How MeUndies Used Direct Mail Marketing to Reengage Lapsed Customers

One digital native apparel brand got back to basics with a Direct Mail marketing campaign to engage customers and amplify their audiences’ excitement about boxers, briefs, and bikinis.

Our customer, MeUndies, targets its made-for-self-expression line of basics to millennial audiences by promoting authenticity and celebrating creativity. With Postie, MeUndies was successful in reengaging lapsed customers who weren’t responsive to email. A pinpointed Direct Mail campaign helped them stand out with their digitally saturated millennial customer base, cutting target CPAs in half and outperforming other paid retention channels. 

The Challenge

MeUndies has built an impressive CRM filled to the brim with true to themselves, undie-obsessed customers. However, they needed to look beyond email and social media in their efforts at reengaging lapsed customers. Looking for an alternative to traditional digital channels, MeUndies turned their attention to Direct Mail to reconnect with their millennial audience. 

In addition, MeUndies wanted to test the impact of promotional offers on conversion rates and gather insights on how discounts impacted both their active customer base and lapsed audiences. 

With February fast approaching, Valentine’s Day was the perfect opportunity to dive into Direct Mail marketing.

The Postie Solution

MeUndies partnered with Postie to develop a strategically segmented Direct Mail engagement campaign. As a result, a 4-step plan was put in place:

Step 1: Defining audience segments: MeUndies CRM data was segmented to account for both active and lapsed customers by recency of purchase. The segmentation produced the following audience buckets:

• Active customers:
  1. High Average Order Value (AOV) audience: Existing Customer who purchased within the last two months with a higher than average order value.
  2. Medium AOV audience: Existing Customer who purchased within the last two months with a typical average order value.
• Lapsed customers:
  1. Unengaged audience: Customer hasn’t purchased in the last two months and has either not opened an email in the previous six months or unsubscribed from email promotions during the past year.
  2. Win Back audience: Customer last purchase was one year ago, during the prior year’s Valentine’s Day campaign.

Step 2: Creative development: Creative was developed to align with the MeUndies “Match Me” campaign. In addition, Valentine’s Day-themed graphics were incorporated to add an element of seasonality. Finally, to bring to life the brand’s mission, the Direct Mail piece highlighted inclusivity while also showcasing the comfort delivered by their softer-than-soft basics.

Step 3: Promotional testing: To evaluate the impact of promotional offers on engaging customers, two variations of the creative asset were developed. The first promoted a time-sensitive discount and included unique promo codes customized to each piece so that the resulting purchases couldn’t be attributed to any other channel or shared online. The second focused on the Valentine’s Day theme and did not include a promotional offer.

Step 4: Deployment Matrix: An A/B test matrix was implemented for deployment. Each audience was broken down into two test cells, with each cell receiving one of the creative variations. The matrixed approach allowed for clean results and attribution.

Results

The campaign was a resounding success across all audiences and creative assets. Low Cost Per Actions (CPAs) and high Conversion Rates (CVRs) were achieved among both active and inactive customer audiences, with the average ROAS for the entire campaign coming in at a whopping 1,195%. 

While the active customer audiences produced better results, the lapsed audiences significantly surpassed MeUndies campaign goals and benchmarks. The target CPA was cut in half, with the campaign delivering a CPA 50% lower than the original target. This, along with an impressive 5% CVR, clearly displayed the campaign’s potency and its impact on the MeUndies audience.

The fact that we were so successful at re-engaging lapsed customers really proved out the strategic potential of Direct Mail as a customer retention channel. We look forward to scaling up our CRM efforts on Direct Mail.

Lindsay Albright, Director of Retention at MeUndies

The discount vs. theme test also produced thought-provoking results. While there was no statistical difference among creative versions for active customer audiences, lapsed customers that received the discount creative converted 15% more than those that received the theme-based creative.

This audience learning showed us that direct mail is a very effective channel for reactivating customers that we have not been able to communicate with by other means. We have also been able to use direct mail to address high value customers and get them back in the door.

Alyssa Aquino, Retention Associate at MeUndies