According to wonderful social media friend, Lois Geller, owner of Lois Geller Marketing Group in Hollywood, Florida, postcards may well be better left for vacations. You know, used to make family and friends back home jealous of your out of town excursions. Scenes of beautiful beaches, mountain vistas, all to make them wish they were where you are. When it comes to business, postcard marketing is not always the best option to choose.
Small businesses include this popular media format to their marketing plans for a number of reasons.
- Postcards are relatively simple and inexpensive to design.
- They can be colorful and eye-catching and deliver strong marketing messages.
- The cards are relatively inexpensive to print.
- Postage is cheaper than First Class postage for sealed letters.
- They don’t take a huge bite out of your marketing budget.
Cheaper isn’t always the better in marketing
In a recent post on her Joy of Marketing blog, Lois recommended using letters in envelopes for direct marketing instead of post cards. The reason? Lois stated that letter campaigns result in significantly higher response rates. Why? According to Geller: “To most consumers, serious mail comes in a letter, which is private. The act of opening an envelope and unfolding the letter is engaging.”
Lois went on to detail how her firm was able to create an increase from 0.75% response for a client’s previous postcard campaign to 11% response with a well developed letter campaign. That is a significant increase in responses, and business. Postcard marketing – certainly something to think about. The cost of assumed savings by using postcards was actually costing that firm money. They were not bringing in customers and making sales.
Postcards can still have a place in your marketing plan, using them as handouts or as a piece in your media kit. But, as direct mailing pieces, engage customers with a personalized and intriguing letter. Create some mystery. Start customers wondering what might be inside that envelope. Be even more engaging by hand-addressing the envelopes for a more personal touch. Typed addresses and printed labels scream out ‘This is not a private, personal message, it’s probably an advertisement’. Now, image yourself not opening the envelope and just tossing into the trash. Others do the same thing.
Lois’ blog post includes more tips on making your direct marketing campaigns count. Take a look and pick one or two of her tips and add them to your marketing mix today.
In marketing we always test everything. So if you’re doing a mailing of say 200 pieces. Test 100 using postcards, and the other 100 using letters (with “live stamps”)
Then you can test more…We roll out with the winners and stop using the losers.
The challenge with postcards is they’re inexpensive. But they’re not at all if they don’t bring you in inquiries or orders.
So please test, and let me know how it works for you.
Thanks for your feedback, Lois. Your support and words of wisdom are greatly appreciated. Testing is definitely a must for those who wonder what works and what doesn’t. Who wouldn’t want to know they are putting their budget and efforts in the best direction? Unfortunately, not everyone understands the importance. That topic needs to be addressed in another post in the near future.