Want to start the New Year with a spike in business, web traffic, or sales? You can unequivocally without fail by mailing postcards. Do it now by following some simple guidelines and you can generate all the sales leads you want.
In today’s high tech world where social media campaigns and multi-channel campaigns that sometimes can take months to develop are the rage, we forget low-tech postcards still work every time when executed correctly.
The father of advertising, David Ogilvy, calls postcards his secret weapon in his book, Ogilvy on Advertising. After just a few months in advertising, a client on a limited budget tested Ogilvy’s wherewithal at the ripe age of 37. This client walked into Ogilvy’s London agency wanting to advertise the opening of his hotel with just $500 to spend. Ogilvy bought $500 worth of postcards and sent invitations to everybody he found in the local telephone directory. The hotel opened with a full house. “I had tasted blood”, says Ogilvy in his Confessions.
Factor in these 10 must dos into your postcard mailing and your phone will ring as well as your company’s cash register:
- A clear, bold headline
- A graphic that supports the message
- Color that pops
- Subheads that lead into text
- Benefits vs. features
- A compelling, irresistible offer
- Your company logo (not too big now)
- A call to action
- Contact information (yes it can include a QR code)
- Return address
As for industry averages, the DMA analyzed 1,122 industry-specific campaigns and determined that the average response rate for direct mail was 2.61%. Postcard production coordinators see rates higher than 5% with a well directed postcard to send people to the web. Retail stores and catalogs can pull ROI as high as 7% with postcards.
Want to get really jazzed about the power per penny of a postcard? Yale Appliance mailed postcards at a cost of $8,000 and pocketed $2.3 million in sales in one-day. Pull out your Mac book and get your postcard campaign cooking.
Know your target audience, pull your list, design a simple postcard with a powerful graphic and call to action and start the New Year off by generating goodwill and good cash flow. Postcards are direct mail marketers best kept secret.