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/ Articles / Postcard Marketing / A Postcarding Success Story...
"Hurray for postcards! If you feel that direct mail is the best marketing method for your business, get some postcards out! "I felt very strongly that direct mail was the best marketing method for my company—a Scottish Country Inn. Last fall I designed a full-year postcard campaign for my company (Glenlaurel Inn) that I launched this January. I mailed it to everyone in our database and a few target market lists. "The results have been spectacular. We passed our March 2003 projections by nearly 8 percent, and came in at 14 percent over last March—all in a down economy in the same month a war started (and I'm in the travel industry). The marketing tracking we put in place points all the success to the postcard campaign. "I copied my campaign after the successful campaign models of Bed, Bath & Beyond and JoAnn Fabrics. They offer a nice incentive with almost no restriction except an expiration date. The incentive is so nice, that most people plan to use it—but then it expires and they miss it. "Guess what... here comes another postcard with another chance. If they miss that—they try even harder to make sure they take advantage of the third one. Then consumers get in the habit of watching and waiting for the next post card and using the incentive it offers. Ahhh...consumer brainwashing. What an art. (Just kidding—really!) "This basic campaign model incorporates 1) a familiar incentive (same every time) that has 2) very little restriction (very, very appealing). For example: "Bed, Bath & Beyond offers a 20% discount of any item in the store. Coupon Expires _______. Good thing is, if you don't get the coupon in by the expiration date, then Voila! A new one comes for the same offer with a new expiration date! "I designed my campaign so that the postcard itself was a '$50 gift certificate redeemable for ANYTHING (dining, gift shop, lodging). Expires March 31.' The last two weeks of March were nuts here with people trying to get here to use their postcard. Too bad for those who didn't make it in time. But next week won't they be so happy to see another postcard for April show up in their mailbox? "In my campaign, the 'kick off' postcard was worth $50, but all the rest of the postcards this year are worth $25—no strings attached. The postcard is worth $50 when redeemed Monday-Thursday. It will be the same every time I send it out. It will expire, then a new one will come with a new expiration date." Camilla Anderson Marketing Manager Glenlaurel, a Scottish Country Inn http://www.glenlaurel.com 1-800-809-REST ext. 237 Great idea, Camilla! If you'd like more fabulous marketing ideas like this one, check out the Postcard Marketing Secrets downloadable manual. Martha Retallick, "The Passionate Postcarder," hails from Tucson, Arizona, USA. She is the author of Postcard Marketing Secrets, a downloadable PDF manual will show you how to put postcards to work for your business—profitably. Learn more about it at: http://www.PostcardMarketingSecrets.com |
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Concept Marketing Group, Inc.