Start with the decision, not the channel
A channel comparison becomes useful when it names the audience and the desired action. Reaching an existing customer with an account update is different from opening a conversation with an unfamiliar buying committee. Email can distribute timely information at low marginal cost; mail adds production and delivery work but offers a physical point of contact. Neither characteristic establishes which will create more qualified demand. Define the business decision first: acquire a customer, restart a conversation or support an active opportunity.
Compare the complete cost of a useful response
Print and postage make mail costs visible. Email also consumes resources through data preparation, creative work, systems and sales follow-up. Compare both channels over the same measurement window and include those operating costs. A cheap click can become an expensive meeting if few visitors qualify. Equally, an expensive postcard can be uneconomic even when recipients like it. Use the same definition of a qualified meeting or customer across channels, and report the volume behind every rate.
Separate attention from commercial intent
Opening, handling, scanning and purchasing describe different behaviours. A postcard may be noticed without creating a need; an email may influence a decision without earning a tracked click. Technical signals also have limits: automated email activity and shared QR links can complicate interpretation. Treat engagement as diagnostic evidence. Use meetings held, opportunities accepted and completed purchases to evaluate the next stages, while acknowledging that even these outcomes do not establish that the channel caused them.
Test a combination against a baseline
An informative experiment can compare email alone with email plus mail among similar accounts. Keep the offer, follow-up rules and observation period comparable, and assign entire accounts to one condition when several contacts share an employer. The question then becomes whether adding mail improves outcomes enough to cover its incremental cost. A separate mail-only group may answer another question, but splitting a small list into too many groups makes results difficult to interpret.
Apply examples within their limits
Yotru’s comparison of postcards and email for ecommerce provides a consumer-retention perspective. That context can help frame a channel decision, but repeat purchases from existing shoppers are not equivalent to new B2B opportunities. Use examples to identify hypotheses, then test those hypotheses against your own audience. A sensible rollout expands only after delivery quality, downstream conversion and economics remain acceptable across more than one mailing.
Decision rule
Choose email when timing, reach and low distribution cost suit the task. Consider mail when a defined audience and a sufficiently valuable outcome justify physical delivery. Combine them when each touch has a clear purpose and an owner. Record why the choice was made before launch; otherwise, a campaign can be declared successful after the fact simply by selecting whichever metric improved.
Sources are linked in the text. Examples are illustrative. About this publication.
