What are five ways to optimize my direct mail program
When you focus on the areas you can control, you open pathways to streamline execution, reduce complexity, and increase the impact of every mailpiece.
Optimize volume and cadence
Align your volume to audience value and segmentation so each send is targeted and purposeful. Flexible delivery windows let you shift mail class or timing to align with campaign objectives.
Pro tip: Plan delivery timelines early to give yourself flexibility in routing, batching, and scheduling across production and postal services.
Batch smarter with print optimization
Fragmented, small-batch production can slow fulfillment and strain workflows. Instead, consolidate similar mail across campaigns, regions, or business units to unlock better routing and processing.
Lob’s Print Delivery Network automatically routes mail to optimal facilities for volume and geography – maintaining SLAs while improving production efficiency.
Leverage USPS promotions
Every year, USPS offers promotions that reward innovation in mail formats, digital integration, and engagement strategies. Aligning your campaigns to these promotions helps you enhance impact and take advantage of valuable incentives.
Here are three key promotions to use this year:
Integrated Technology Promotion
- What it is: Incentivizes campaigns that incorporate digital elements like QR codes, AR, or NFC to bridge physical and digital channels.
- Why it matters: Encourages multi-channel engagement and unlocks postal incentives for campaigns that integrate tech features into mailpieces.
- Example: A retail brand embedded QR codes linking to a personalized shopping page on all direct mail, qualifying for the promotion and driving measurable digital traffic from offline audiences.
Read more on the Integrated Tech Promotion and how to use it
Informed Delivery Promotion
- What it is: Rewards mailers who add digital ride-along content (images, links) to USPS Informed Delivery emails that preview incoming mail.
- Why it matters: Boosts impressions and digital touchpoints before the mailpiece even arrives—helping extend campaign reach across channels.
- Example: A Real Estate co included a clickable Fake Check in their Informed Delivery preview.

First-Class Mail Incentive (launching in September 2025)
- What it is: Provides incentives for qualified First-Class Mail campaigns, encouraging use of higher-priority mail to drive customer engagement.
- Why it matters: Helps offset the cost of First-Class Mail while taking advantage of faster delivery speeds and enhanced handling.
- Example: A financial services company mailed account upgrade offers using First-Class Mail to ensure timely delivery before a deadline, qualifying for the incentive and improving open rates.
Learn more about the First-Class Mail promotion and how to use itAutomate campaign execution
Bring your creative vision to life with seamless design-to-mail workflows. Integrate your favorite design tools to quickly turn your custom designs into personalized, high-quality direct mail—without any coding or manual adjustments.
Save time by triggering campaigns automatically from your CRM or marketing platform
Instead of manually uploading lists or starting production tasks, automation sends campaigns based on customer actions, whether it’s onboarding, renewal reminders, or loyalty rewards.
See Lob’s direct mail integrationsImprove visibility by automating reporting dashboards
Real-time dashboards pull delivery, production, and engagement metrics automatically, freeing teams from manual tracking and making it easier to adjust campaigns midstream.
Take a more targeted approach
Direct mail works best when it’s focused on the audiences most likely to engage. Targeted campaigns aimed at high-intent segments consistently outperform broad, untargeted blasts, especially when every mailpiece needs to count.
Start with your campaign outcome in mind: Can you refine your audience to focus only on the highest-value segments?
Here are four ways to filter your audience:
- Purchase behavior: Have they purchased in the last 30 days?
- Loyalty status: Are they part of your loyalty or rewards program?
- Geography: Are you targeting specific regions or store footprints?
- Engagement history: Have they responded to prior campaigns or communications?

Lob’s Lookalike Lists feature helps you find new prospects who share attributes with your highest-value customers, allowing you to expand your audience intelligently without sacrificing relevance.
Explore more here