How programmatic direct mail lookalikes transform prospecting strategies

Prospecting is getting more difficult, and marketers know that going with the same approach isn’t efficiently growing their brand’s customer base. Trying to meet consumers where they are in ways that will surprise and delight them will also delight management. 

Leading brands are creating successful campaigns by taking new steps to improve the effectiveness of their customer prospecting efforts. This includes going offline to improve reach and conversion, pairing digital with offline efforts, efficiently scaling their prospecting and using offline to increase incremental impact.

Marketers are leveraging offline channels like programmatic direct mail to enhance and inform the performance of their lookalike initiatives. PDM blends the precision of online and offline intent, transaction and customer signals with the tactile power of offline touchpoints — like postcards — so brands engage consumers more effectively. However, like other marketing tools, not all PDM lookalikes perform alike.

Holistic and fresh data helps marketers refine their lookalike audiences for PDM

Prospecting is essential for brands to gain more customers, but it’s also a matter of finding fewer needles in bigger and bigger haystacks.

While always-on is common in PDM, the strategy behind it is retargeting. Always on with lookalikes takes a novel approach by continuously refining and optimizing, making each mailing more precise than the last. Real-time signals guide the prospecting process and give marketers the opportunity to make adjustments while the campaign is live. This method avoids the pitfalls of outdated or static lists used by traditional direct mail methods. 

Additionally, AI-powered audience targeting ensures messages land in front of the consumers brands want to connect with to improve their reach and conversion rates. This also allows marketers to send daily mail that transforms prospects into customers faster.

Unlike traditional methods, the most advanced PDM lookalikes tap into AI-driven online and offline data to identify and reach prospects most likely to engage with a brand. The most effective lookalikes tool continuously scores nearly 100% of U.S. households daily, ensuring brands accurately target the most relevant audiences.

PDM solutions that take a holistic view of predictive data across brands — transaction, online and offline intent, and customer data — help marketers learn which products their most loyal customers buy, what they’re interested in and where they shop across hundreds of brands. AI uses this holistic view of each individual’s shopping behavior to identify the most valuable prospects for a brand with the highest precision. This lets marketers see materially higher conversion rates when compared to those who use third-party data for audience creation.

According to PebblePost internal data, that holistic view applied to its PDM lookalikes program can increase conversion rates by 30% and produce 40% more efficient reach. This hybrid approach linking physical mail and data-driven targeting produces unparalleled engagement, delivering tangible results that can often be elusive in purely digital channels.

By leveraging data from online and offline sources, marketers use PDM lookalikes to deliver highly relevant messages that resonate with their target audience, no matter the size or niche, at scale and with precision.

To accomplish this, effective PDM platforms continuously optimize targeting by analyzing billions of data points so brands can adapt to changing consumer behaviors and market conditions. Dynamic targeting with the freshest data for enhanced relevance drives higher engagement and stronger results.

Agile PDM-online campaigns drive higher engagement and incremental impact

PDM lookalikes don’t just work in isolation. Adding a highly efficient PDM lookalike audience to digital programs will drive even better outcomes. Digital ads provide real-time engagement and brand visibility, while an enterprise-class PDM provider adds a lasting, tangible touchpoint that deepens audience relationships.

For example, a home goods retailer leveraging digital ads and PDM lookalikes from that advanced type of PDM provider saw an increase of 25% in customer engagement rates. The brand reinforced its message by mirroring its digital campaigns with well-timed direct mail pieces, making it more memorable for its audience. This two-pronged approach strengthened brand recall, enhanced credibility and drove higher purchase intent.

However, a metric like the last click means little if it doesn’t relate directly to the impact a lookalikes program, or any marketing effort, has on a business. Using hold-out groups in a prospecting campaign, marketers see the incremental lift their PDM lookalikes programs produce. Consider what a leading national jewelry brand achieved: a joint PDM-digital campaign garnered a nearly 30% conversion rate lift over a single-channel program.

Real-time dashboards also give marketers deep insights into the effectiveness of their PDM efforts. This level of visibility allows teams to make informed decisions and optimize campaigns mid-flight, an agility rare in traditional direct mail methods. For instance, a national electronics brand used a real-time PDM dashboard to track engagement and saw a 35% increase in responses after tweaking their targeting strategy mid-campaign. This real-time optimization isn’t possible with static direct mail lists or non-refreshing lookalikes strategies.

The 1 + 1 = 3 nature of effective PDM lookalikes and digital channels creates a powerful marketing experience. Consumers are more likely to trust and engage with a brand when they encounter cohesive messaging across different touchpoints. Whether an online ad or a direct mail piece, PDM done this way ensures that every interaction adds value to the customer journey.

Ultimately, the performance of a PDM lookalikes program heavily relies on the quality and recency of the data used for modeling, as well as the support from the PDM partner. A suitable partner should offer comprehensive guidance across program management, custom analytics, insights and strategic testing, ensuring seamless integration into a brand’s ongoing marketing strategy to drive measurable results and improve engagement.

Sponsored by PebblePost