Postcard Marketing Tips - Pt. 1

Think of your business’ marketing strategy as a wheel, composed of many different spokes creating a smooth, ever moving machine. Every spoke on your wheel is a different form of marketing, from emails to flyers, social media to postcards, whatever makes sense for your business. There is no fool proof strategy that works for every business or every industry, so you must always be willing to adapt, add, subtract or supplement, depending on your audience’s current behavior.

One marketing strategy that many don’t put much time or thought into is postcard marketing. There are two routes that businesses take with postcard marketing: they use postcards pretty regularly and flood their potential customers with not very effective information, and on the flip side, other businesses that don’t find postcards to be a strong enough tool to make it worth their while and thus put no thought into it and never utilize it. Either way, both groups of people tend to breeze past some of the most effective tips to making this simple and powerful marketing initiative actually work for their business. If you take these thoughts into consideration, it is more than likely that postcard marketing will deliver a successful outcome for your business.

Postcards can yield formidable results, even in this very digital age. Direct mailer's average response rate is 4.4%, compared with email's rate of 0.12%, according to the Direct Marketing Association. In this two part series, we will share a few tips and tricks to make postcards work for your business in order for you to see these types of response rates.

1. Make the right impression. Your postcard only gets 1-2 seconds to make that first impression of your business. From the time it arrives in someone’s mailbox it needs to stand out. Going beyond the obvious tactics to making your mailer stand out [neon colors, bold blocky letters, or word bubbles that say ‘WOW!’] think about what you would like to see in a mailer if you were the customer. Consider splurging on an oversized card, or better yet, a thicker or textured paper stock. These types of material choices can subtly portray some of your company’s characteristics such as prestige or sophistication. Sometimes these nuances become an afterthought, but let them drive your mailer. Think creatively and out of the box!
2. Keep it simple. You have limited space on a postcard to tell your business’ story, so don’t try to throw it all on there. Pick one idea or feature that you really want to communicate to people, not your entire website’s contents onto a 5x7” card. This small postcard serves as a starting point to communicate your brand, not the entire conversation. Choose your imagery thoughtfully and really understand who your market is. For instance, don’t use the font Comic Sans if you want to attract bankers, or business owners or anyone below the age of 10. If you are having trouble designing your postcard, ask a graphic designer to help! Say you don’t know anyone personally, think about websites like fiverr.com where you can enlist a graphic designer’s help for minimal cost. If you are not an expert in design, there is no shame in hiring someone to help. If anything, it will set your business apart from the rest that will show up in people’s mailboxes! People appreciate good design without even realizing, so take the time to make sure your postcard is designed well and communicates your message clearly.