The Power of the Postcard in Direct Mailings

In direct mail, you might consider a postcard to be a tiny, portable billboard. Postcards are cheap to mail and the recipient doesn’t even have to open an envelope to get your message!

Also, unlike letters, postcards are sturdy. It is not unknown for recipients to keep them and use them as bookmarks! The simple postcard is a powerhouse of a marketing tool if you harness it correctly. What you put on it will determine whether the recipient will toss it out or respond to your message. Being sturdy and convenient, postcards are also ideal for those recipients who like to keep them on hand for future reference. Maybe you offer a product or service they don’t need or can’t afford today but will want next week or month.

It’s well known that recipients don’t open every piece of direct mail they receive. Postcards have a great advantage in being a quick read. The less you make a recipient work to get your message, the better. With a postcard, all a person has to do is look at it or flip it over, at the most, to see what it says. You can be virtually guaranteed that your recipient will read your message as soon as it reaches their hands. Postcards are that powerful.

You can use a postcard to highlight a new product, your website, or a coming sale or event. This medium is great for sending out announcements, reminders, birthday greetings, and invitations. The space on a postcard may be small, but you can use this to your advantage. The smaller the space, the more you want to fill it with the most important contents you can create. Every single word has to count.

The postcard is a great, inexpensive mechanism for staying in touch with your customers and reminding them of your availability and products. You can use postcard mailings to increase awareness of new products. A postcard can be designed as a coupon, a feedback form, an order form, a gift certificate, or a simple greeting on special occasions. You can offer your recipients an incentive for new customer referrals and inform them about new information available on your website. Doctors and mechanics can remind people of appointments. Home and garden centers might announce classes. A postcard can serve as an eye-catching business card; you can pass them out at tradeshows and seminars. They’re not as likely to get lost or tossed as the typical small business card. What counts is keeping your company name and contact information circulating.

A standard-size postcard only costs 23 cents. You can use a 4-1/4" x 6" card without additional expense. An oversized 6" x 11" postcard costs a little more and takes a first-class stamp but makes a great impression and gives you more room to be creative. Postcards are cheap to print as well, even if you have a four-color design. Next, add in the savings you’ll get with bulk mail discounts and no folding and stuffing charges. Just print, label, meter, and mail them. You can’t get any more economical!

As with all advertising, you should test the effectiveness of your copy. You might print several different versions of your message and send mailings to different groups to find out which version gets the best rate of response. You can also tailor your message to appeal to different groups and do alternate mailings. As you fine-tune your copy, you can do larger mailings, knowing you’ll get a good response.

Using postcards in direct mail is cheap, efficient, and effective. The great majority of recipients will read your message. The postcard is extremely versatile, as you can use it for so many different purposes. The next time you're considering a mailing, you might try using postcards to reach your customers. The potential to generate a very big response is great—and you don’t have to spend a lot of money!