E044 - Direct Mail in Consumer Lending With Dennis Fish and John Minalga of the ICS Corporation

Carlos sits down with Dennis Fish and John Minalga of the ICS Corporation following a roundtable dinner with 16 consumer lending executives in New York City to talk about one of the most misunderstood channels in financial services: direct mail.

We discussed:

 

Busting the "Direct Mail is Dead" Myth Direct mail accounts for roughly 40% of new accounts for many lenders. Dennis pushes back on the idea that FinTech companies should default to digital-only and shares a story from a lending conference that proves the point perfectly.

Cutting Through The Clutter John argues that direct mail offers something digital can't: uncontested attention. A physical pre-approval offer carries implicit credibility and builds trust. That trust is fragile though. One misleading offer or buried fee and it's gone.

Attribution DM chronically gets underfunded because digital teams harvest leads that direct mail planted. John's fix: design clean holdout tests (mailed vs. not mailed) to measure true incrementality rather than chasing perfect last-touch attribution. Dennis adds that the best marketers measure channel mix holistically. Rising waters raise all ships.

USPS Discount Programs Worth Knowing Dennis breaks down postage discounts available in 2026 that most mailers aren't fully utilizing, including tactile/sensory enhancements, QR code integration, Informed Delivery, sustainability, and growth incentive programs. Stacked together, mailers can recover around 7% of postage costs, with growth incentives returning up to 30% of increased spend.

 

Find Dennis and John on LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennisfish/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnminalga/