Exclusive Postcard Marketing SECRETS
At SonicPrint, we understand that your success breeds our success. Our in-house marketing guru
Noah Curcio weighs in with the first of many marketing articles to help you acheive a better response
in your mailing campaign.
If you answer these 10 questions in regards to your mailing, we are confident you will
receive a better response from your postcard mailing!
Let's get started!
Marketing Tips For A Better Postcard Campaign
1. Is my list current and
well-targeted?
The best
marketing campaign is wasted without a relevant mailing list. Ideally, your
list should consist of the people ready to buy your product or service at the
moment they receive your postcard. The best list if your own customer list,
and if you don't have one, there is no better time than now to start!
If you are looking to gain new prospects, list vendors such as
SonicPrint can provide businesses or residential lists for as
little as $30 per 1000 names!
2. Is my message short and my headline
to the point?
Many postcards fail because the marketer blends the objective of a postcard and
a brochure. By putting too much information on a postcard, the recipient is
overwhelmed and the message is lost.
In marketing, the law is E2 = 0. Emphasizing Everything Equals
Nothing.
3. Does my postcard address my
recipient's primary needs and concerns?
A good postcard
will address the needs of the prospect and highlight the benefits of your
product or services in regards to those needs. A good friend of mine always
says…,”A person, who buys a drill, doesn’t actually need the drill – they need a
hole. Don’t sell the drill, sell the hole!
4. Did I mention at least one thing
that makes my product or service different from others?
Every product or
service has competition. If it doesn’t have competition either no one has a need
for your product or service, or it’s only a matter of time before it does have
competitors. Make sure that your customer knows why your product is better than
the other that they could buy.
Is your customer service/customer commitment better?
Is your product higher quality?
Is your price better?
All of these can
be measured in terms of value. The goal of your marketing is to convince your
prospect that your product or services has better value compared to your
competition.
5. Is my information accurate and my
spelling correct?
Often overlooked spell-checking is a very simple process. Have a few
of fresh eyes look over your postcard before you print your piece. Computer
spell-check is usually not enough. Simple spelling and grammatical errors
discount your validity. How good can your company be if your customer thinks you
can’t even spell simple words?
Also, ALWAYS
check your phone numbers, and promotions for accuracy!
TRUE STORY: A client printed 20,000 cards with the wrong phone number. Even worse, we have heard
stories about a company who printed thousands of cards with a phone number that
ended up being a competitor! Be sure to check phone number, addresses and
information regarding any promotion that you have.
6. Have I given the recipient several
ways to contact me
(email, 1-800 number, etc.)?
You’d be surprised how many people still in this age of FREE long distance
still won’t be inspired to call a company without a toll-free number. Email
gives the customer the ability to write their requests without the return
fire of a potential sales pitch in their ear. Lastly, a website gives your
customer the ability to research your company in-depth at their leisure.
They don’t need to hear about it from a salesperson, your door is open 24
hours.
7. Is my postcard professional in
appearance?
This is another
often neglected though very important. Many amateur marketing campaigns are
based on designs with low-resolution pictures off of the internet, and designed
in a consumer design program like print-shop, paint, paint-shop, ECT... They may
sound similar to the professional design suites, but they are completely
different! Even Word and Publisher do not output as nice of quality compared to
something designed in a professional design suite such as Quark, Photoshop,
Illustrator, or In-Design.
If you do not have the ability to create professional postcard campaigns in
house – use a professionally designed template for practically no cost! If you
want to take it a step further, there are plenty of design companies that will
be able to design your postcard for less than $100!
8. Have I used full-color wherever
possible?
Studies prove
that color increases response. With the changes in printing technology – full
color postcards have never been cheaper! You can print full color postcards on a
printing press for less than black and white cards at a copy shop. 5000
postcards can be printed for anywhere from $225 to $450 depending on who you
use.
9. Does my postcard have a
call-to-action? Does it clearly tell the recipient how to move forward, what
to do, or whom to call? Does it push urgency?
The single most
important feature of your postcard should be the call-to-action. If we printed a
postcard showing how great our printing was, but gave no incentive to place an
order with our company, we would dramatically reduce the amount of responses to
our card.
10. Is my
postcard worth something?
Give your
recipient an offer they can’t refuse. By giving a time-sensitive promotion or
special only available to the recipient of your postcard, you are inspiring them
to purchase immediately, and you give yourself the ability to track the
responses of your campaign. Postcards with coupons, promo-codes give makes your
postcard a “keeper.”
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