| |
| |
|
Marketing Information |
|
|
|
6 Things I Know About Postcards That You Don't
In my plethora of experience tucked away between these ears, I have managed to cull out for you what I consider the "best of the best" - in other words, I took the most proven details about postcards that were significant to you starting a postcard campaign and really winning at it. So here goes the most incisive higlights about postcards. 1) I know that a postcard is better than something in an envelope. For many reasons, the main one being, in an envelope you can't make your potential customer see your message. People are fast. We see and read very quickly - actually much more quickly than we even realize.. Think about yourself - how fast do you go through your mail and process out what you want to keep and what you don't want to keep? Pretty darn fast. It takes fractions of seconds to go through and process in your mind "bill, bill, advertisement, bill, advertisement, letter?" And it also takes fractions of seconds to decide whether you are even going to bother giving more attention to the pieces that you designated as advertisements. With a postcard, even if they throw it away, they already saw your message regardless of whether they think they did or not. They saw it enough to throw it away, didn't they? And the next time they get that same postcard in the mail, they see it again as they throw it in the trash. Let's face it - junk mail gets thrown away. And postcards are junk mail to a lot of people. Although they may be junk mail, postcards get read no matter what - even if thrown away without reading them, they get seen. It's like the phoenix rising up from the ashes. 2) I know that if you are not doing repeat mail with your postcards you are flushing your money down the toilet. Repeat mailings cannot be repeated enough. DO REPEAT MAILINGS! DO REPEAT MAILINGS! DO REPEAT MAILINGS! A one shot in the dark postcard mailing is not going to change your business, your bottom line, your life or your anything. The long and the short of it is, if you are not up to confronting that you need to do a campaign then don't bother being in business. Sorry if I sound a bit harsh! 3) I know that the best price is not best necessarily the best postcard. The cheapest is not necessarily the best. The old adage "you get what you pay for" applies here. Get whatever potential postcard company you interview to send you samples. Make sure the postcard is a very good, quality, stiff card that catches your attention. Get them to give you customer references. Call those references and find out what they think of that company's service, product, etc. There is a lot of behind-the-scenes work that goes into getting your postcard done right. If they screw up printing, if they don't get your mailing out on deadline, etc. - doing it dirt cheap might not mean getting the quality service you need or want. 4) I know that although most people, if surveyed, say they like full color on both sides, the truth is black on white on the back of the postcard gets a better response. Why? Because full color on both sides is confusing. On the other hand, if you have a very aesthetic, pleasing-to-the-eye front - with a great headline - you just want to turn that postcard over and simply get the message on the back. You want good eye trail. Eye trail is where your eye goes when you look at the postcard. You can have good eye trail with full color on both sides - but it has to be done correctly. Usually when you give people a choice to do full color on both sides they go overboard and the creative juices start flying, not flowing, flying with, "WOW!!! full color on both sides?!!" And they make it too busy. You don't want it to be dispersing - you want it to go like a trail. Have a start, a middle and an end. Example: Did YOU Notice this Postcard? Your Customers Will Notice Yours Too! 5000 Full Color Super-glossy postcards for only $389 Look at it from the customer viewpoint - really look at it from their viewpoint and you can see what I mean by eye trail. 5) I know that you should promote only one thing at a time on your postcard. Even if you sell lots of different products, you only promote one of them. It is fine to mention them on the back of the postcard bullet pointed. But your main focus on the front of your postcard needs to be one product, service, item, what have you - just one thing. Say you have a flooring store and a furniture showroom in the back. Your postcard should only talk about flooring. It is not that people who are looking for flooring are not also looking for furniture - it's just too much information on the front of postcard. The purpose of a postcard is to get your prospect interested with one thing. You can put on the back as just a mention: "We also have a giant showroom full of furniture." But on the front - one item! ONE ITEM! If a company sells hot tubs, above-ground pools and jungle gyms they need to pick the one that gives them the most income and make their postcard about that. 6) And I know that a person could grow a company with no other marketing media. With postcards alone, one could take a company from zero to over a million bucks in revenue or more. How do I know? Because I did it. We mailed postcards every single week, and the more postcards we mailed out, the more we grew. Yes, it is good to diversify and as we grew and became more successful and had more money to try other media, we did. Some we kept and some we nixed. Postcards are a staple that works no matter what. These six points of postcard marketing data are proven techniques of making your postcards WOW your prospective clients while at the same time being faithful to the time-honored methods that have proven to get more bang for your buck. These tips are what will put your postcard in a class all by itself. Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania in 1998; her only assets a computer and a phone. In 2004 the company did close to $9 million in sales and employs over 60 persons. She knows so much about postcards because that is the only marketing medium she used to grow her company in its first few years. She attributes her explosive growth to her ability to choose incredible staff and her innate marketing savvy. Now she's sharing her marketing secrets with others. For more free marketing advice, visit her website at http://www.postcardmania.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Marketing - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Small Business Bonzai Marketing Do you own a small business? Do you wish to increase sales? Do you wish to draw more customers into your store or find more customers for your service business? You can do this for a relatively low cost by building as small sales team of high-energy people. Direct Sales marketing will help increase your business, future referrals and image in the community. Small Business Marketing; Abstract Philosophical Discussion Our bodies work like our small businesses. They work best by word of mouth, networks, referrals, etc. Keep Costs Down and Keep the Marketing Strategy Simple One of the biggest mistakes we could make as business owners is spending too much money on marketing our service or product without knowing how to market it correctly. I've seen plenty of money wasted on marketing that did not produce any sales and most home based business don't have too much money to waste when ramping up. Top 10 Ways to Create and Manage Opportunity Most of us are used to the concepts of risk management or time management. Many of the same principles can be applied to creating and responding to opportunities. A Guide to Brochure Printing Brochure printing can be easy if you first identify your needs and have a clear sense of your budget. Whether it is for is a real estate listing, a trade show handout, a data sheet, or another application, brochures are a great promotional tool. First to Market Theory AGE OLD QUESTIONBusiness scholars throughout the planet keep asking the same question and have come to the conclusion that being first into the market place is preferable. Preferable to what? They say every product has a life cycle? What about milk? If that is true and many academia will classify products and services in order to make a point and simply lump them all together. Positioning For Success According to military historian David Chandler the campaigns of Napoleon Bonaparte consistently rose above the expected. For more than 20 years Napoleon showed genius and skill as a general on the field of battle. The 30 Incredible Ways To Sell Your Products Now and Sell More How to sell more and sell quickly online for your products and service? Here is the long list for your reference. 1. Business Cards That do the Business A business card makes a statement about who you are and whatyour business is about. It needs to convey the quality ofyour business and an insight into your personality. Website Marketing: 10 Uncommon Bonuses That Will Help Make Your Product Hotly In Demand Giving away free bonuses is an important website marketing secret that can ignite your sales.1. Should You Clap For Your Customers? Does it make sense to clap for your customers? It does not, you answer. You may be right, for the conventional way is for an audience to clap for a speaker, preacher, performer, artiste, player, or marketing professional making a presentation. What You MUST Understand About Your Web Numbers Two years ago, when I first started selling online, I focused on doing what I did best: generating useful content that people would want to pay for. But I quickly learned that selling a product online required me to have to learn about . Dear Friend: Dont Start Your Non-For-Profit Fundraising Letters As A Stranger Dear Friend:Don't do it.Don't start your fundraising letters with "Dear Friend. Fundamental Strategic Marketing Mistakes to Avoid This is a pretty tough global economy and it is critical for a company to leverage every bit of their marketing resources. So, if this is the case, why are so many companies shooting themselves in the proverbial foot by breaking some of the most fundamental rules of marketing? It's a very simple question with complex answers - here are some of the pitfalls to avoid:1) Believing a second rate web site communicates integrity: So many web sites are just plain funky looking (graphics, text, menus, etc. The Forgotten Market There are a great many online business people who areforgetting the potential that this particular forgotten market can be providing them. The forgotten market Iam referring to is the off-line market and as for thepotential, it could prove to be quite profitable for you. Service Marketing - A Relationship Building Approach Can we imagine a place in the world today without a marketing activity. It looks remote. Marketing Person You Think You Arent Have you thought about starting your own business? Have you started one and are having challenges with marketing, fear of failure, fear of success?I could go on and on. Has the question, Now what? ever entered your mind? If so, I would like to share my story with you. What Does Your Business Card Say About You? - Making A Great First Impression! Interesting article in USA Today that I read this week that I've also read about on Scott Ginsberg's blog. Think about this: What does your business card say about you? If you work in a company that requires you to conform to the corporate standard, obviously you don't have much choice. Renting Your Mailing Lists to Others RESOLVING THE "PROPRIETARY" DILEMMA.. Are You a Marketing Octopus, or a Marketing Worm? One of the greatest challenges to effectively marketing a business is determining which marketing method is best for your business.Most people look at what their competitors are doing to market their businesses and then simply imitate that, whether good or bad.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
