The Pros and Cons of Postcard Marketing-direct marketing offline

Published on this site: November 30th, 2006 - See more articles from this month

Postcard marketing is one of the oldest methods of marketing. Its concept is simple but can be quite effective. It is just sending out your message to your mailing list on a postcard. Postcard marketing is a powerful and cost effective way to advertise and will keep building in momentum when done correctly. Contrary to popular belief a postcard campaign can be done for an online as well as offline business. However in order to make your campaign effective there are a few points to bear in mind.

Your market-In order for a postcard campaign to work you will need to consider who you are selling to. Direct marketing of this sort reaches a fairly broad market. If your product or service is targeted to a broad market, for instance you offer home improvements and you want to reach homeowners, then a post card campaign might be very successful for you. However if you have a tight niche or specialty market this form of advertising may not be as effective.

Your postcard layout is very important. Your post cards must stand out and be noticed or they will hit the trash bucket fast. Have 2 colored ones, they cost a little more but are worth it. On the front you should have an attention grabbing logo and headline, together with your website address. Make a sequence of these cards make sure they look the same with different messages. Always remember to pre sell not sell. On the back of your card write an enticing message with your website URL. Encourage your reader to visit or make contact with you the same day, and impress on them that it is a limited offer.

Scheduling: Send out your post cards on a regular basis. Remember once will not be effective. You will need to send them out multiple times on a regular schedule. Your 1st mailing will not usually bring too many results and rarely sales, but your 2nd 3rd and multiple time mailings will build in momentum.

Managing lists: Divide your responses into lists, prospects (inquiries), one-time buyers, and multiple buyers. Make separate campaigns for each. Start with a list and mail to one list one week, another list the next week and the 3rd list the following week. Then you rotate those lists - again, and again. If you only have one list you can still rotate it.

For instance: If you get one list of 6000 people, you can divide it into 3. You can mail to 2000 one week, 2000 the next week and 2000 the third week. Then you rotate. In this way you have 3 different lists.

Backend products: Make sure you have backend products and services to sell. This will encourage multiple buyers.

Record keeping: Record keeping and tracking results are very important with a postcard campaign. Track the different lists on a spreadsheet or a flow chart to check what you are doing and what you have already done.

There are two different types of marketing campaigns. There is the campaign to get your customers to keep buying from you so they don't go elsewhere. Then there is the one to get new business in.

You will need to run 2 campaigns one for prospects and one for established customers.

Outsourcing: http://amazingmail.com and http://www.verticalresponse.com/products both provide good services to do your campaign for you. Of course if you have a list you can send to them and get the best response. Otherwise if you want to do this yourself and send to a rented list, make sure you use a list broker to help you. If you go to http://google.com and put in list brokers they will give you several listings.

It is up to you whether you feel a post card campaign is right for your business. If you decide to do this form of advertising, plan and prepare well. With these few points you will be able to judge the merits of this old but effective form of marketing and see whether it will work for you.

Cheryl Miller- is an entrepreneur specializing in niche markets. For more information about magnetic badges and how they can help you promote your business, please visit http://www.badgemags.com Cheryl is also the publisher of the Magnetic Marketer Newsletter http://www.badgemags.com/magnetic_marketer_subscribe.htm