Our example is that of a mosquito abatement company sending postcards to households in Florida, every two-three months starting in January. January is not a month when you would expect swarms of mosquitoes, even in Florida.  There is no benefit to your target audience in January.  But if your goal is to get name recognition during the winter months so that you have customers starting in the early and throughout the summer months, this strategy is very effective for postcard campaigns.

You receive the first postcard in January.  Your initial reaction might be, “I don’t need mosquito abatement in January.  Mosquitoes aren’t a problem until May or June.  What’s wrong with these people?” Because of you took the time to skim the card, you make a mental note of these crazy people trying to sell you mosquito abatement in the dead of winter.  In the trash goes the postcard.

In March, you receive another card from the same company.  You have the same reaction.  But now you have seen the same company name twice and you remember it from January.

In May, you receive another postcard from the same company and you remember it from the January and March mailings.  You remember seeing on TV earlier in the week this might be the worse season for mosquitoes in the past 20 years.  Now you think you might benefit from this company so this time you put the postcard where you can easily find it in case you have to call them or maybe you toss it. Either way, you can now recall from memory the name of “… the crazy mosquito abatement service company that sends me postcards during the mosquito dormant months”.

Two weeks later, you are in your yard trying to enjoy a cook out.  You notice the mosquitoes were plentiful and you have the bites to prove it.  You need help getting rid of these pests if you want to enjoy your yard over the summer. Now you can benefit from the “crazy company” that sent you postcards during the winter and you call them to get to your house in a hurry.

The card you received the first two times was almost as annoying as those mosquito bites.  By the time you needed their services, you could remember the name of the company.  Even though the postcard did not result in an immediate response, it gave the company brand and name recognition.  You remembered the name and the card made an impression on you because you received it in January.

As human beings, we learn by repetition.  The more we do something or read about something, the more likely we are to remember it.  The same holds true for the postcards.

It only takes a second to skim the postcard and decide whether or not to toss it in the trash can.  But if you receive it more than once, it is likely you will be able to remember the name of the company from memory.  If you think you might benefit from the company’s offer, you might save the postcard for future use.  Either way, the mosquito abatement postcard campaign was effective.  They probably received zero responses in January but by May, their phones were ringing off the hook.

As with any postcard, the front of the postcard should have an attention grabbing photograph or graphic, as well as a headline that will peak the reader’s interest.  It is important to keep it simple, yet effective, with the text and photograph complimenting one another.  Of equal importance is a “call to action”. You want to offer a discount, freebie, etc. with a set expiration date to get the reader to respond. An example would be: 1) 20% discount on all web site orders received before February 1st 2) Purchase before February 1^st and receive “xxx” gift at no additional charge.

Conversely, the back of the postcard might be the first side of the card that is seen by the reader.  The only difference between the front and the back of the postcard is the recipient’s address is found on the back.  Since the back side of the card could be your opportunity to make a first impression, you want it to carry as powerful a message as you have on the front.  You should include another photo or graphic, some bulleted items outlining your offering  and the basic information of your web site, email and phone number.  Give your potential customers enough information to peak their interest and point them to your web site or get them to pick up the phone and call for more information or to place an order.

It is very important to make your contact information visible on either side of the postcard and it doesn’t hurt to have this information on both sides of the postcard.    Place the web page prominently on the bottom of the front of the postcard.  Take advantage of adding the address and phone number of the physical store location on the back of the postcard.  Make sure the size of the contact information lettering is visible whether it is on the front or the back.

Although postcards are small, they can have a major impact using very few words and attention grabbing headlines.  The postcard is the introduction of you and your business to potential customers.

Your target audience is those individuals who would most likely benefit from your offer and take advantage (buy!) your services or products.  Taking the time to carefully “profile” your target audience will improve the likelihood of success.

You can profile your target audience by using the buying characteristics of your current customers.  For example, your company manufactures and wholesales trinkets to small businesses in your state.  You further define a small business as a company that has gross revenues of less than $1 million per year.  The decision maker for these businesses is the purchasing agent.  Your offer is to sell surplus trinket inventory at a discount.  Another goal for this campaign is expanding your business to a nearby state.

Since you want to sell surplus trinkets at a discount and encourage repeat business, your target audience includes your current customer base.  They know you and are familiar with your name and reputation.  Because you want to expand your business to a nearby state, you want to mail your postcards to the purchasing agents of those companies that gross less than $1million per year.

Profiling is important not only for business to business postcard campaigns but also for business to individual consumers.  Before you ever went into business, you probably did market research to determine the characteristics of those who were likely to buy from you. For example, you located your store where there was foot traffic; you sell expensive jewelry so you located in an affluent area where the buyers make more than $50,000 per year; you offer your services exclusively over the internet so you need buyers who own a computer; you sell rock and roll memorabilia and your customer profile includes certain age groups, income levels, and people who purchase more than 25 CDs per year.

It is very important that your goals, offer, message and the mailing list you select work together.  Take the time to profile your current and potential buyers.  The more specific you are about your target audience the better your chances for a successful postcard campaign.

During the planning phase of the campaign, you defined your goals.  For this particular campaign, you wanted to increase the number of orders coming through your web site.  You offered a special discount that is valid for 30 days. How will you distinguish between orders coming from the web site that are a result of the postcard campaign versus normal traffic to that webpage?

One solution might be to direct your postcard campaign recipients to special URL/web page such as www.yoursitename.com/offer11.  Another way to track this new customer would be to use a promotion or coupon code unique to this mailing.  The promo code is used during the checkout process in order to receive the discount offered on the postcard.  This code can be used to track the number of orders received as a result of the postcard campaign.

Perhaps your campaign goal is to get people to contact you so they can receive free brochure materials about your latest life insurance plan.  An easy and inexpensive way to track results that are coming from phone calls is to use a different 800 number specific to this campaign.  The cost is minimal and your monthly statement will show you the number of calls received.  Your phone bill statement is much more accurate than asking your customer service team to keep track of how many calls they received as a result of the postcard campaign.

Another method for measuring campaign effectiveness is to stagger the mailing of the postcards.  For example, you order 5,000 postcards and for the first campaign you will send 1,000 cards.  But you would like to control and gauge how the postcards are received before mailing all 1,000 cards.  You decide to send out 250 a week so that your response rate is more manageable and you can make minor changes to the postcards if needed before mailing all 1,000 cards.

Since postcard marketing is only one component of your marketing strategies, it is important to know its effectiveness.  As you do each campaign you learn more about your target audience and what resonates with buyers and what doesn’t. Whether you select a promo or coupon code, an 800 number or have a special web site address, knowing the effectiveness of the postcard campaign compared to your other marketing methods is valuable information for your future planning and budgeting.

Using postcards as a part of your overall marketing plan is the simplest and most cost effective method for communicating with new and current customers. They are the perfect tool for announcing a new store opening; offering special discounts or just enticing the reader to find out more about you or your business.

With the overload of information from both the post office, email and at our workplace, it is likely that we take the time only to skim the front of the envelopes or the email subject line in determining what gets our attention and what doesn’t. Many of us have spam filtering software on our computers to automatically delete anything that looks like junk mail.   Postcards achieve almost 100% readership.

Because there is no envelope to open and hopefully an attention grabbing headline and graphic on the front, it will take less than a few seconds for the recipient to decide to continue reading or toss the card in the trash can.  Either way, you have been successful in registering your company with the reader, even for only a few seconds.

Postcards are inexpensive to design, print and mail when compared to other advertising methods.  Let’s say the overall cost of printing and mailing 10,000 cards is $3,200.  In this example, the cost of each post card is $.32.  A 1% response rate to this campaign is 100 inquiries.  If you converted 40% of these inquiries into sales (40 new customers), at an average of $500 per sale, you received $20,000 in revenue from an advertising piece that cost only $3,200.  This equals nearly a 700% return on your original investment of $3,200! You would be hard pressed to achieve this type of results from other, more costly types of advertising.

Postcards allow you the advantage of getting your message in front of your targeted market more than once.  As human beings, we tend to remember things when we repeat them over and over again.  Because post cards are inexpensive, you can afford to mail them frequently, thus increasing the probable recognition of your company and products over time.  This is a very effective technique for building your business incrementally with each mailing.

Postcards have been around for a long time and now businesses are taking advantage of their simplicity. They are quite effective when used as a part of an overall marketing plan.

Mailing lists are available from a variety of companies at varying costs.  What is a mailing list?  It is a list of names and addresses extracted and compiled from a database of consumer and business information.  At a minimum, these databases contain the names and addresses of consumers and/or businesses.  Some companies specialize in databases that contain demographic information, such as income level, age, gender and occupation.  Some list companies specialize in business data that includes annual revenues, number of employees, dollar amount of sales per employee, names of company officers, web sites and email addresses.  These databases and the information they contain are used to select the names and addresses of those individuals you profiled when you defined your target audience.

When selecting a mailing list, the quality of the list is more important than how many names and addresses are available.  An outdated list will not be helpful in getting your message to the right audience.  Ask the mailing list company how often the database is updated. Ask what sources are used to populate the database. Be sure your specific target audience profile information can be used when selecting the names for your mailing list.  If you want your target audience to only include males over the age of 50, you need to ensure that your mailing list company has this information available in their database so they extract only the names and addresses of males over the age of 50 for your mailing list.

Luckily these lists are available in computer usable format (i.e. EXCEL or ACCESS) so they can be used by high speed printers to automatically print the addresses on the high volumes of postcards. When requesting your mailing list, verify the mailing list format you can expect to receive from the mailing list company.

If doing a campaign targeted at current and prospective customers, remember to append your current customer information to the list received from the mailing list company.  To help verify that your mailing was delivered to the names on your list, add your own name and address to the list so that you will receive your card in the same manner and timeliness as your current and potential customers.

Getting your postcard in front of your target audience, those most likely to benefit from your product or service, is very important.  Select your mailing list wisely and you will increase your response rate.

As with any postcard, the front of the postcard should have an attention grabbing photograph or graphic, as well as a headline that will peak the reader’s interest.  It is important to keep it simple, yet effective, with the text and photograph complimenting one another.  Of equal importance is a “call to action”. You want to offer a discount, freebie, etc. with a set expiration date to get the reader to respond. An example would be: 1) 20% discount on all web site orders received before February 1st 2) Purchase before February 1^st and receive “xxx” gift at no additional charge.

Conversely, the back of the postcard might be the first side of the card that is seen by the reader.  The only difference between the front and the back of the postcard is the recipient’s address is found on the back.  Since the back side of the card could be your opportunity to make a first impression, you want it to carry as powerful a message as you have on the front.  You should include another photo or graphic, some bulleted items outlining your offering  and the basic information of your web site, email and phone number.  Give your potential customers enough information to peak their interest and point them to your web site or get them to pick up the phone and call for more information or to place an order.

It is very important to make your contact information visible on either side of the postcard and it doesn’t hurt to have this information on both sides of the postcard.    Place the web page prominently on the bottom of the front of the postcard.  Take advantage of adding the address and phone number of the physical store location on the back of the postcard.  Make sure the size of the contact information lettering is visible whether it is on the front or the back.

Although postcards are small, they can have a major impact using very few words and attention grabbing headlines.  The postcard is the introduction of you and your business to potential customers.

As with regular letters and packages, the post office has different rates for delivery times for postcards.  Specifically, the faster you want it delivered the more it costs.  First class mail is the best when mailing time sensitive material. It has a delivery time of 1-5 days nationally.

U.S. Bulk Rate, which is often associated with discounted high volume mailings, is now known as Standard Mail.  Selecting this lower postage rate has a longer delivery time.  An expected delivery time for Standard Mail is 10-14 days nationally.

A postcard is eligible for the postcard rate when its size is between 3.5” X 5” and 4.25” X 6”.  Any piece larger than this but smaller than 6” X 11” requires first class postage.  For Standard Mail, there is no special postcard rate, regardless of size.  Therefore, all postcards mailed using Standard Mail, use a Standard Mail letter rate.

If you are a non-profit organization, you may be eligible to apply for special non-profit postage rates.  Non-profit postage rates have the same delivery timeframes but are more deeply discounted than Standard Mail rates.

As already mentioned, the price per piece postage rate depends on the size of the postcards. In order to receive discounted, postcard, postage rates, you must mail at least 500 pieces at once.  Standard Mail postage requires a minimum of 200 pieces be mailed at once.  Keep in mind that if mailing cards larger than 4.25” X 6”, you will pay First Class Letter rate or Standard Letter Rate, depending upon your volume and whether or not you have applied for the discount.

The post office also has design requirements if you want to take advantage of the discounted postage rates.  The bottom 5/8” of the card must be free of writing so the post office can print barcodes.  The mailing address area must be positioned on the right side and be a minimum of 3.5” X 2 1/8” tall.  It cannot contain any background images or text.  Only the mailing address can be located in the bottom 2.5” of the postcard.  Make sure your own address and other contact information is above this line or the postcard could end up delivered to you.  An empty white area of 1.5” X 1.25” must be left in the upper right corner for indicia/permit imprint or stamps.

As you can see, there are a number of considerations when determining the postage and postal service that is right for your postcard campaign.  Again, consult with a professional mailing service when considering discounted postage.

That first impression is just as important for a postcard campaign. You only have a few seconds to get the potential customer’s attention. Equally important, it is critical to make the front and back of the card equally attention grabbing. The back of the postcard is only distinguished from the front because it has the mailing address. Here are some ideas for making a good first impression with your post cards.

• Use high quality, glossy, color postcards. They are slightly more expensive but well worth it when trying to make a good impression.

• Choose the appropriate size for your campaign and audience. Studies have shown that businesses respond better to the 5.5”X8.5” postcard whereas residence and consumer contacts respond just as well to 4”X6” postcards.

• Use an attention grabbing headline on the front and perhaps para-phrase the same message on the back. Make sure your name and contact information appears on the back but don’t hesitate to put your logo, phone number and web site information on the front.

• Use a photograph or graphics that is complimentary to both the front and the back. Everyone likes pictures and pictures tend to register with the reader much quicker than words.

Remember, you don’t have a second chance to make a good first impression. The success of your postcard campaign depends on how many people respond to your offer. Improve your chances of being successful by making a good and lasting first impression.

Perhaps you are thinking that attention getting or high impact translates to mean fluorescent colors or outrageous lettering or pictures.  You could use these techniques but depending on your business or brand, you will be more successful by using strong images relating to your offer or brand.

The quality of the images used is very important when designing your postcard.  It is worth the time and money to invest in high quality images and photographs that will transfer and print on the postcard clearly.  Many web sites offer stock photography and illustrations for little money.  You should also consider hiring a photographer to take well lit pictures of your product or storefront.  High quality imagery and photographs are key components to designing a high impact postcard.

You also want to select high quality stock postcards that will print glossy, color images and photographs.  It is recommended that you use colored postcards but if appropriate and it is more suited to your campaign, black and white can be used and can be quite effective.

The size of the postcard should be considered during your design as well.  Depending upon your target audience, and your budget, you may decide a 6” X 9” postcard is more appropriate than the standard 4” X 6” size.  Also, postcards can be designed with detachable coupons or a handy calendar.  Just because the card is small, there is plenty of room, front and back, for appropriate pictures and text.

Remember, text is just as important as images.  An attention grabbing headline is always a good idea.  You want to state your offer concisely and clearly.  The goal is to get the recipient to contact you by whatever means you want them to.  Be sure to print your phone number, web site, email address or physical address so that it is easily seen.

Taking the time to select the right type and size of postcard; high quality images and photographs; and clearly and concisely stating your offer all contribute to designing a high impact postcard. An attention getting headline and printing your contact information so it is legible improves your odds for a successful postcard campaign.