What Does Yotru Need to Start a Campaign?

A list, or a way to build one

The first real input is who the campaign is going to. Some customers already have this in hand: an exported list from the CRM, a defined set of target accounts, a spreadsheet of companies that match a sales team's usual criteria. If that exists, it can usually be handed over as-is and reviewed for completeness before mailing.

Not everyone starts with a list, and that's fine. What's needed instead is a working sense of who the campaign should reach: industry, company size range, geography, and the kind of role that should receive the piece. From that, a target account list can be built rather than supplied. The mechanics of that process, and how it connects to defining an ideal customer profile, are covered in can Yotru build my target account list.

The offer and whatever creative exists

A campaign needs something to say. This doesn't have to arrive as finished copy, most customers don't come in with a postcard already written, but it does need a clear sense of the offer: what's being promoted, why now, and what the recipient should do after they've read it. A one-line summary of the pitch is often enough to start from.

Existing brand assets speed things up. A logo file, brand color guidelines, a style the company already uses in other marketing, any of that gives the creative work a starting point instead of a blank page. None of it is required to begin, a campaign can be built from scratch, but a company that already has brand guidelines should share them early rather than after a first draft is reviewed.

Format and volume

Two more decisions shape how a campaign gets produced: postcard format and quantity. Format is usually Signature 6"×9" by default, with Jumbo 6"×11" reserved for higher-value account tiers and Small or Extra Large used for specific cases. A single production run stays in one format throughout, so this is worth deciding before creative begins rather than midway through.

Volume follows from the size of the qualified list and the budget available. Direct mail works best run at a proper campaign scale, low thousands of pieces or more, rather than as a small test batch of a few dozen. Cost varies by format, quantity, paper stock, finish, geography and mailing specifications, so the exact numbers get worked out once the list and format are settled, not guessed at upfront.

Where scan alerts should go

If the campaign includes a QR code meant to trigger a live alert when someone scans, it's worth deciding early who should receive that alert and how. That might be a specific sales rep tied to an account, a shared inbox, a Slack channel, or a CRM workflow that logs the scan against the right record. This is a setup detail, not a blocker, campaigns can launch without it fully wired up, but getting it right matters more once mail is actually landing and scans start coming in, since the value of a live alert depends on it reaching the right person fast.

What doesn't need to be settled upfront

It's worth being clear about what isn't required to get started. Finished postcard copy, final imagery selections, a polished landing page, exact per-recipient personalization rules, none of that has to exist before a campaign begins. Those are things that get built during setup, informed by whatever list, offer and format decisions have already been made. Coming in with a rough version of each input is enough to start; coming in with a fully finished campaign brief is not a requirement.