​‘A card lingers for longer.’
That’s where its strength lies—but also a potential risk. Driven by enthusiasm and the instant results that digital channels can bring, a sense of impatience may quietly creep in after sending your first campaign. That’s why it’s important to clearly understand what to expect in terms of conversions when sending your first Direct Mail campaign. This allows you to manage expectations—towards your team, but also yourself—so that you can assess results in the right way and at the right time. We’re here to help.

Just as quickly as an ad appears on platforms like LinkedIn or Google Ads, it disappears again. Your audience scrolls past it in no time. And an email? That often ends up in the bin within seconds—if it even gets opened at all.

This is not to dismiss digital channels—they often perform very well and can deliver results fast. Conversions can start coming in as soon as a campaign goes live. Sending cards, however, takes a bit more time.

After sending, a lot goes on behind the scenes. The cards are:

• printed;

• handed over to PostNL;

• sorted;

• distributed nationwide;

• and finally delivered by postal workers.

If you’ve chosen the most economical delivery option (batch), it can take up to 8 days for the cards to hit the doormat. The faster method may take up to 48 hours.

Sending cards requires a bit more patience, but it comes with major benefits. Research by PostNL shows that the average attention time is around 2.2 minutes. But when exactly do conversions happen?

In pilot campaigns we’ve run with clients, we see that conversions take time. In the example below, you’ll see the results of Kaartje2go’s win-back campaign.

In the first 8 days after mailing, only 0.6% of recipients converted. The biggest boost came between days 14 and 30, when 44.1% of all conversions occurred. Within 30 days, 71% of the conversions were in. That means that a further 29% came in over the following two months.

These numbers support the idea that cards often sit on desks until the right moment arises—when the message becomes relevant. In Kaartje2go’s case, this might be when someone close to the recipient has a birthday, or when they want to send a card or gift to brighten someone’s day. For XXL Nutrition, it could be when a customer runs out of protein supplements. Or when Butternut Box customers need to restock their dog food. These moments can’t be scheduled—but it’s crucial that you’re present when they come.

We see that people keep the cards until they’re ready to take action.

What kind of conversion rates can you expect? That depends on several factors:

• The offer (is the incentive compelling enough?)

• The segment (who are you sending to, and have they heard from you recently? Are the data still up to date?)

• The combination with other channels, such as email

• The copy (is it concise? Are influence techniques like scarcity, urgency, social proof, and reciprocity applied effectively?)

• The design (is the card attractive and recognisable?)

How well your cards perform depends on many variables. Below, we share some results from win-back campaigns we’ve recently run with clients:

• XXL Nutrition

  Conversion rate: 11.5%

  ROI: 718%
  
  

• Kaartje2go

  Conversion rate: 12.3%

  ROI: 97%

• Online budget supermarket

  Conversion rate: 8.21%

  ROI: 781%

• Webshop/wholesaler in professional kitchen equipment

  Conversion rate: 3%

  ROI: 3137%