Printing and mailing postcards is one of the least expensive but most effective ways of advertising. There are a number of important methods to make sure you get the most out of your postcard printing campaign. Three areas where many companies make mistakes are in budgeting, sampling, and persistence.
Additionally, many companies do not work with professional printing firms who can handle direct mail postcard campaigns on their behalf. When a printing firm can produce the postcards and also mail them, you’ll find that this relationship can create a number of efficiencies for you. Some printing firms can supply a mailing list for you, but other web sites such as Info USA (www.infousa.com) can provide you with quality mailing lists that can reach targeted customers.
Budgeting
One of the easiest ways to wreak havoc on profitable advertising campaigns is by failing to set a budget or failing to stick to the budget. Once you have your budget, you can decide whether or not to spend more money on features of your postcards, or to cut back on printing features so that you can actually produce more postcards. In either case, you are making a decision based on a pre-determined budget.
Sampling
Once you have found the ideal balance between printing quality and quantity, send your postcards out to a small sample of customers. Watch carefully and record any responses that you get. This will help you make sure that your design is effective. If nobody responds, or the response is much lower than expected, you can adjust before spending your entire budget on a faulty design.
Persistence
Postcard printing campaigns should be sent at a regular basis. This is especially true when sales are low. Persistence is the key. While it may be easy to try to cut costs, one of the best things you can do is to continue to advertise. Using inexpensive direct mailing tools, like postcards, can help your company maintain an advertising presence with your customers.
Filed under: Uncategorized
It can be easy to push marketing to the back of your mind, and your business budget, during hard economic times. But not marketing is the worst thing you can do during a recession or any kind of slow period during your business cycle. Consumers may not be able to buy as much during hard times, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t paying attention to marketing messages. Most consumers are making plans for when they get that next job or when gas prices come back down.
By continuing to market during down times, you not only keep your brand at the forefront of people’s minds, but you also show your resilience. If your company can afford to keep marketing during bad times, it must mean you’re doing something right! Even if it’s only a direct mail postcard, anything that can remind customers of your presence will keep you at the top of their lists for when they’re able to spend more again.
Emphasize the cost savings of your product or service
Instead of focusing on quality over quantity at this time, focus on the numbers – show customers how you can save them money. If your product isn’t cheap or can’t offer short-term cost benefits, try to emphasize long-term benefits.
Use postcards to announce a sale
Instead of spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on TV and radio commercial spots, spend a hundred dollars to send postcards to a targeted market in your area. You can print and mail postcards for as little as 25 cents each. You can also use postcards to introduce your business to a new area or to introduce a new product to current customers.
Stay in contact with current customers
It costs much less to keep current customers than to recruit new customers. In tough times, reward loyal customers with coupons and discounts to let them know they are important. You can make up for slow sales by increasing the amount of sales to current customers.
Employ word-of-mouth marketing
Ask customers to tell their friends and families about you and your products. You can even start a referral program to reward current customers by offering them coupons or a small free item for sending new customers your way.
Write articles for local publications for free
Local newspapers and magazines are feeling the pinch too, and they probably can’t afford to hire as many writers as they once employed. Offer to write a business-related article for local publications for free. Most publications will publish a one-line bio of the writer, so you can include your Web site address and the name of your business in the bio. Even if your article doesn’t have anything to do with your business, you still get free advertising with the bio line, as well as credibility for being published.
These strategies are not hard to do, but they might take some more time than your traditional marketing techniques. Don’t get discouraged; you’ll likely find a new marketing technique that you’ll want to use even when times are good. If not, at least you’ll have kept your business in the public’s eye when your competitors probably aren’t.
