We sent one printed mailer to 366 Forever Beaumore customers who had stopped buying and could not be reached by email or text.
For every $1 spent, it brought back $6.30 in sales. Each mailer cost just $0.65.
The problem
Forever Beaumore does not email people who have not opened an email in over a year. Sending more emails to them can affect deliverability for the brand's other emails.
Some of those people were Vietnamese customers who had not bought anything in over 12 months who could not be reached via email and text.
Instead of giving up on them, we sent them direct mail by post (based on the same playbook we run for our brands.) We wanted to test the waters and see how the campaign landed.
How we designed the campaign:
- Direct mail tool used: Paper Run
- Date: 8 June 2026, with every mailer sent within 3 minutes
- Mailers sent: 366 mailers, all confirmed as sent
- What it showed: the Caviar collagen drink, aimed at Vietnamese customers
- Cost: $237.90 in total, or $0.65 per mailer
The results
All numbers come from Paper Run's report, counting sales up to 29 September 2026.
The send brought back $1,487.92 in sales against $237.90 in costs. That’s $4.07 for every mailer posted.
What we learned
- Customers came back and spent big
Orders from the mailer were much bigger than the brand's usual order, which averaged $128.66 in 2026. The biggest single order was $800, more than six times the usual amount.
- Direct mail takes time to work
Orders came in between 33 and 62 days after the mailers went out. If we had judged it after two weeks, it would have looked like it made nothing.
- It paid for itself several times over
The whole send cost $237.90. The biggest single order paid that back more than three times.
How we counted the results
- How sales were linked to the mailer
If someone who got the mailer placed an order afterwards, we accounted for it. No discount codes were used to track this.
- The orders are real
We checked every order against the brand's Shopify records. The amounts and dates match exactly.
- This was a small first test
It was one direct mail campaign aimed at a small group of hard-to-reach customers. We decided to treat the results as an early sign and we feel a bigger campaign can help us understand if we could repeat the same success.
- There was no comparison group
We did not hold back a group who got no mailer, so we cannot say for sure how many of these customers would have come back anyway. Other sales activities aimed at Vietnamese customers at the same time, like live shows or phone sales, may also have played a part.
The bottom line
Customers that email and text can no longer reach are not necessarily lost. For Forever Beaumore, one simple printed mailer got back in front of them and brought in more than six times what it cost.
This was a small first test. A bigger send, ideally with a comparison group, would show whether these results hold up at scale.
Your lapsed customers are unreachable on the channels you’re relying on.
FAQ
Does direct mail work for winning back lapsed customers?
In this test, yes. One printed mailer to 366 customers who could not be reached by email or text brought back $6.30 for every $1 spent. It was a small first test with no comparison group, so we treat it as an early sign rather than proof at scale.
How much does direct mail cost per customer?
This campaign cost $0.65 per mailer, or $237.90 for the full send of 366 mailers.
How long does direct mail take to drive sales?
Orders arrived between 33 and 62 days after the mailers went out. Judged after two weeks, the campaign would have looked like it made nothing.
How were sales attributed to the direct mail campaign?
Each order was matched by customer email address against the brand’s Shopify records. No discount codes were used, and the amounts and dates match exactly.
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