How to Pull Profits With Postcards
Direct mail delivers your marketing messages right to the doorsteps of existing and prospective customers. One of the primary benefits of this type of advertising is that it gives you complete control over who receives your marketing pieces and when. Direct mail consists of letters, flyers, brochures and any other type of mailing you might imagine -- including postcards. In fact, a well-executed postcard advertising campaign is a highly efficient and cost-effective way to reach your target market with time-sensitive offers that encourage immediate action.
- Difficulty:
- Moderate
Instructions
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1
Set a goal for your postcard mailing campaign. Know what you want your campaign to accomplish. Your potential goals might include winning back former customers, retaining current ones and earning new ones, or funneling traffic to your website.
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2
Plan a strategy for achieving the campaign goals. Advertise a special, limited-time offer for returning customers, or offer a special discount to first-time customers.
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3
Generate ideas for a postcard campaign that incorporate several mailings to your targeted list, as the average consumer needs to see several mailings before acting on one.
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4
Create a psychographic profile of the consumers you want your campaign to reach by identifying age, interests, influences, financial strength and geography of the people most likely to purchase your product or service.
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5
Design the postcards and write the promotional copy. Limit promotional messages to one per postcard. Offer something of value and issue a call to action with each card in the campaign.
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6
Purchase a direct mail list of potential customers who match your customers' psychographic profile.
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7
Send your copy, design and mailing list to a professional printer or create your own cards. Mail the cards to your mailing list.
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8
Record the contact information of the postcard campaign respondents. Continue to engage these customers with future marketing efforts.
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Tips & Warnings
Use the postcards to capture leads as well as generate them. Offer a free email newsletter subscription, for example, or direct recipients to your website or blog to take advantage of an offer that requires them to submit their email addresses.
Consistency and follow-up are key factors in a postcard campaign's success.
If you make your own postcards, check with your post office to make sure you follow regulations that mandate size and the minimum space required for recipients' postal addresses.
Experiment with different offers to see which prompts the best response. Code each offer. Ask every customer who responds to a postcard to read you the code so that you can track the offers' effectiveness.
