This is the third in a series of four articles by Jeffrey Dobkin on creating effective direct mail marketing campaigns with postcards. The first article listed 5 goals and objectives for their direct mail postcard campaign. The second postcard marketing article highlights 5 ways to create your postcard campaign to get your phone ringing with maximum response.
This article continues with 7 more new ways to increase response when sending postcards.
1. When you offer a FREE brochure on your postcard, make sure your brochure title is fantastic.
The title of the brochure is where “good” is not good enough. The titles of your brochures should be spectacular. “12 Ways to Lower Your Insurance Premiums”. “How to stop your roof leaking before Friday!” “Ten Things to Check Before Calling a Tow Truck”. Make sure the title of your brochure definitely prompts all readers to call.
2. Submit frequently
While a single postcard can certainly stand on its own with hot headlines, clever copywriting, tight transitions, and compelling offers, postcard campaigns, like most other direct mail marketing campaigns, perform best when you mail frequently and regularity. Consider a 5-6 postcard campaign to stay on top of your best prospects and customers, or to build loyalty and exposure through multiple brand impressions. Cost? Only $ 3 for 6 cards. For a longer sales campaign over time or for products with a long sales cycle, continue to email regularly. Even if you send postcards every two weeks, the cost for this direct mail postcard campaign is only $ 13 (26 x $ .50) for an entire year.
When mailing a sequence of postcards, put the sequence number on each card so that readers know that each card is an integral part of a complete postcard marketing campaign. Print “Postal Series, Card Number 5 of 20” or any card number. If you don’t know how many postcards there will be in the marketing campaign, just say “Postcard series, card number so and so”. This adds credibility to your business and your direct mail marketing campaign. It lets readers know that you are not a single shot in the dark or a one trick pony.
3. Postcards are inexpensive to mail and deliver quickly.
Postcards get a special rate at the post office. And since they’re easy to handle, you can get a mail shop to address your card, automatically create a barcode image, and mail first class, and the postage savings will generally cover the cost of the mail house for do all the work: inkjet addressing, zip ordering, and mailing. Even with a mailing house doing the work, your postcard campaign will still be cheaper than mass mailing postcards. The cost of the mail shop is offset by the savings on shipping. Delivery will also be faster – your postcards will arrive in just a day or two.
4. Mail to a large distribution list.
By specifying the correct mailing list, no expense is wasted. Your ad is precisely targeted and delivered only to highly qualified recipients on your direct mailing list. With the right selection of a direct mailing list, you can mail only to the most qualified prospects, or past and / or current customers.
With a hand-picked mailing list, virtually 100% of your postcards hit your best marketing goals. The better your mailing list, the better your response will be – the more your phone will ring. A resource on how to strictly specify your mailing lists can be found in the book “How to market a product for less than $ 500! “.
You are only as good as your mailing list; be sure to spend more time finding a great direct mailing list. It is impossible to spend too much time researching which mailing list is the best list to test and mail.
5. The size of your postcard campaign
How many postcards do you send by mail? Here’s what to mail in your postcard marketing campaign: Micro-business? Send postcards to your top 1,000 prospects and top 200 customers. Medium-sized company? Send postcards to your 10,000 top prospects, 2,000 top customers. Big enterprises? Just put a few more zeros behind these numbers. By the way, when writing and designing postcards for clients, use oversized postcards measuring 5-1 / 2 “x 8-1 / 2”; stand out from the rest of the mail package.
6. Yes, you can reuse the same postcards.
Suppose you create ten postcards and you have a heavy shipping schedule, like you send it every two weeks. This direct mail marketing campaign would take you almost half a year to complete. While you know your postcards by heart and are probably sick of seeing most of them so many times during the writing, editing, and design process, your clients got them and looked at them in no time before calling you, then threw them away or filed them away. them away. They will not remember them. Feel free to repeat the cycle starting with card one.
Better news: If customers remember one or two of the postcards, it means you received excellent brand recognition and retention. Congratulate yourself. Good work. Okay, the party’s over, now get back to work. Keep sending the rest of your postcards or create new ones.
7. The value of your postcard campaign.
How valuable is a customer to you? $ 500? $ 1,000? $ 5,000? Maybe $ 500 a year? $ 5,000 a year? Here’s a suggestion: Suppose you send your prospects one postcard every two weeks, or 26 postcards a year. Your cost? At 50 ยข each, that’s $ 13. What if you get a customer from this postcard marketing campaign? Success! Don’t forget all the time that the rest of your postcards are still going around generating calls. And if they are also written and designed correctly, they may be building a relationship of loyalty and trust.
Is a $ 13 postcard direct mail marketing campaign worth it to attract a potential customer to call you? How about spending $ 13 on postcards to keep customers active and thinking about you (and how good your service is) all year long? Is it worth $ 13 a year to use postcards to build loyalty and trust in a lasting relationship? Let me explain it to you this way … How much does it currently cost you to get a new customer? Now how does that figure compare to $ 13?