11 Best (Free & Paid) Direct Mail & Postcard Marketing Apps for Brands for 2024

If there’s a growth marketing initiative for eCommerce and DTC brands that they should consider in the current digital landscape, it’s taking their personalised efforts up a notch, using direct mail and postcard marketing as part of their growth strategy. 

The great news is that there are many viable options (budget-wise), and they’re all pretty straightforward to setup and get up and running. 

When exploring and researching which personalised postcards/direct mail solutions make sense for your brand (and your budget), I recommend looking out for (which helped me when exploring which solution helped with my clients): 

• Pricing based on volumes - whether small or larger
• Automation capabilities, tied in with event-based triggers and ensuring it’s sent to the right customers in the database
• Integrations with your desired CMS (I list many of the popular ones with the various solutions below)
• The quality of the cards (and do you have the option to pick the quality?)
• Handwritten vs non-handwritten

Okay, let’s explore some of my top recommendations worth checking out. 

1. PostPilot

PostPilot is a really slick solution for eComm brands, where you send lifecycle-triggered campaigns, as well as specific campaigns with personsalised postcards.

The features I like about it

• Postpilot allows you to send fully automated, personalised postcards in a matter of minutes to your customers based on their loyalty, behaviour, and more.
• You can either create your own designs or get custom designs made by professionals to engage customers better. 
• Its user-friendly dashboard allows you to keep an eye on the revenue, orders, ROI, conversion, and ROAS to make informed business decisions.  

Average Shopify Rating - 5/5 stars based on over 75 reviews

Customers they work with

• Privy
• Orbit Baby
• CYSM
• Pourri
• WINPRO Pet

Integrations they offer

• Klaviyo
• Shopify
• Recharge
• Omnisend
• Attentive

Pros

• Incredibly helpful customer support team
• It makes using direct mail extremely easy
• Excellent value for money

Cons

• The pro plan is a bit of a jump in terms of price from the free plan for those wanting to scale this initiative

Pricing

There’s a solid free plan available, and in addition to the free plan, there’s a pro plan that costs $499/month for brands wanting to scale. There’s also an elite plan for enterprise-level customers.

2. Handwrytten

Handwrytten is a really great service for more “personalised” cards and notes that are actually written. Yep, actually written thanks to robotic machines (that replicate how humans normally write). They look really authentic as you can’t beat a card that looks like it’s written by a ‘person’ (wink, wink). 

The features I like about it

• You can add gift cards to over 20 of your favourite brands like Starbucks and Amazon, real coffee packets, business cards, and other small gifts in the envelope.
• You can send as many cards as you want with convenience by simply uploading your spreadsheet and bulk importing. 
• Schedule/automate notes for future delivery to never miss a special day like birthdays. 

Integrations they offer

• Salesforce
• Shopify
• Zapier
• Hubspot
• CDK

Pros

• A lot of customisation options are available 
• Extremely simple and quick to use 
• It ensures you catch a typo you might make (before you finalise and send)

Cons

• Every style of writing only comes in blue ink

Pricing

The silver plan is $97, gold $192, and platinum $366 - all monthly plans respectively. 

3. Mailchimp

Mailchimp, one of my personal favourite growth marketing tools, does many things already with emails, landing pages, popups (and a lot more), the platform also has the ability for brands/marketers to create, print and send postcards to their respective customers databases. And yep, can be sent anywhere in the world. 

The features I like about it

• Mailchimp has awesome reporting/tracking (which happens in real-time), where you track your cards from the moment it goes out to delivery, all the way to when it’s received. 
• You can send stunning postcards (they look really awesome) directly to an segmented audience you’ve set up. All you need is their email address, and Mailchimp has a built-in address finder which can find save time to find the right address from the contacts in your segmented audience (super handy).

• You can automate your postcards for various purposes, from making an announcement, recovering abandoned carts, and rewarding loyal customers to sending a thank you or greeting card. 

Pros

• Great digital print quality 
• The pricing is fairly inexpensive, even if you’re sending a smaller volume
• Mailchimp have done a great job with the UX to make it seamless to set up 
• You can send personalised postcards essentially anywhere, internationally (where your customers are based)

Cons

• It’s a ‘smaller’ postcard size, which does limit the amount of text you can add to your message
• Limited design control compared to some of the other providers

Pricing

The cost per card with postage differs between sending in and outside the US. For 1 to 50 postcards, it will be $1.03 within the US and $1.06 to $1.58 outside the US. 

4. IgnitePOST

IgnitePOST helps brands bring their customers closer with real pen and ink handwritten notes that give warmth to each note. 

The features I like about it

• IgnitePOST makes it super easy to customise notes with logos, colours, and more and personalise postcards based on various events/attributes of customers - plus ultimately, how you set up the goals of your promotion/campaign.
• All the cards and notes are created by robots and automatically delivered to shoppers where you can target them based on their cart status, past purchases, and more.
• There are more than 12 handwriting styles that you can select from (all look awesome). All written by robots still, but of course, they come out with an 'authentic' look (so the recipient won't know any better).

Average Shopify Rating - 5/5 stars based on over 15 reviews

Customers they work with

• Tru
• SemRush
• Brio
• Snowflake
• Roma Designer Jewellery 

Integrations they offer

• Zapier
• Klaviyo
• Shopify
• Google Drive
• Hubspot

Pros

• Works smoothly UX-wise and is versatile 
• Impressive handwriting quality 

Cons

• The ability to export a list of contacts to whom you've sent cards would be appreciated

Pricing

IgnitePOST offers a subscription plan that costs between $89 and $1,555 per month. The prepaid plan costs $2.02 to $3.02 per card. There’s also an option to request a free sample card (which is a clever sample idea by the business).

5. Postable

Postable makes it a cinch to pick a card and type a message while it prints, stamps, and mails the cards for you.  

The features I like about it

• Postable has an amazing collection of gifts from quality brands, so you can improve your customers’ experience by sending a gift with your card.  
• In case you don’t have mailing addresses, this tool’s online address book fetches your customers’ or friends’ mailing addresses on your behalf.
• All your cards are printed on 100% customisable, high-quality, real paper cards that allow you to choose between “real” handwriting or non-handwriting fonts.

Pros

• The email notifications remind you of upcoming birthdays
• Easy CSV mail importing
• User-friendly interface

Cons

• Some users wish there was an option to split contacts into personal and business groups 
• The app may lag at times 

Pricing

Postable’s pricing is based on volume. The more you send, the less you’ve to pay. Generally, for 1 to 19 cards, it’ll cost $3.99 each plus stamp. For 20 or more cards, you’ll pay $3.29 each plus stamp. 

6. Poplar

Poplar is damn cool direct mail software that brand should defs check out. It’s an API-enabled programmatic tool that gives the power to brands to create completely dynamic, personalised direct mail campaigns.

The features I like about it

• To help you acquire new customers, you can send mail to site visitors (even anonymously), just by merely by placing a pixel on your website. Pretty nifty feature.

• You can personalise your direct mails with personalised names, recent purchases, unique promo codes, and images relevant to recipients’ purchase behavior and interests.
• In addition to real-time reporting and transparent delivery tracking, you can take advantage of A/B testing to test and optimise everything. 

Customers they work with

• Caraway
• Haven
• Kettle & Fire
• Marley Spoon
• Lemonade

Integrations they offer

• Klaviyo
• Zapier
• Optimizely 
• Mailchimp
• Shopify

Pros

• The website explains everything step by step
• Sending mail is super easy
• Quick to setup with helpful reporting features
• A variety of postcard and letter formats are available 

Cons

• The price per mailing is a little bit higher than some competitors

Pricing

In addition to a free plan, Poplar offers lite and pro plans priced at $249 and $599 per month, respectively. The enterprise plan is a custom plan. 

7. Touchcard

Touchcard facilitates online retailers in building their brand and maximising sales with automated, high-converting physical postcards.  

The features I like about it

• You can boost sales with auto-generated discount codes that lure your customers into placing an order again. 
• This app allows you to track revenue and ROAS inside the dashboard to make effective business decisions. 
• Advanced campaign setting options where you can send dynamic copy/cards based on segments (including the likes of location and AOV), as well as delayed triggers.

Average Shopify Rating – 4.7/5 stars based on over 35 reviews

Customers they work with

• Fright Rags
• Tradlands
• Natural Stacks
• Gardens of the Sun
• L'Amour Le Allure

Pros

• Good UX 
• Great value for money

Cons

• Most users say it’d be nice to have more customisation options

Pricing

Touchcard charges $0.99 per postcard. You can also avail yourself of the volume discounts. 

8. PostcardMania

PostcardMania provides direct mail and postcards for brands, with over 110k customers. They do the full-suite of services when it comes to direct mail campaigns.

The features I like about it

• Easily upload your own design, of if you need some inspo to save time, you can explore/choose one from templates based on proven campaigns across hundreds of industries. 
• PostcardMania prints premium-quality, vibrant-coloured postcards - all come out with a glossy finish (which looks awesome).

Customers they work with

• TaxPro Financial Service 
• Alexandria Pet Care
• Kristan Ryan Art, LLC
• Bob’s Automotive Service
• Ultimate Creations Inc

Pros

• The final art is high-quality without any blurring
• Offers a variety of postcard options
• You can leverage the custom design services

Cons

• Some users may feel overwhelmed by different products and services

Pricing

PostcardMania offers an extensive price guide on its website, which varies based on the type of product. You can get low volume and high volume per piece pricing. 

The standard postcards' low volume per piece pricing is $0.13, and high volume per piece pricing is $0.05. 

9. Felt App

Felt App is actually an iPad apps, where you can easily write and send cards that look like they’re handwritten. 

The features I like about it

• You can import contacts from your device or spreadsheets and save card drafts or signatures for reuse later.
• The Felt app handpicks seasonal gifts for you to send with your mail, including tea and coffee, card frames and holders, and more.
• You can also use designer fonts to spruce up your cards and then schedule card delivery for any future date of your choice.

Pros

• Reminders for contacts and events
• You don't need to find a stamp or get to the post office to send mail
• Offers a solid amount of layout options

Cons

• It would be great to explore templates and more examples without having to sign up

Pricing

Felt App has different plans in addition to per-card pricing. The PLUS and PRO subscription plans start at $7 and $15 per month, respectively. 

10. PostSnap

PostSnap is an online photo printing service offering a fast, easy, and fun way to order a variety of personalised photo products from your phone.

The features I like about it

• Plenty of awesome products, incl. postcards, personalised cards, photo books, and photo canvas prints to photo prints.
• You don’t need an app to install on your device, and you can quickly upload your photos from either your phone or computer for added convenience.   
• Postsnap lets you quickly personalise your postcards by simply choosing your preferred template, uploading a photo, writing your message, and sending it. 

Pros

• The app is available for both iOS/Android 
• Friendly and quick customer service
• Exceptional quality photos

Cons

• Some users wish there were a drag-and-drop function to add more photos

Pricing

You don’t need any subscription to use PostSnap. You simply have to pay as you go based on the product selected. The pricing for photo invites & announces starts from £12.00 and for postcards from £2.75.

11. Scribeless

Scribeless uses machine learning algorithms to learn and recreate handwriting at scale and automatically print realistic notes. 

The features I like about it

• Scribeless lets you design your card with a drag-and-drop editor and use merge fields to customise your message. 

• Easily pick from a good amount of variety styles (which all look good).
• It uses heavyweight laid card and envelope stock that’s beautifully textured and feels luxurious to amaze the recipients. 

Average Shopify Rating – 4.3/5 stars based on over 10 reviews

Customers they work with

• Taste Ireland
• Scruffy Paws Nutrition
• Cyrus Clothing
• Daisy London
• Karuna Box

Integrations they offer

• Shopify Flow
• Shipstation
• Zapier
• REST API
• Hubspot

Pros

• The platform is straightforward to use
• Easy to integrate with Zapier
• Flexible in terms of card paper, size, and style

Cons

• Some users say it’d be great to have more writing styles and better analytics

Pricing

Scribeless has a pricing slider that allows you to view pricing based on notes/letters/postcards send volume. Ultimately, it becomes cheaper with more scale/volume you order (i.e. bulk orders).