Direct-mail glossary

Recall & reactivation

Also known as: win-back campaigns, lapsed-patient outreach, recall campaigns

A recall or reactivation campaign is a direct-mail effort targeting people who were once customers or patients but have not returned within a defined time window — typically 12, 18, or 24 months.

Why it matters

Recall and reactivation are among the highest-ROI uses of direct mail for small businesses because you are mailing to people who already know you. The recipient doesn't need to be convinced your business exists or is trustworthy — they have been there before. The goal is simply to remind them it is time to return and give them a reason to act. Common examples: a dental practice mailing patients who haven't had a cleaning in 18 months, a veterinary clinic reaching pet owners overdue for annual exams, or a med spa contacting clients who haven't booked a treatment in a year. Because the list is typically small and highly targeted, postcard costs are manageable even at a small scale, and the conversion rates from warm lists tend to be meaningfully higher than cold prospecting.

CardCadence

How CardCadence handles it

Recall and reactivation postcards are one of the primary use cases CardCadence is built for. You upload your patient or customer list, select a postcard design and size, and mail. There is no subscription — you pay per card ($0.75 for 4×6, $0.80 for 6×9, $1.13 for 6×11), so a small recall run of a few hundred cards is economically feasible. Every postcard design ships with a QR code that resolves to a link unique to each recipient, so you can see which recipients scanned and when.

Related terms

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Ready to put this into practice?

CardCadence handles the printing, postage, and mailing from $0.75 per postcard — no subscription required.

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