Soup Up Your Postcard Marketing Campaign

Postcard marketing remains one of the best ways to earn new business, because it is so cheap and super effective. If you're not getting the results you want from your postcard direct-mail marketing, it's time to re-evaluate your strategy. Postcard marketing campaigns should always work, and even if you're getting good results you can probably do even better by retooling up your postcard marketing campaigns.

Here's how to soup up your postcard marketing campaign for more power, power, power:

Redefine your audience

You undoubtedly have a target audience and a mailing list (or a way to get one). Now, redefine your market by adding conditions to your market. For example, a contractor might say his target audience is residential home builders in his city. That's a market, certainly, but it's only a start. Our contractor could go a few steps further and define his target audience as a 25- to 30-year-old male named Joe with mediocre credit, a four-year college degree and a $50,000 annual salary. All aspects of the postcard will now be created specifically to cater to Joe, and our contractor will have a much better chance of making a sale by identifying with Joe's situation.

Get real with your offer

Why is so much direct-marketing mail called junk? Because it is! When we perceive something as junk, we're saying it has no value to us. There are only two reasons a direct-marketing mailer should be considered junk - it is sent to the wrong people (see "Redefine your audience" above) or the offer is worthless. Free consultations or a pencil with your name on it doesn't do it for modern-day customers; they want you to offer something valuable that's worthy of a response. Even coupons are often overrated, unless they're for a truly incredible deal.

Your offer should motivate customers to take action because they don't want to miss out, not because they were going to buy from you anyway and just happen to have a discount coupon. What would it take for you to take action? That's what you should offer your customers.

Reduce your copy, design for the short sighted

Do you have more than 100 words on your postcard? More than 50? Are they really needed? The more concise your copy, the easier it is to make your point. Too much copy is a pain to read and difficult to understand, while short, to-the-point copy is compelling. Big headlines and large graphic elements and images should be incorporated into your postcard design layout so that it is simple and easy to understand.

Print with a purpose

Trust is one of the top factors in purchasing decisions, and professionally printed postcards are more credible than cheap, flimsy postcards. Go with a thick 14-point gloss cover stock or eco-friendly 13-point 100 percent recycled matte stock for maximum marketing effect. These paper stocks hold up to vigorous mailing routes and have sheens that enrich your postcard colors for invigorating marketing pieces that get noticed.

You should also consider printing oversized postcards like 6-inch by 9 inch or 6-inch by 11-inch to set yourself apart from the competitive pack. Large postcards cost little more to print than traditional sizes and are literally impossible to ignore.

Postcard marketing is economical and - most importantly - it works. Follow these postcard marketing tips and tricks to soup up postcards that sell faster than a '64½ Mustang.

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