When Are Promotional Postcards An Effective Direct Mail Strategy?

By Author: Tiffany Childs
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When are promotional postcards an effective direct mail strategy?

There are plenty of promotional products available to marketers today, which can make it hard to decide which is best for your needs. Although your needs can change over the course of your business life, one promotional tool in particular is always a great way to start any campaign - promotional postcards.

Promotional postcards can be effective in your direct mail strategy before the launch of any marketing campaign because they let you test the water so to speak. These postcards can help you understand the receptiveness of a market, giving you important insights that help you design your marketing campaign and perhaps even save you from wasting advertising dollars on the wrong demographics.

One of the reasons promotional postcards are a great way of testing a market is that they have higher readability than other print materials such as brochures or catalogs. This is because there isn't a need to open any envelopes or turn any pages to have the marketing message delivered. The information on a postcard is given to a reader immediately. Additionally, ...
... because they are limited in area, the marketing messages on postcards are more concise and to the point, which allows your target market to see just what you offer right away.

Postcards are also simple to make and usually cost much less than other types of print materials. They tend to cost less because they are smaller and they can be printed in smaller quantities. Not to mention the money you'll save in postage. And you can easily track any successes you have with postcards by using a special URL or phone number for the call to action.

If you plan on doing a promotional postcard mailing it's always important to ask yourself a few questions. First determine why you are doing the mailing. Is it to get new clients or stay in touch with old ones or just to give a reward to your faithful consumers? Another thing you need to figure out is whom you are mailing the cards to. Is it to a list you already own or do you need to buy a new list. Once you've determined the answer to these questions it'll be much easier to move forward with your campaign.

Now that you've decided to create a promotional postcard campaign there is still the little matter of design. Creating a custom designed postcard allow you to use your company's artwork and brand colors which will make your postcard unique and help build your brand image. Beyond that you should also consider using bright colors or perhaps a photo for the image.

Finally, you'll want to use quality paper stock. The postcards will most likely be mailed and since they don't have any protection they can get crumpled if you don't use heavy enough paper. Heavy paper also implies a more professional tone. Standard postcards are usually printed with a 14-point gloss cover.

All in all, postcards are a simple, efficient and cost-effective way to deliver a marketing message and to test where your market is in the buying process. Promotional postcards can bring in new clients or help create return customers from past ones. Either way, it adds up to more business for your company. And that's a good thing.

Tiffany Childs is the author of this article on postcard printing and design. Find more information relating to promotional postcards, and custom designed postcard here.