4 Reasons Why Sending Out Postcards is Good For Your Business Marketing

Sometimes all it takes is a simple, inexpensive, tried-and-true postcard to grab a potential customer’s attention.

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Last fall, political campaigns were in full swing. The television and radio airwaves overflowed with political ads. I picked up the paper, and there were even more ads. And it seemed that every billboard on the road had been rented by a political candidate.

One day I went to pick up my mail and found a huge postcard from one of the local candidates. It almost read like a special report. Needless to say, it got my attention, and I ended up voting for the gal.

What I found amazing was that big media such as television, radio, newspapers and billboards couldn’t sell me on a candidate. Instead a humble (albeit oversized) postcard did the job. It was the postcard that had the ability to deliver the candidate’s message in a way that convinced me to vote for her.

That’s the power of postcards. There are four reasons you too should consider using postcards to deliver your pumping business’s message.

Reason one: Low cost

Postcards are an inexpensive way to get your message out. In fact, standard-size postcards are about two-thirds the cost of sending regular-size letters.

Reason two: Cleanses mailing list

One of the benefits of using first-class postage for a standard postcard is that it will be mailed back to the sender if it has a bad address, which helps you update your list.

Reason three: High impact

Because letters are enclosed in an envelope, consumers have the option to either open the envelope or just throw it away. Many people will just throw the letter away without opening it. However, with postcards, there’s no envelope to hide the message. It’s almost impossible to throw the postcard away without looking at its message.

Reason four: Simple

Postcards are easy to create and send. There’s no assembling, collating, stuffing, licking envelopes, etc. The hardest part of sending a postcard is putting on the stamp. And there are services that will even do that for you.

Now that you’ve chosen the method to relay your message, make the most of your postcard marketing campaign with these four tips for success.

Tip one: Be brief

Don’t try to explain all the details on the postcard; just give some teaser information to get your reader to take the next step, which might be going to your website or calling your office or a toll-free recorded message.

Tip two: Editorial design

Use an editorial format. I’m not a big fan of four-color postcards. I’d rather use all the space I can on the postcard to give the reader an irresistible urge to take the next step. The best way to do this is to make the postcard look like it came from a personal friend. But make sure you use a compelling headline. That will be the most important part of your entire postcard. When I want to send people to a website, I show a picture of my website, and if I want to send them to a phone number, I make the phone number as big as I can.

Tip three: Go cheap (sometimes)

Don’t spend a lot on printing. When I send bulk postcards, I use an 8½- by 11-inch, 110-pound fluorescent yellow cardstock. I print four postcards to a sheet by cutting the cardstock into quarters. It’s that simple. However, when I do show pictures of websites, people, locations, etc., I’ll use a four-color postcard.

Tip four: PURLs!

If you are driving your prospects to a website, very few things will increase the response rate of your postcard better than a PURL (personalized URL). A PURL is a unique and personalized landing page created especially for each recipient of your marketing campaign. For example, if I was sending a postcard to John Smith using a PURL, I would put the link on the postcard. When John saw that URL, his curiosity would immediately compel him to visit it. For my PURL marketing campaigns, I use SendPepper software (www.sendpepper.com).

Postcards make sense for most any small business, and by using these postcard-marketing tips, you won’t go wrong.



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