Latest / The Newsletter Podcast with Fexingo: Substack, Beehiiv, and Email Newsletter Business / Why Newsletters Are Using Postcards to Build Reader Loyalty
Transcript
- Lucas: So we spend a lot of time on this show talking about inbox strategies — subject lines, send times, segmentation. But there's a trend I keep bumping into that has nothing to do with the inbox at all. Luna: Let me guess — you're about to say physical mail. Lucas: Exactly. Postcards. I know it sounds retro, but a growing number of newsletter writers are sending actual pieces of paper to their most engaged subscribers. And the data is honestly surprising. Luna: I've seen a few examples. There's a cooking newsletter called The Weeknight Dinner — they sent a handwritten-style postcard to their top 500 subscribers last fall, and they saw a 34 percent increase in paid conversions within a month. Lucas: That's the exact case I was going to reference. The founder, a woman named Sarah Chen, started it as a side project. She had about 12,000 free subscribers and 300 paid at the time. She spent roughly $600 on postcards — design, printing, postage — and she made back over $4,000 in new paid subscriptions within four weeks. Luna: So a 6x return in a month. That's not bad for an experiment. Lucas: Right. And the key detail is she only sent them to subscribers who'd opened at least 8 of the last 10 emails. So she was targeting her warmest audience, not blasting the whole list. Luna: That makes sense. The cost per postcard was about $1.20, which is way more expensive than an email — essentially free — but the engagement rate is completely different. Physical mail has a certain weight to it. Lucas: It's the tangibility. There's research from the US Postal Service — I know, take it with a grain of salt — but they claim that physical mail requires 21 percent less cognitive effort to process than digital. And something like 70 percent of people say they feel more valued receiving a physical card than an email. Luna: That 'feeling valued' piece is huge for a newsletter business. If your paid subscribers are paying $8 a month, a one-dollar postcard that says 'Hey, I appreciate you' is a cheap retention tool. Lucas: Exactly. And we're not talking about a huge scale play here. This works best for newsletters with a few thousand subscribers where you can identify your top 5 or 10 percent. For a list of 100,000, sending postcards to 10,000 people gets expensive fast — you're looking at $12,000 or more. Luna: So the strategy is really about depth, not breadth. Who are your superfans? And what's a meaningful way to surprise them? Lucas: Sarah Chen's postcards included a handwritten-looking note — she used a font, but it felt personal — and a recipe card. So the postcard itself was useful, not just a 'thanks for subscribing.' Luna: That's smart. It's a gift, not an ask. She also included a QR code that led to a special landing page with a discount on the paid plan. So there was a clear call to action, but it didn't feel pushy because the postcard already delivered value. Lucas: The other interesting angle is data privacy. With all the noise around third-party cookies and email tracking, a postcard is a completely offline touchpoint. You're not worried about open rates or spam filters. It's just a piece of mail. Luna: But you do need to be careful. Sending physical mail means you're using someone's home address. If they haven't explicitly given you that permission, it can feel invasive. Most newsletter writers only have email addresses, not mailing addresses. Lucas: Right. So the way to handle that is to ask. Some writers add a field in their welcome survey: 'Would you like to receive occasional physical mail from us?' And if they opt in, you collect their address. It's a separate consent, and it actually strengthens the relationship because the subscriber chose to share more. Luna: I like that. It's also a way to segment further. People who give you their mailing address are likely your most committed readers. Lucas: Yeah, it's a signal of engagement. And this ties into something we touched on in episode 19 about metrics dashboards. If you're tracking subscriber lifetime value, a postcard campaign is a measurable investment. You can calculate the exact ROI per cohort. Luna: So let's talk logistics. What are the tools? I know there are services like Postcardly and Sendoso that automate direct mail for businesses. But for a solo newsletter writer, what's the easiest entry point? Lucas: The simplest option is Canva for design and then a print-and-mail service like Click2Mail or LetterStream. You upload your design, upload your CSV of addresses, and they handle the printing and postage. For a small run, it's maybe $1.50 per postcard all in. Luna: And you can integrate with some email platforms via Zapier. So if someone hits a certain engagement threshold — say, 10 opens in a row — you can trigger a postcard automatically. Lucas: That's the next level. But even a manual one-off campaign can work. Sarah Chen's experiment was a single batch. She didn't automate it. She just picked a Saturday, wrote the copy, uploaded the file, and hit send. Luna: And she saw results for weeks. The postcards arrived over a few days, and then people started clicking the QR code. It's not instant like email, but the delayed reaction actually creates a longer tail of engagement. Lucas: That's a great point. Email campaigns peak within hours. A postcard campaign can generate activity over a week or two. And because it's novel, subscribers often share it on social media. Sarah Chen said she got a bunch of organic mentions on Twitter from people posting photos of the postcard. Luna: So the postcard itself becomes a marketing asset beyond the direct response. It's a brand moment. Lucas: And that's ultimately why I find this trend interesting. We're all so focused on digital optimization — open rates, click rates, deliverability. But sometimes the most effective thing you can do is something that feels human and unexpected. Luna: It's a reminder that newsletters are fundamentally about relationships. And a postcard is just a physical handshake. Lucas: Exactly. And it doesn't have to be expensive. For the cost of a few coffees, you can make a handful of your best subscribers feel genuinely appreciated. That's a retention lever most people aren't pulling. Luna: Before we wrap, I want to tie this back to something we talked about in episode 21 — having a profitable product, not just paid subscriptions. A postcard campaign can be part of that product strategy. It's a way to deliver extra value to paying subscribers and reduce churn. Lucas: Absolutely. Think about it: if you're a paid subscriber and you receive a physical thank-you with a bonus recipe or a discount code, you're more likely to renew. The ROI isn't just in new conversions — it's in retention. Luna: And for a writer with a small list, the cost is minimal. If you have 200 paid subscribers, a postcard campaign costing $300 could save you hundreds in churn over a year. Lucas: So here's my takeaway: if you run a newsletter and you've never sent a physical piece of mail, try it. Start with your top 50 or 100 subscribers. Make the postcard useful — a tip, a recipe, a checklist. Include a personal note if you can. And track the results. Luna: And don't forget to ask for mailing addresses first. A surprise postcard can feel creepy; an expected one feels like a gift. Lucas: Good rule. And if you want to dig deeper into the numbers behind Sarah Chen's campaign, we'll link to her breakdown in the show notes. She wrote a detailed post about it on her site. Luna: By the way, speaking of creating content that builds real connections — if these marketing conversations have sparked something you've actually used in your own newsletter or business, that's exactly why we do this show. It's ad-free and listener-supported, so if you find value in it, you can help keep it going by buying us a coffee at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just a way to say thanks. Lucas: Yeah, we appreciate every bit of support. And it's what lets us keep covering these niche angles that big shows ignore. Luna: Alright, so back to postcards. One more thing I want to mention: the environmental angle. Some writers worry about paper waste. But if you're sending to a small, highly engaged list, the carbon footprint is tiny compared to the digital energy of email servers. And you can use recycled cardstock. Lucas: That's a fair consideration. And honestly, a well-designed postcard that someone keeps on their fridge is probably more eco-friendly than a thousand unopened spam emails. Luna: So the next time you're staring at your open rate dashboard wondering what to try, maybe think about what you'd put in the mail. Lucas: I think that's a perfect note to end on. Thanks for listening, and we'll be back next week with another angle you won't hear anywhere else.