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In this issue:
• Marketing Article: The Top Seven Marketing Tips You Don't Want To Overlook
• Marketing Article: 7 Tips for Successful Postcard Marketing

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1. Combine Emotion and Logic
Consumers buy because the want to experience the benefits of the product or service you have to offer. Evoke those feeling that your clients will experience once they have the product in their hands... and you’ve made a sale. It isn’t until after the sale that they want to justify the purchase. Prepare them with the logical aspects of the purchase before they get the after-the-sale-blues.

2. Apply The 80/20 Advertising Principal
You never want to put yourself out on a limb when you are experimenting with the market. That could spell disaster! Keep 80 percent of your advertising budget working tried and true methods, while you mine for gold with the remaining 20 percent.

3. Go For Dynamic Small Ads
Do you need to cut advertising expenses? You’ll be happy to know that cutting down on the size of an ad doesn’t mean you’ll be trimming your profits as well! Bigger isn’t always better. Think about this... small ads have less potential for distracting your readers from the main point. That could be the blessing in disguise you’ve been looking for.

4. Market With Postcards
Postcards are personal, quick to read, and make an impact. Compare them to other advertisements you receive in the mail... If you’re like me, you probably don’t even know what they look like. When I identify them as advertisements, I automatically pitch them... without opening the envelope. Postcards carry high-impact messages, and guarantee a 100 percent level of consumer exposure.

5. Call To Action
The call to action is one of the most important parts of your advertising copy. Don’t wimp out on it! Spend time combining words and phrases to get the one with just the right impact. Remember, you’re trying to get the reader out of his chair ready to buy. It’ll take a stimulating sales copy to do the trick.

6. Surprise, Surprise!
We all like surprises. Keep one on the back burner, ready to present near the end of a sale. You'll be sweetening the deal, and your prospective buyer will be pleased!

7. Send a Thank You.
Have you ever received a personal thank you from a place of business after you purchased a product? Hey, it makes you feel appreciated. The impact of a hand-written or personalize thank you lasts long after the newness of the product wears off. The next time you head out to buy... yeah, you’ll be going back!

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Who is Allyn Cutts, and why should you care?
Allyn has spent over 24 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales to current customers. Allyn is a marketing and sales fanatic, providing measurable marketing solutions that drive huge results for small-to mid-size business clients. Allyn works personally with clients to design and deliver off-line and on-line direct marketing strategies that focus on metrics and measurable results. You can learn more about Allyn Cutts at www.AllynCutts.com and you can call 610.437.4106 between 10 AM and 4 PM Eastern Time Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Simple low-cost postcards have become a valuable business tool for modern marketers. They can produce a surge of traffic to your web site or a flood of high-quality sales leads.

The following 7 tips will help you get the maximum response from postcards at the lowest cost.

Tip 1: Focus on the Mailing List

Make sure your postcards go to prospects likely to be interested in your offer ...and who also have a proven history of acting on offers that interest them.

For example, send them to customers of non-competing businesses that sell to your targeted market, subscribers to publications read by prospects in your targeted market or to prospects who previously requested information about products or services similar to those you offer.

You can get all of these lists from most mailing list brokers.

Tip 2: Be a Friend

Set up your postcard to look at first glance like a message from a friend instead of like a magazine ad printed on a postcard. It will boost the number of replies you get.

A postcard that looks like a friendly message produces a pleasant emotional reaction from readers instead of the harsh emotional reaction most people have to advertising.

Tip 3: Ditch the Sales Pitch

Don't try to close sales directly from your postcard. You don't have enough space to provide all the information most prospects need to make a buying decision. Instead, use your postcard to generate sales inquiries.

Begin your postcard by briefly stating the major benefit(s) you offer. Then use the remainder of your postcard to motivate readers to get more information from a source where you can close sales ...such as at your web site or from a phone number they can call.

Tip 4: Get Right to the Point

Postcards are delivered "ready to read". Take advantage of this. Get right to the point to capture the reader's attention immediately. This makes it difficult for prospects to avoid reading your postcard - especially if your entire message is brief and easy to read.

Tip 5: Go First Class

Send your postcards by First Class Mail. It costs only 23 cents in the US if make them at least 3 1/2 by 5 inches but not over 4 1/4 by 6 inches.

This gives you all the benefits of First Class Mail for just a few cents more than Standard Mail ("bulk rate mail") ...and it produces a lot more replies.

Tip 6: Watch Your Timing

Send your postcards so they arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday. The volume of mail delivered in the US on those days is usually light and your postcards won't have to compete with a lot of other mail delivered at the same time.

Try to avoid having your postcards delivered on Monday. It's usually the biggest mail delivery day of the week and a very busy day for most people.

Tip 7: Economize on Designing and Printing

Don't spend a lot to design and print your postcards. Using an elegant layout with colorful graphics can be expensive and it rarely improves your reply rate - unless you are selling those services.

Simple postcards designed to look like a message from a friend can be printed on your own computer for only 1 or 2 cents per card ...or you can have a commercial printer do the job for as little as 4 to 7 cents per card.

The next time you want to drive a surge of traffic to your web site or generate a flood of new sales leads - send postcards. And be sure to follow the 7 tips revealed in this article to get the maximum response to your postcards for the lowest cost.

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Bob Leduc spent 20 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales. He just released a New Edition of his manual, How To Build Your Small Business Fast With Simple Postcards ...and launched *BizTips from Bob*, a newsletter to help small businesses grow and prosper. You'll find his low-cost marketing methods at: http://BobLeduc.com