Postcard Marketing for Nonprofit Organizations

It is very important that marketing for nonprofit organizations be effective and cost efficient. No matter your goal, whether fundraising or delivering an important message, postcards are one of the most cost-effective marketing tools for nonprofit organizations.

In order for your postcard marketing campaign to be successful, you need to create postcards that:

are easy to respond to;

contain a compelling message and call to action; and

are attractive, so they stay in the hands of potential donors.

Postcard design

When designing your postcards, try to be creative so that your message gets immediate attention. Postcards have an inherent advantage over mail in envelopes. A lot of mail that is in envelopes never gets opened, thus the message is lost.

With postcards, the message is conveyed instantaneously as it is clearly printed on the front. What is important is the reaction of the reader: Do they continue to read the postcard or just throw it away? Your headline is key to capturing the reader's attention. Not only must it be attention grabbing, but it must also be relevant to your cause. Whether you pull your audience in or not will be determined by your headline.

With a creative design and a bold headline, readers will be compelled to turn the postcard over to read the rest of the message. This is where your call to action comes into play. If you are fundraising, this should be clearly stated with easy ways for the reader to contact you. Including a URL for your website or telephone numbers are two quick and easy ways to improve returns on your action call.

Have your postcards printed on 14-point gloss cover stock or, for good PR, opt for 13-point 100 percent recycled matte cover stock. You can instantly compare postcard prices using PsPrint's printing price tool.

Mailing list

Great postcard design is just one component of a successful marketing campaign. Your mailing list is as important as what you are mailing. While you are not selling a product per se, you are selling your ideas, programs, services and mission. Unfortunately, your programs will not sell themselves, so creating a niche is as important to a nonprofit organization as it is to any business.

Communicating effectively will help create an understanding of your nonprofit. Also, by investing time, money and effort into building a targeted mailing list, you are more likely to receive donations instead of wasting postage sending to those who will just throw the postcard in the trash. You can get help compiling a mailing list with the tools at PsPrint.

Just because your organization doesn't turn a profit doesn't mean that you shouldn't market like you do. The goal is the same as any business - you want to fuel return on investment and raise money for your cause. Nonprofit postcard marketing is one of the most cost-efficient and effective ways to do this.

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