Postcards are an easy way to get consumers’ attention. Postcard mailing is a great way to produce sales leads, introduce new products or services, keep in touch with current customers, drive traffic to a Web site and to promote special offers.
Other direct mail pieces, like brochure printing, flyers and letters are effective, but they generally have to be unfolded first, or taken out of an envelope. But postcards are already “opened” and the message will more likely be read, even if it’s read on the way to the trash can.
It’s important to avoid the most common mistakes marketers and small business owners make when embarking on a postcard marketing campaign. Here are the mistakes to watch out for.
1. Not targeting your best prospects
How well do you think a cookie company would do sending postcards to a mailing list they bought from Weight Watcher’s magazine? Granted, it would probably garner a few replies, but most people that read Weight Watcher’s magazine would just throw the postcard away.
Using a mailing list that is targeted to your best prospects is one of the most important factors of a successful postcard marketing campaign. If you aren’t sending your postcards to the people you want to get business from, then what’s the point? You can get targeted lists according to your demographics or whatever characteristics you want to target from a list broker.
2. Mailing out one postcard, once
It is the consistent, repetitive mailings that are effective, not one-time mailings. When someone sees your name and logo over and over again, that builds familiarity and people remember you easier. It usually takes a high number of contact, at least 3 per month, before you generate any kind of action from your contacts. Luckily, the cheapness of sending postcards offsets these repeated mailings.
3. Not personalizing your postcard
By creating a personal postcard for each niche in your target market, you’re more likely to get a higher response. Postcards that hold a personal message generate more replies than those that are written like business proposals. Scan the business owner’s or president’s signature and add that to the bottom of the postcard to make it more personable.
4. Avoid using imprinted postage
Whenever you can, use stamps to mail out postcards. The machine-generated postage stamps make pieces of mail seem more business-like and not as friendly. People associate that stamp with junk mail. A first class stamp that is related to the season or holiday seems friendlier and produces more replies.
5. Sending out postcards to arrive on Monday, Friday, Saturday or a holiday
Pay attention to when you send out your postcards. Monday, weekends and holidays are the worst time for your postcard to arrive in people’s mailboxes. Mail on these days tends to get pushed aside and read later. Tuesday through Thursday are the best days to have your postcard received because those are the days when mail volume is lightest. You can check with your post office on estimations of when your postcard will arrive by going to their Web site: www.usps.com and using the Postage Price Calculator. This will tell you the price of your mailing depending on the date you want it to arrive.
6. Using a postcard to close your sales
You should use postcard marketing as a way to generate leads, not to close sales. Postcards don’t allow for enough space to do your product or service justice. But, postcards are great for grabbing a consumer’s attention and leading them to take a call to action – like calling you or visiting your Web site to place an order.
7. Not proofreading
A spelling or punctuation error will reflect poorly on you and your brand will suffer from a negative image – all from just a misplaced period or comma. Everyone proofreads their work – especially editors and writers, so you are not immune because you’re not a pro or because you aren’t a pro. It’s a good idea to have someone else proofread your work, because oftentimes you can’t see your own mistakes because you know the text so well.
A well-executed postcard campaign can work wonders for your business – you can increase traffic to your Web site and your store, and sales will increase. You can do all that for a small price – all in all a pretty good deal that you should at least try.
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