Postcard marketing is a form of communication between your business and potential and existing clientele. It has been a proven winner over decades of use, especially for small or localized businesses, because postcards retain the “friendly handshake” element that endears local businesses to their customers.
That fills a distinct – and to some, disturbing — void in today’s marketing environment. Inbound digital marketing can be personalized but it is never face-to-face personal, whereas postcards put your name and message right into your prospect’s hand.
Affordability.
No business wants to overspend on marketing, but small businesses tend to have small budgets, so you need to make every dollar count. Postcards are a budget-friendly way to introduce and grow your business.
Versatility.
Along with being budget-friendly, postcards can help reach your marketing goals in multiple ways, so you can use them year round:
- Launch a brand new business or spread the word about your newest location.
- Attract an ongoing supply of new customers (or patients or clients), something that is essential for every single business to grow and prosper, regardless of size, type or how well-established.
- Reconnect with former customers or patients.
- Promote special campaigns – your annual sale, a seasonal event.
- Give a traditionally slow period a marketing shot in the arm.
Postcards can be highly effective on their own, or you can pair them with other online and offline marketing techniques. And they work well for B2B products and services as well as B2C.
Targetability.
Postcard marketing is great for building awareness and reinforcing your branding if your business has a broad spectrum audience. But they are also great for reaching narrower audiences, because you can target your mailing list using selection criteria appropriate to your business – demographics such as income or gender, special characteristics such as home ownership, new residents, children in the home or any number of other specifics.
Measurability.
Results are what matters most. Unlike many forms of advertising and promotions, it’s easy to track and measure response to your postcard marketing campaigns. Aside from the excitement of tallying the volume of responses, you can track the revenue derived from each one, comparing that to your original cost to determine your overall return on investment.
You’ll like that. Many business owners report their ROI is even higher than expected, and knowing your ROI will help you improve your marketing.
In fact, the more you understand about postcard marketing, the more you will realize how much it can teach you about improving your email marketing, too. There are structural similarities, from the need for an attention-grabbing headline/subject line to the importance of including a meaningful conversion offer and call to action. And the two techniques combine nicely, with email helping continue your engagement after postcards initially attract new interest and response from prospects.
You don’t have to be a direct mail expert to generate great results.
Your customers or patients or clients seek you out to obtain whatever you do or sell because they can’t – or don’t want to – do that themselves. As a business owner, you already look to outside help for professional accounting, legal work and so on. You can also team up with a direct mail company whose primary goal is to help businesses like you succeed.
Choosing a full-service company means you can get top-notch guidance every step of the way, from refining your targeted mailing list and identifying the most alluring offer to creating custom-designed postcards sure to catch the eye and inspire response. You’ll always have the final say, because it’s your marketing.
But if you let your direct mail experts handle all the details from creative concept to delivery at the post office, you’ll be able to concentrate on managing the daily needs of your business and offering another friendly handshake to every customer.