If you need a marketing tool that is quick, simple and inexpensive, what should you use? The answer is: postcards! Surprised?
Direct mail postcards are one of the most effective marketing tools at your fingertips. With postcard printing, you can create and mail postcards for as little as .50 cents each. That’s a bargain!
Postcards can be used to get sales leads, generate sales and to introduce your product or business to potential customers.
The secret to making postcards work
The biggest secret to making postcards work is repetition. Yep, that’s the most important factor. Yes, you need a nice design and a great headline, but if you don’t send out postcards repeatedly, they won’t be effective. There are many different opinions on how often you should mail out postcards, from once per month to two to three times per month. Why?
Because people respond to repetition. People won’t remember you if they only see your ad once or twice a year. They won’t remember your postcard or your products if they don’t see them repeatedly. When they’re out and about, if they see your logo, they won’t know it’s you because they won’t be able to remember it unless you repeatedly get your message and logo out to them.
Keys for a successful postcard marketing campaign
Market to people who need your product or service
If you send your postcards to people who don’t need your product or service, or that have no interest in your offering, even the best postcards won’t convince them otherwise. If people don’t need your product, they’ll ignore your advertising efforts. Sending them postcards will be waste of your money.
You can’t will people to want or need your product, but you can tailor your mailing list to the people who you believe have a good chance of needing your product. If you’re using a list broker, get very specific about your demographics – you can get lists according to where people live, their salary, their marital status and how many kids they have, among other characteristics. Use the options to create a list wisely: narrow down who you think would be your best prospects and mail them your postcards and other marketing materials.
If you’re creating an in-house list, include your current customers, past customers, your competitors’ customers and anyone who’s bought something related to your product or service. For instance, a vet could use a mailing list from a local pet store to try to drum up new business.
Communicate a benefit on your postcard
Consumers and businesses these days are cutting back on a lot of things due to rising gas prices and a slumping economy. They might need some more convincing to spend their hard-earned money with you.
The way to convince them is to tout some benefit that will make their lives easier or that will somehow save them money. If you’ve done your market research, you should have a good idea of what problems your potential customers have. All you have to do is tell them how your product will help solve that problem.
Include a limited time offer
People will often leave postcards and other mail on the table, and say they’ll get to it later. They’ll read your postcard, see your offer and will leave it for another time. Then they forget. To prevent them from forgetting, include a time limit on your offer. Give them anywhere from a week to a month to redeem your offer. If you wait any longer, they’ll forget. A time limit prompts people to take action sooner than they otherwise would.
Katie Marcus writes about the postcard printing technologies used by businesses for their marketing and advertising campaigns.
Source: http://www.ArticlePros.com/author.php?Katie Marcus
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