation Results with Automated Direct Mail

Nuclear Care Partners provides services in a very specific niche, and they’ve made direct mail the cornerstone of their marketing and education strategy. The company is a great example of how to leverage the power of variable data and images to create personalized and relevant messages. They are looking to personalize the material even further, using information about individual patient illnesses to highlight information specific to their needs.

Direct mail is becoming more targeted and specific all the time. Platforms like Postalytics make it possible for companies to take advantage of available technology in an affordable way.