The success of your postcards depends a lot on the layout, design and ad copy. Be creative, but remember the simple design basics, which will help get your message across to the customer.

1. There is only a limited amount of space available on a postcard, use it wisely. You need to fill the space with information that will only address the main concerns that recipients have. A rule to remember, white space is better than a bunch of words that clutter your message.

2. Headlines need to be powerful, well-positioned and thought-out. They’ll make or break the success of your postcard. If you grab them with a clever headline, they’ll continue reading. Your headline has one objective: drive the reader into the rest of the copy.

3. The subheads are then written and designed to intrigue and arouse the reader further. The subhead is not quite as large as the headline type, and not quite as small as the body copy type. It is the line that provides a smooth transition between the two areas. This line also has the same objective as the headline: get them to read further.

4. Use graphics only if they have a purpose and contribute to the communication of your message. continue reading this entry »

The object of a postcard is to generate a sufficient level of interest in the mind of your prospect to get them to contact you about your offer. You are generating interest, not collecting money — not yet anyway.

Postcards are persistant. Send 8 postcards to your mailing list each year. In between mailing you should stay in touch with key clients and prospects with handwritten postcards. Postcards are the perfect tool to use for repetitive follow-up of prospects. This type of follow-up has resulted in substantial increases in sales. It’s okay to send a card more than once. Successful cards can be sent forever as long as they continue to cover their costs.

Postcards have to be part of your overall marketing plan. Make it fit and work in harmony with all the marketing strategies that you use. Ask yourself, why am I using postcards? Do you want to get new clients? Or do you want to stay in touch with existing clients? Who are you going to be mailing to? No matter what type of mailing you’re doing, it’s the list that will determine its success.

Postcards are an overlooked marketing secret. They can boost your business, no matter what kind of business you own. In a single mailing, you can seek business from prospective customers, and solicit repeat business from existing customers.

A postcard isn’t just something to send through the mail. You can use postcards to drive traffic to your website, generate sales leads, use as oversized business cards, hang tags for your products, mini-information sheets or how about a newsletter on a postcard. I have personally used that with fabulous results.

Postcards are one of the best investments you can make with your marketing dollar.

Postcards are versatile. Postcards can look like a one-to-one communication. They can be used to keep your mailing list up to date. Send postcards first class with the imprint “Address Service Requested” below the stamp.

The post office will return cards for free with undeliverable addresses back to you. Lots of catalog companies do this before mailing their catalog — it’s much cheaper to get cards back than to pay for getting unusable catalogs back after the normal post office handling.

One of the benefits of using the postcard first class rate is that the postcard will be mailed back to you if it has a bad address, which helps you keep your list up to date.

Need a quick survey response? Create a short survey postcard Ask recipients to fax them back to you, or go to your website and answer the questions. There’s a good chance you’ll get lots of responses. Testing your offers with postcards is easy. Just send your card to a small group of people and see how many of them respond. If you’re satisfied with the results, then roll out a bigger mailing!

It’s easy to track your results with postcards since you can tell recipients to bring the card into your store to redeem it for a special discount. Or direct them to use a special ordering code when purchasing from your website.

Postcards can be produced on a very tight production schedule. Postcards are simple to create and send, there is no assembling, collating, stuffing, licking envelopes, etc.

The hardest part of sending a postcard is putting on the stamp.

Your postcards can brand you and your business in ways that most marketing materials cannot. Once you start and then stick to a regular postcard mailing program, you and your business will gain a reputation, perhaps even a little notoriety.