A small guide to postcard marketing campaigns

Postcards almost seem like forgotten print products these days. The internet allows us to communicate fast and effective. So why should you add postcard mailings to your marketing strategie?
It’s simple, cheap and effective. Postcards are tangible. People can touch, feel and relate to them.
Unlike emails postcards are likely to be put on bulletin boards as memories. As a business this is a good chance you should use to boost your reputation.

Don’t know how to start? We help you with some first steps to a successful postcard campaign.

1. Target your customer

First of all you have to target your audience. Think about who you want to reach and what to achieve. You also have to gather relevant addresses. First choice is obviously your own database. Another one is to buy addresses from trustworthy companies where people gave their consent to receive mailings from third parties, which is you in this case. In all cases check the laws and regulations that apply to mailings in your country.

Another great way to spread the love is to spread them in your local area. This of course works best with a strongly local target audience. If you want people to pick it up you should make it funny, compelling and or useful. Here’s a great collection of example designs.

2. Design

Find an appealing design for your postcards. Best choice is a design which at least relates to your corporate design. It should be recognizable and highlight your message. If you don’t have experience in design consider hiring an agency or freelancer who can implement your ideas. No budget for that? Well, you can always check our FreeDesign tool for a free to use template that suits your needs. All of them are fully customizable.

3. Short and expressive

As you know, space on a postcard is limited. Make sure you point out a slogan, some short words to describe your message and integrate it to your design. Don’t use exaggerated and complicated language. You customers should understand your message right away. Quite often postcard frontsides are used as eye catchers.

4. Monitoring

Like all other marketing measures you should keep an eye on the results of your campaign to see how it worked out and if it’s worth to repeat it.
You could include a voucher code on your postcard and monitor the used amounts or integrate a QR-code with a link to a voucher or your website and track it with web analytics.

To promote your brick & mortar store you could simply ask your clients to visit your shop with the postcard to get a discount or a small present. There are loads of possibilities.

5. Repetition and Cross Media

Try constant direct mailing campaigns to increase the effects of your marketing measures. Like always: Don’t overdo it, but be insistent and always track your results to adjust your activities to your marketing strategy.

Marketing pro’s also know that in most cases you can leverage the effect of one marketing channel by tying it in with another. There’s plenty of ways to do that. How about an online campaign that asks people to find one of your cards and provide proof in return for a great giveaway. This promotes your business and is also a fun and engaging way to attach people to your brand.

Did you try “old-fashioned” or innovative mailing campaigns? Don’t be shy to share your success story or errors you learned from. :)

LS