Marketing Ideas

The low cost and easy design and printing of postcards is not the only reason that they tend to be one of the most popular direct mail ventures. They can also be incredibly easy to mail. Just follow a few simple guidelines to avoid returned mail or information covered by postal markings.

Mailing Layout

The back of the postcard can contain other information besides the mailing information but must follow postal placement rules. The bottom 5/8^th inches of a standard 5x7 postcard should be free of information, since this is where the post office prints bar codes. Keep the mailing address on the right, preferably no higher than 2 3/4^th inches from the bottom of the card. Also be sure to keep it above the bar code area. Leave enough room for the postal stamp in the upper right hand corner along with the postal date that the post office will stamp onto the card. If you include any other address on the back, besides the return or mailing address, be sure to leave off the state and zip code. The post office scans the lower 2/3^rd of postcards for the mailing address.

Mailing List

Whether you address the postcards yourself or use a mailing service, an updated client mailing list will save both time and money. One way to keep this list current is by including your return address. That way, the post office will be able to return the postcards with invalid or outdated addresses, and then you can delete those from your list. Two programs that can also help keep your list current are the NCOALink 18 and NCOA. These two programs alert you to whenever a change of address has been made at the post office. The difference between the two is that the NCOA keeps track of 48 permanent address changes, while the NCOALink 18 only provides information of 18 changes per address.

Use these guidelines for easier mailing whether you do it yourself or hire a mailing service. Just be sure to check with the service providers for their postcard mailing requirements, if you do decide to use help.

1.       Keep it interesting.  Obviously, your readers are not going to like your newsletters much if you throw in a bunch of junk material.  Make sure you use fresh and interesting content in each and every newsletter printing campaign that you send out. 

2.       Write short articles.  While all of your newsletter content must be interesting, it also should be short.  The simple fact is that most people have very short attention spans, especially when it comes to advertising literature.  Write short, interesting articles that your readers can digest quickly.

3.       Use some interesting visuals.  As important as the words are within your newsletters, the visuals are just as important.  Add some visually stimulating images that will attract the readers.  Be careful not to overdo it, though.  Too many images will simply overwhelm your readers.

4.       Organize your newsletters.  Make sure you design your newsletters in an organized format.  Use headings and subheadings, lines and bulleted lists.  Keep everything structured.  If you allow your content to look disorganized, it will confuse your readers and make you look unprofessional.

5.       Utilize lists.  Bulleted lists are easy for the reader to see and read.  If you can put some of your content into list form, it will really stand out to your readers.

6.       Offer free advice.  If you can add in some advice for your customers, and make it relate to your company in some way, your newsletters will be more effective.  People like to read things that help them improve some area of their lives.  This is especially true if you can offer money making advice.  That is always in demand.

7.       Make white space your friend.  A lot of businesses try to fill up every millimeter of available space when they design their newsletters.  Do not make this mistake.  White space is what makes the pages readable, so do not be afraid to leave plenty of white space in there.  Leave some room between all of the portions of your newsletters, and it will be much easier to read.

8.       Calendars are nice.  If you can add some type of calendar to your newsletter, it will make it more useful for your readers.  If you write a monthly newsletter, simply throw in a month-long calendar and list business related events on it.  Many of your readers will use the calendar for their own purposes, meaning your newsletter will be looked at quite often.

9.       Don’t forget the offers.  Every one of your newsletter issues should include some kind of benefit for your readers.  Include a special offer or a coupon or something that will make reading the newsletter worth their while.

No one buys anything from a person or business he doesn’t trust. You wouldn’t buy a car from a dealer you thought was ripping you off, or from a salesperson who you thought wasn’t being honest with you, right?

Most people have always gone into a skeptical mindset when they make big-ticket items, like televisions and cars, but that skepticism is leaking into smaller purchases too. With all of the hyped-up advertising, with promises that can’t be delivered, you can’t really blame consumers for being cautious.

It’s precisely this reason that you need to use marketing techniques that put customers’ minds at ease. Here are a few ways to get trust from your customers, which is a first step to making any sale:

Testimonials
People believe what other customers have to say about you and your product more than they’ll believe what you have to say.

Using testimonials in your catalogs, brochures and other marketing materials is what will convince people that your product is the best, that it works and that it won’t break.

Get testimonials by asking customers what they liked about your product or service and how it helped them. Ask if you helped them solve a problem – these kinds of benefit testimonials work especially well. Write down their comments, and get their written permission to use them. It helps if you offer a discount or something valuable in exchange for their time. But, be sure you get the testimonial before you offer the discount or you might be called out for bribing your customers!

Write articles to establish yourself as an expert
Writing free articles for your local newspaper or magazine can be a great source of getting trust from the community. Write about what you know – your industry or your type of product – but don’t only talk about you and your product. In fact, it’s best if you don’t mention your affiliation at all in the article. Your name, occupation and/or business name will most likely be in the credit line. You might also get a headshot to accompany the article. People want to buy from those they think are knowledgeable – knowledge equals trust.

Ask for referrals
Give out your business cards to your customers and ask if they know anyone who might need your service. You can also ask your friends and family to ask their friends and family for referrals. Also, try some networking events like social industry dinners – they can be great places to strike up a conversation and find someone that might need your product, or knows someone that might need your product.

Personalize your direct mail
Use people’s names on letters and postcards – people will be more apt to read something that is addressed to them by name rather than to “Dear customer.” You trust someone that you know personally, and using names are an easy way to evoke trust. Also, try to get to know your target market – whether they have kids, pets, etc. and use that info in your direct mail pieces. “Now that your kids are about to go back to school …”. Make people think your direct mail is talking directly to them.

Lastly, once you establish a contact, keep following up periodically. Once a month or once every other month is good – enough for them to remember you, but not enough to annoy them. Once you earn consumers’ trust, the rest of the sales process is much easier!

How much money do you have to blow on marketing? Unfortunately you’re going to need at least a little money set aside to take care of your marketing, so how can you make that budget stretch as far as possible?

Let’s look at posters as a good example. First off, posters are a rather cheap form of marketing to begin with; you just have to put more of your time into it. Time isn’t the easiest thing to come by, but often you’ll have more time on your hands than you’ll have money, or that’s how it usually is for me.

But before I go into the footwork of posters, let’s go back to the ways of stretching your marketing buck. If you’re going to buy posters you’re going to want to go with wholesale printing and get the biggest order that you can.

See, the thing about printing is that the most expensive part of the printing process is typically going to come from actually printing the design as opposed to the number of posters you’re getting done.

To make it a little clearer, when a company first prints your order they need to set up the equipment to get your order going, and this start up is where the bulk of your costs will lay. So let’s say you’ve designed a poster that promotes your company but isn’t limited by any kind of timeframe—no upcoming sale or something like that.

What you can do is get the biggest order possible and set aside the extras for future use. You can get a massive order of color posters for cheaper than it would’ve taken to do two orders. Really, it comes down to planning ahead to what you’re going to need later on rather than just what you need at this moment.

Ah, the horrors of planning ahead. I swear a lot of people seem to fear this concept as if it were a virus. They live so thoroughly in the moment without any care for what tomorrow holds.

If you want to save your cash, then you need to know about these kinds of things and get the proper sized order.

Now, as for the time investment I mentioned earlier, the other great thing about posters is your ability to go yourself and put them up at various locations. You don’t have to pay to mail them out to a bunch of different people when you can just go yourself and have them at specific locations.

It might not be the fastest way you can get those posters up, but it will get them up, and the only thing you will have lost is time and a little bit of gas—or just walk if gas prices are getting you down.

Welcome to the world of inexpensive marketing. It isn’t the most entertaining thing, but it still works.

Any direct mail postcard marketing is going to have a lot of competition. I would hope all businesses would realize that they aren't alone.

My mail pile has plenty of different advertisements in it. Some of them I take the time to pick them up and read through what they have to say, and others get dumped right in the trash. What's different between them?

The ones I pick up have the right kind of designs, layouts, and colors. They scream out to be seen and I oblige them. The companies that accept they have a lot of competition and do their best to stand out among them are the ones I'm going to look at.

Put some serious thought to your postcard printing before you send them out. Is it appropriately attention grabbing? Will it stand out in a pile of postcards?

If you don't put enough thought I'll probably be throwing it in the trashcan.