How You Can Make Money with Postcard Marketing

During economic downturns, business owners like myself are always on the seek out for cost effective marketing ideas. When things are going great and the economy is on an upswing, business owners don’t fret too noteworthy about marketing. They’re more focused on the day to day operations of their businesses, dealing with staff and serving customers. But it is during these very times, when your business is running smoothly and successfully, that you must think about marketing.

When I acquire ready to launch my marketing campaigns, I start thinking postcard. Now I don’t mean postcards in the sense of postcard “decks”, the stack of postcards packaged together from different companies and advertisers. Card decks don’t seem to pack the same wallop as a stand alone postcard. If you scrutinize in your mailbox on any given day, you’ll probably see a few postcards in there. They compete against each other. You, as an advertiser and business owner need to made your postcard marketing message stand out among the other fish in the sea. One important key to the success of you postcard marketing campaign will be the size of your postcard. The bigger the better. Oversized postcard will not qualify for the “postcard” rate at the post office, but the extra postage that I pay for the oversized postcard is worth it to me. I always, without fail, get a better response from my postcard marketing mailings when I send out oversized postcards.

Using bright coordinated colors for my postcard marketing mailings make a Huge difference in my response rate as well. Who doesn’t enjoy getting big, bright, colorful postcards filled with Special offers on them in their mailbox everyday. While using the bigger sized postcards and using bright colors for your postcard marketing mailings is essential, your choice and quality of your mailing list is paramount. With a lousy, stale mailing list your response rate from your postcard marketing mailing will be zilch. Only get your mailing lists from a reputable list broker, or else you’ll wind up with out of date information and tons of duplicate addresses. I speak from experience. On more that one occasion, I did not do my homework when choosing list brokers and ended up getting many of my postcards succor because of “addressee unknown.” Remember, your postcard marketing mailing will only be as successful as your list broker. Settle them wisely. You will also need to decide who you want to receive your postcard markeing mailings. This is called targeting. It is crucial that you target your market. You don’t want to send out a postcard marketing mailing advertising senior living apartments to a bunch of 20 year olds, nor would you want to send your postcard marketing message of a free dinner at your restaurant to people who live in another space. You need to know your demographics and apply this to your postcard marketing mailings. Again, your list broker will assist you with targeting your market.

Now, think about what message you will send out to your potential customers. No matter what offer you choose to include on your postcards, make sure you “ask for the offer.” As I’ve learned if your postcard does not have a strong “call to action” on it your customers won’t respond to it. “Call Now” or “Visit Our Website Now” are both strong calls to action. “Order Now” is even better. Remember, ask for their order and construct a strong call to action. On the rare occasion that I didn’t or forgot to add a call to action on my postcard marketing mailings, my response rate took a dive. As distinguished as your “call to action” message is, your offer is just as important. “Free” is always a good offer as in “Buy One Get One Free.” Always try to limit your offers to two. It cheapens your postcards when you have a 10 different coupons and offers on your mailing piece. This is sometimes confusing and off-putting to your customers.

Don’t employ crazy fonts either. Again, it makes your postcard marketing mailing look amateurish and cheap. What I like to do, and you should too, if you have the time, is hand write all your addresses. Even when you get your addresses from a list broker in label form, just copy the address in your contain writing. It adds a personal touch and increases your response rate. It always increases my response rate. Paying for first class postage will probably increase your response rate from your postcard marketing mailing as well. Bulk rate postage is perceived as junk mail to many people.

If you don’t want to use a list broker you can always use the phone book. Exercise the yellow pages if you want to target certain businesses and use the white pages if you want to target residents that are in close proximity from your business. It doesn’t pay to send out a mass postcard marketing mailing to people who live 50 miles away, offering them a free pop if they come to your restaurant. Your best customers can be right in your backyard.

If you use some of my suggestions the next time you launch your postcard marketing mailing, chances are you will dramatically increase your response rate and get yourself some new trusty customers.