There are a number of businesses who give postcard marketing a go, but end up abandoning the strategy due to some uninspiring results.
The point to consider is not that postcard marketing doesn’t work but more the fact that you have to develop a successful design and distribution strategy in order to get the results that you are looking for.
Identifying what went wrong
A constructive analysis of why your last postcard marketing campaign didn’t get the response you were anticipating, will help to ensure that you get a vastly different reaction next time around, rather than give up on the idea altogether, which would result in missed opportunities and customers.
It could be that you didn’t set out with a specific goal in mind and if that is the case, it makes it extremely hard to accurately measure the level of success achieved.
If you used a postcard marketing campaign to raise awareness of your brand, it may be that you could have done that but success is harder to quantify in that respect than setting a goal of achieving a target of 50 sales from the campaign, which is something tangible and can therefore be measured.
Include an offer
A strategy that is normally successful is to include and offer that provides an incentive for the recipient to respond.
Offers should be time-limited and offer value to the customer. This allows you to more accurately measure the response rate and ROI on the marketing campaign within a specified period of time.
The great thing about printing your own postcards and promotional material is not just the fact that you can save on printing costs, especially when you get good rates for your ink cartridges through sources like Stinky Ink and similar sites.
It also allows you to adjust the message and incentive easily and at no extra cost, so that you can work out which offers and products provoke the best response from customers.
Design elements
It is not just the message itself that is important to success, the design elements have to create the right visual impact in the first place.
Some of the key elements that you have to consider when creating your design are a clear and bold headline together with a graphic that supports and empathises with the message you are delivering.
Aim to create one central message on your postcard using a bold headline that really grabs the reader’s eye. The purpose of the headline is to allow the recipient to immediately grasp exactly what you are selling.
You should also try to ensure that the graphics you use enhance the message that your headline is conveying and helps to reinforce the positive message you are delivering or visually confirms exactly what you are offering.
When you are designing the layout of your postcard also give consideration to the subheads that lead into the text.
If you have a few paragraphs of text with no specific lead in on the back of your postcard, you are not really enticing people in to continue and read the copy.
Finally, one of the most common errors when it comes to advertising is to state features rather than benefits. Sell the benefits over features and you will almost certainly generate a better response and realise that postcard advertising can and does work if you get it right.
John Sollars started Stinkyink.com in 2002, a printer cartridge supplier in the UK. He knows a thing or two about printing and he enjoys sharing his ideas and insights online through blogging.
