Katie Enriquez
Campaign Strategist at Postal
As businesses look for new ways to stand out and connect with their audience, offline strategies—such as direct mail, gift-based campaigns, and experiential events—are more important than ever. In 2025, balancing the digital and physical aspects of your marketing mix will be key to creating meaningful, lasting connections with customers, prospects, and employees. But how do you plan and budget effectively for these offline initiatives in a world increasingly driven by digital metrics?
In this blog, we'll explore best practices for planning and allocating your budget to ensure your offline efforts generate maximum impact, whether you're looking to boost your pipeline, enhance customer loyalty, or reward your team.
Low-cost Outbound Campaigns for Sales & Customer Success Teams
Whether you're new to offline marketing or a seasoned veteran, incorporating gifting into your outbound strategy is an effective, low-cost way to produce quick wins. Sales and Customer Success teams can incorporate gifting touchpoints into multi-step outbound campaigns in addition to calls and emails.
Instead of giving each rep a monthly budget for ad hoc gifting, consider creating a monthly outbound campaign that the team can leverage. This way, you can define goals, budget, etc. at the campaign level instead of the individual level.
For example, assuming a budget of $250 per rep and assuming a team of 5 reps, you’d need a monthly budget of $1250. Assuming the average cost of a meeting booked is $50, you could expect 25 meetings per month. Here’s the breakdown:
EX: 5 reps X $250 per rep = $1250 budget per month
EX: $1250 / $50 per meeting = 25 meetings per month
According to the 2025 Postal Unwrapped Report–which analyzes data from the more than half a million sends in Postal over the last year–the average spend per item sent via Postal was close to $25 (excluding tax & shipping) and the average spend per gift card sent via Postal was close to $50. With that in mind, we recommend spending $25-$50 per send for low-cost campaigns.
Sample Campaign Details:
- Goal: 25 Meetings Booked
- Budget: $1250 ($25-$50/gift)
- Timeline: 1 Month (or until budget runs out)
- Sending Strategy: MagicLink
- Target Audience: ICs & Managers
An efficient way to set up your campaign is to create a single outbound sequence that can be leveraged by the entire team and is funded by a single budget. By setting up your campaign this way, you’re eliminating additional work created by managing multiple sequences and individual budgets. Additionally, you’re encouraging healthy competition to ensure campaign goals are met and that the gifting budget doesn’t go unused. Learn more about managing funds and budgets in Postal’s Help Center.
For low-cost campaigns that prioritize meetings booked, we recommend sending a Collection via MagicLink with gifts valued at $25-$50 to entice recipients to engage without breaking the bank. Collections give your recipient the power of choice and make the gifting experience feel more personal. You can learn more about MagicLinks and Collections in our Help Center.
Some of the most popular Marketplace items under $50 identified in the 2025 Postal Unwrapped Report include:
- Amazon Gift Card ($25-$50)
- Best Sellers Cookies ($25-$50)
- Gourmet Caramel Popcorn 8ox Ribbon Bag ($25)
- Miady 2-Pack Dual USB Portable Charger ($25)
Another way to maximize your gifting budget, is to enable approvals on your MagicLink. This means that the creator of the MagicLink could approve or deny orders. While this does create some extra work for the campaign lead, it’s a great feature for those looking to keep a close eye on campaign spend and ROI.
Finally, with Postal’s Reporting Dashboard, you’ll be able to see how many times the MagicLink associated with your campaign has been viewed and accepted. In Postal’s Team Budget you can see how much is spent month-over-month.
The key takeaway is that you can maximize your budget by taking a strategic campaign approach instead of an ad hoc approach to gifting in the outbound motion.
Surprise and Delight with Elevated Direct Mail Campaigns
If you’re looking to make a splash with a select group of high-profile customers and prospects, direct mail campaigns are the way to go. Direct mail campaigns consisting of a custom branded kit combined with timely and relevant follow-up can help you break through the noise and reach decision-makers at key accounts.
Although these campaigns require a larger investment upfront, they typically see higher engagement rates when compared to traditional email campaigns. According to Postal’s creative agency, Paper Plane, the average cost of a custom kit ranges from $50-$75.
For example, assuming a budget of $50–$75 per kit and an audience of 50, you’d need a campaign budget of $3750. Assuming a 20% response rate, you could reasonably expect to book 10 meetings. Here’s the breakdown:
EX: $75/kit X 50 kits = $3750
EX: 50 kits X 20% response rate = 10 Meetings Booked
Sample Campaign Details:
- Goal: 10 Meetings Booked
- Budget: $3750 ($75/kit)
- Timeline: 6-8 weeks
- Sending Strategy: Direct or personalized email
- Target Audience: VPs & Execs
When planning a direct mail campaign, thinking beyond the gift will help ensure your goals are met. The first step is to create a unique unboxing experience that clearly represents your brand and prioritizes the primary call to action. The call to action could include a QR code with a link to a webpage or the sender’s contact information.
The second step is to create a follow-up sequence with timely and relevant messaging. You should be in contact with the recipient within 24 hours of the gift being delivered. Then continue to follow up via call and email over the next 2-3 weeks. With direct mail campaigns, you could also consider adding paid ads to your direct outreach to boost engagement.
Designing a custom kit can feel overwhelming! It’s important to consider your target audience and what will resonate with them. Additionally, it’s important to identify a campaign theme that can tie your gift, messaging, and call to action together. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the possibilities, we can help. Check out Paper Plane’s Lookbook to get an idea of what’s possible.
When reporting on the success of your direct mail campaign, consider brand awareness in addition to meetings booked and pipeline generated. Including a QR code in your kit and a link in your follow-up can enable you to track clicks generated by the campaign. Of course, you can continue to rely on traditional revenue metrics as well.
The most important thing to remember is that sending the kit is only half the battle. The communication strategy afterwards is where you’ll see the largest return on investment.
Key Takeaways
As we move into 2025, building your budget for offline campaigns doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Here’s how to make the most of your campaigns:
- Plan with Purpose: Set-up monthly strategic campaigns to be leveraged across the team in addition to ad hoc gifting to maximize budget and impact.
- Be Tactical with Direct Mail: For high-value prospects, custom direct mail kits can make a real impression when partnered with clear calls to action and timely follow-up.
- Broaden Your Definition of Success: Track brand awareness, pipeline, and revenue. Measuring engagement in addition to meetings booked and pipeline generated helps you understand the full impact of your efforts.
By thoughtfully balancing offline and online marketing, you can drive both immediate results and long-term loyalty in 2025.
Postal Overview
Thanks for reading! If you’d like to learn more about Postal, schedule a free demo today to start delivering thoughtful, personalized gifts that drive engagement, collaboration, and success.
If you are a Postal customer and are interested in building your own custom gifting campaign, feel free to book a call with a Postal Campaign Strategist. We are ready and excited to help you connect with your prospects and customers.
