Programmatic Direct Mail Delivers Increased ROAS for Dermstore

Dermstore, an online beauty store owned by Target, recently integrated a digital marketing campaign with direct mail to increase consumer engagement. The result? A 30 percent increase in promo code redemptions once the direct mail component was added to the campaign. Partnering with programmatic direct mail platform provider PebblePost, Dermstore's online visitors’ activity was translated into personalized, physical mail, essentially taking retargeting offline. In addition to more promo code redemptions, Dermstore's programmatic direct mail campaign also achieved three times the return on ad spend (ROAS) overall.

Bumsoo Kim, Director of Marketing, Dermstore

To get further insights into Dermstore's use of programmatic direct mail, I interviewed Bumsoo Kim, the retailer's director of marketing.

Total Retail: When did Dermstore start using programmatic direct mail?
Bumsoo Kim: We started our initial test in March 2017.

TR: What were the challenges that Dermstore was encountering in being able to retarget consumers who browsed its site but ultimately left without making a purchase?
BK: The main challenge was our inability to reach our full audience through digital communications and ads. It's increasingly difficult to get high levels of engagement with digital ads, and we needed a way to reach our customers in a more personalized way.

TR: Why was PebblePost's programmatic direct mail solution right for Dermstore in addressing this challenge?
BK: After looking at other options, PebblePost's programmatic direct mail solution provided us with the best combination of technology and account support to help scale our retargeting efforts. It understood our challenges and helped develop a clear strategy to reach our desired audience through a new avenue.

TR: What are the types of data that Dermstore is collecting about its site visitors to leverage in direct mail retargeting campaigns?
BK: We're looking at very simple data points such as are they new to Dermstore, what page(s) are they visiting, and did they make a purchase.

TR: How are the direct mail pieces personalized to individual recipients?
BK: We personalize our direct mail pieces depending on what page or pages they visited on our site. It allows us to have different calls to action and messaging depending on their interaction with our website.

TR: How are you tracking those recipients that are coming back to Dermstore's site to purchase?
BK: For tracking, we rely on a combination of PebblePost’s reporting and our proprietary internal reporting.

TR: What business benefits has Dermstore realized since it started using PebblePost's programmatic direct mail?
BK: We've been able to show true incremental reach and a growth in our retargeting efforts.