subject: Introduction To Postcard Marketing [print this page] Postcards are still effective for direct marketing campaigns in your business if you know how to use them correctly. Using postcards is just like any other form of paid advertising in that the slightest changes to your campaign can alter your return on investment, so you will need to closely monitor the response you get for variations of your postcard design and ad copy.
If you have an existing mailing list compiled already, that's great. If you have a list of customers or clients, then you will need to compile their physical addresses if you have them into an easy to view format such as a spreadsheet. If you don't have any of this, then you can choose to use services which allow you to bulk mail postcards based on a wide range of qualifiers such as businesses or individuals, size of organization, state/region, revenue, and so on. If you choose to purchase or rent a mailing list, then make sure you verify the legitimacy and check the history of the company that you do business with before spending any money on them.
A postcard's design should be elegant, but not flashy. Use the rights colours to draw the person's attention to an important piece of information or a call to action. The right text on your postcard will also boost response rates. Avoid hype or wild claims. Instead, outline some benefits that people would get if they decided to do business with you, include a call to action and an incentive to act, and of course, your contact information. By offering a solution to your prospect's problems, you'll be making it a very easy decision for them to get in touch with you.
Don't hard sell your product or service, or else you will come off as a salesperson and people generally don't respond well to salespeople. People don't like being sold anything, but they do like buying things, so if you are offering a solution to their problems, then they will be happy to respond to your postcard.
Postcards are still effective in this digital age because they are more personal than certain other forms of marketing such as email marketing. Emails are easily ignored or disposed of, but postcards are physical and can be personalized. Even if someone were to throw out your postcard, it would almost be impossible not to get a good look at it before doing so. This is why your postcard needs to get a strong message across with very few words. In an age where people expect to be marketed to but don't like it that much, you'll also need to be personal so that you will come across as a fellow human being rather than a marketer. People generally do not feel comfortable dealing with marketers, let alone doing business with them.
Just to reiterate a previous point: be sure to closely monitor and test your postcard marketing campaigns. Paid advertising is all about ROI, so if you find that a certain part of your campaign is not working, then ditch it or replace it so that you know you are always getting the most out of every batch of postcards that you send out.
