Axe & Sledge Stacks Direct Mail onto Email/SMS for a New, Scalable, Owned Marketing Channel

TLDR:

• Background/Challenge: Axe & Sledge (legendary IFBB Pro Seth Feroce’s brand) found that email/SMS was running out of juice, so they needed another reliable, automated, scalable channel—that was direct mail.
• Solution/Tactics: The team has quickly expanded their program, leaning into mail for retargeting/retention strategies, with evergreen welcome and abandoned cart flows running alongside seasonal win-back campaigns.
• Results: They don’t lie. 4.66x–6.01x ROAS on retargeting and 7.43x+ ROAS with retention across BFCM, New Year, and their always-on automated retention.

Background

Austin Clare, Axe & Sledge’s Head of Lifecycle Marketing, is a legend in the DTC space. This is a man who lives, breathes, eats, and sleeps owned marketing, having run wildly successful email/SMS programs at wellness brands for nearly a decade.

But across the board, for every marketer at every brand, email/SMS growth and efficacy have slowed. 

As Austin explains, “Not every customer still responds to the digital framework of an email or an SMS. We had to think outside the box." 

Direct mail was the outside-the-box channel—as an inside-the-mailbox channel.

Austin’s bet: people respond to physical marketing, even when the same person has trained themselves to glaze over everything in the inbox.

Enter PostPilot.

Solution: A Blue Ocean Channel That’s Done FOR You

Adding a New, Automated, Full-Funnel Channel to Klaviyo: Direct Mail

“Once we ran a proof-of-concept with you, we got to move into this really fun next phase, which was to treat it exactly like email and SMS.” —Austin

After some early testing, Austin is now running direct mail through PostPilot as the natural +1 to running email/SMS through Klaviyo.

Thanks to our deep, native Klaviyo integration and Premier Partnership, Austin can replicate all his email/SMS tactics in the physical world—ranging from automated flows to one-off holiday blasts.

• Email/SMS welcome flow? Slap direct mail on at the end.
• Email/SMS abandoned cart? Slap direct mail at the end.
• Email/SMS winback flows? Slap direct mail at the end.
• Email/SMS in BFCM season? (You know where this is going…)

Email/SMS are (and will always be) fundamental to any marketing program, but when inbox competition is nearly gladiatorial, you need a reliable, scalable, less-gladiatorial option. 

That’s direct mail.

Did We Mention It’s Done-for-You?

"I don't think really candidly, anyone could beat the experience that you get with Postpilot. I just do what our [account management] team tells me to do. The PostPilot team has the data from other niches. The roadmap is already laid. It's a no-brainer." —Austin

Like every other DTC marketer, Austin’s mega-busy.

That’s why PostPilot takes the learning, maintaining, optimizing, and expanding of a full direct mail program off mega-busy marketers’ plates.

After Axe & Sledge created a first round of card designs, Austin delegated subsequent mailer designs to PostPilot’s in-house design team and lets his account manager, Michael, largely guide strategy and expansion.

The Tactics of the Trade

But what’s Austin actually doing in Axe & Sledge’s program? 

Let us count the ways…

Retargeting: Automated Welcome Flow Enhancement with MailMatch™

When a new subscriber joins their Klaviyo list, Austin runs them through a welcome series. 

But if that new sub doesn’t convert within five days, we fire off a postcard to them using MailMatch™ (no physical address, no problem–MailMatch can find them).

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In doing so, Austin’s adding to foundational digital strategies with physical touchpoints. Plus, if the inbox just happens to be even more of a gladiatorial arena than usual (and even if it isn’t), it’s a surefire way to get seen and introduce the subscriber to Axe & Sledge.

Retargeting: Automated Abandoned Cart Flow Enhancement (MailMatch, Pt. 2)

The cart abandonment flow follows the same pattern. Enhancing tried-and-true digital strategies.

• Email/SMS are the first and second lines of abandoned cart defense.
• Five days post-abandon, we dynamically fire off a postcard to reiterate Axe & Sledge’s digital abandonment offer.

And, c’mon… people really don’t want to leave their gains behind.

Retention: BFCM Winbacks

Direct mail WORKS over BFCM.

In the weeks leading up to BFCM, Axe & Sledge ran a win-back to lapsed one-time and multi-buyers who hadn't responded to their email and SMS push. 

With a Seth-Feroce-Sized reminder:

The postcards reactivated the relationship at extremely strong ROAS, putting the brand and the offer in the customer's hands during the highest-intent shopping week of the year.

Retention: New Year, New You Win-Back

The follow-on campaign in January hit additional lapsed audiences with a fitness-resolution angle: a second-purchase nudge for customers whose first cycle of product had run out.

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Same audience logic, relevant creative, and a 11/10 cable chest fly. 

Health/wellness and specifically supplements brands often have a ton of success with “new year, new you” campaigns—even if Seth isn’t on the mailers looking ridiculously yacked.

Retention: The Automated Unsubscriber Postcard

"They unsubscribe, we can send them a postcard. That was just brilliant." —Austin

One of the best direct mail tactics (and there are a lot of great direct mail hacks) is sending unsubscribed and/or unengaged folks direct mail.

And it’s a move that every brand should test. While most retention programs treat an email unsubscribe as the end of the relationship, Austin now treats it as a trigger. 

30 days after they’ve unsubscribed from email, we automatically shoot them a postcard (the one above), which is bringing customers back into the fold—at a high ROAS.

Retention: Always-On Automated Win-Backs

Last but not least…

Axe & Sledge runs an automated evergreen win-back that fires postcards to lapsing one-time buyers and multi-buyers—that is, customers who’ve passed the expected repurchase window. 

Example customer journey (for both segments):

• Someone hasn’t purchased in 90 days
• We shoot ‘em a postcard
• They don’t buy for another 90 days
• We shoot ‘em another postcard
• They convert
• Repeat this automated process

Like any continually running email/SMS automation.

Leave the sweating for your workouts, not your owned marketing.

Results

"Take the step. Add another bridge or another vein of your customer journey. The game now is touchpoints. How much can you touch a customer so they see you against your competitors? If you won't, somebody else will. My competitors will lose because I'm doing things they won't." —Austin

Austin really, really gets it.

And the results he’s seeing for Axe & Sledge are ridiculous(ly) strong.

Check it out.

• Automated welcome flow: 6.01x ROAS
• Automated abandoned cart flow: 4.66x ROAS
• Automated evergreen win-backs: 7.43x+ ROAS
• BFCM winbacks: 9.34x+ ROAS
• New Year, New You Winbacks: 10x+ ROAS

Absolutely incredible results across net-new and recurring revenue. 

Austin’s pushing Klaviyo strategies even further, he’s driving BFCM harder, he’s bringing unsubscribed customers back into the fold, and he’s driving revenue when he’s sleeping.

These wins are leading Austin to dial up the direct mail intensity even further over the rest of the year.

Not unlike a Seth Feroce workout.

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