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A direct mail campaign works like a text campaign. You build a workflow with mail in it, pick an audience, and launch. For ideas on what to send, see the direct mail overview.
Direct mail is only available if it’s turned on for your account. Ask your Avoca team if you don’t see it.

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Create a direct mail campaign

1

Start a workflow with mail

Go to Products → Outbound → Workflows and select New Workflow. To mail people who aren’t customers yet, choose the New Prospects (Direct Mail) type. Otherwise, add a Mail step to the workflow you already have.Choose a preset: Four Mailers, Two Mailers or Single Mailer. After the first piece, each mailer goes out 10 days after the one before it is delivered.
2

Design your piece

Select the Mail step to open Edit Direct Mail. On the Creative tab, choose Design with AI or Upload your own.With Design with AI, write a Creative brief, pick your Logos and Images from your Brand Kit, and choose a size. You can also select Add inspiration from past pieces to start from a design you’ve used before. Then select Generate with AI.With Upload your own, your PDF is sent exactly as you uploaded it. Avoca doesn’t add anything to it, so before you upload, make sure your artwork already includes any QR code or phone number, and keep your text inside the safe area and out of the address zone (see the two steps below).
3

Add a way to track it (Design with AI)

If you used Design with AI, under Tracking elements, you can add a QR code URL, a PURL (text) and a Phone CTA. Each one is optional.
4

Check the preview (Design with AI)

If you used Design with AI, open the Live Preview tab and turn on Guides:
  • Trim: where the piece is cut.
  • Safe area: keep your text, logo, phone number and QR code inside it.
  • Address zone: the part of the back that has to stay clear.
To make changes, use Ask for edits, Visual edit or Edit HTML.
5

Check every detail

Read the front and back. Make sure every phone number, web address, QR code, offer, date and disclaimer is right, then save the creative and publish the workflow.
6

Pick your audience and launch

Go to Products → Outbound → Campaigns and select New Campaign. Choose your workflow. Under Who do you want to target?, pick Customers & leads already in Avoca, or New customers.For new customers, you can build the list with Radius Blast or Property Search. See Targeting new customers.Start with a small group, check your first pieces, then grow from there.
Mail costs real money once it’s sent. Keep essential copy inside the safe area and out of the address zone, or a piece that looks right on screen can be clipped or rejected when it’s printed.
The audience count for mail is the number of customers with a mailing address Avoca can use.

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More options

When you add inspiration from past pieces, choose one finalized piece and select Clone exact design. Avoca copies it exactly, with no changes, and opens Live Preview. Check every offer, date, phone number, web address and QR code before you use it for a new campaign.
Select Send test piece in the editor. Leave Send in live mode off to test without sending real mail. Turn it on only when you want a real postcard, which costs real money. Test pieces aren’t available for EDDM or magnets.
Choose the EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) workflow type. In the audience step, select Choose carrier routes. Every active address on a route you pick gets a mailer. USPS requires at least 200 pieces per order unless you’re mailing one complete route with fewer than 200 addresses, and caps large sends at 5,000 pieces per ZIP per day, so bigger sends can be split across days. EDDM can’t run on a repeating schedule.
Before it sends a piece, Avoca can check each mailing address. If the address is undeliverable, marked vacant, or has a low delivery score, Avoca skips the piece and pauses that customer.
  1. Select the campaign’s audience name.
  2. Open the paused customer’s execution log.
  3. Find the mail step marked Skipped and read the reason.
  4. Fix the address if it’s wrong.
  5. Select Resume & send anyway only if you’ve confirmed the address and accept the risk it won’t arrive.
Resuming only affects that customer. It doesn’t fix their address record.
Resume & send anyway can send a piece Avoca held back because it probably won’t arrive. Check the apartment or unit number and the whole address first.