Cheap Postcards Are the Easiest Way to Make Money

If you run a small business you're always on the lookout for easy ways to market your products and services. For those with little to no formal marketing training, finding easy ways to make money can prove to be daunting if not impossible. But you're in luck: With the right preparation, cheap postcards are the easiest way to make money for small businesses - even if you directly compete with the big players in your industry. Here's how to leverage the power and economy of cheap postcards to make money for your small business.

Start with your mailing list

A great mailing list is the key to direct-mail marketing success. If you know your target audience well - their socioeconomic status, passions, desires, problems and how to solve those problems - you can compile a mailing list that's primed for sales success. Collect all the known demographics and attributes your best customers share, then create your own affordable mailing list full of likely customers. This is where you'll deploy your postcards, and this is your bread and butter.

Craft a can't-refuse offer

Besides your mailing list, the most important key to your direct-mail marketing success is your offer. Again thinking about your target audience, create a list of things you can give away or discount that are both: 1) highly appealing to your target audience; and 2) highly -profitable for you. Anything from a free consultation to a free dinner to a steep discount qualifies - just make sure that you either make money directly from your offer or through an easy-to-set follow-up. Remember that your offer doesn't always have to represent a sacrifice to your bottom line, either. It can simply be a solution to your customers' problems at an affordable price.

Bring it all together into cheap postcards

Through incredible design and creative copy, put your features, benefits, offer and call to action under an eye-catching headline on your postcard design. Now, print cheap postcards to increase your return on investment exponentially. Start with 16-point gloss full-color cover paper stock or 13-point  recycled matter paper stock, both of which lend rich visuals to your colors and solid smoothness and stability in your customers' hands. These attributes lend credibility to your business and lend the impression that quality products and services are behind your company name. Remember that quantity can have a dramatic effect on your return on investment. You could, for example, print 50 postcards for about $35 - or about 70 cents per postcard. Or, you could print 1,000 postcards for about $120 - or about 12 cents per postcard. And 150,000 postcards can be printed at nearly 2 cents per postcard.

Look for cheap postcards deals

Last but not least, keep an eye out for cheap postcard deals such as those offered by PsPrint. At the time of this writing, the online printing company was offering postcard printing at 60 percent off - meaning you could print 1,000 postcards for about $70 (or less than 5 cents each). For cheap postcards that look great, do not sacrifice quality - check out PsPrint's instant postcard price tool instead to prime your small business for ultimate return on investment.