New Marketing Strategies With Printed Postcards

Some people believe that, with the advent of digital marketing, print advertising is on the verge of extinction. However, in reality, postcard printing services are not going anywhere anytime soon. In fact, one of the only ways to expose people to local advertising without breaching their privacy is via physical mail.

Direct mail presents golden opportunities that many online-obsessed marketers simply ignore or aren’t aware of. Still not convinced? The average household response to direct mail can be over 5%. This may seem small, but it significantly outperforms the response rate to emails, which is 0.6%. As such, direct mail can actually be more effective when compared to emails. Here, we suggest a few new marketing strategies that can help take your postcard printing services to the next level.

You can go the cheap route and design the simplest postcard possible, with minimal text, artwork, and design. Such an approach will at least be somewhat effective, as even those who take your postcard and throw it out will be exposed to the advertising, if only for a few seconds. However, if you want to create a lasting impression, then take the time and effort to design a postcard that truly stands out amongst the glut of direct mail competitors.

When designing your postcard, you must consider both the text colour and image colour. For instance, make sure that the background colour does not compete with the text colour. Otherwise, people will have trouble reading your postcard’s message. As such, the colours you select should not conflict but, rather, complement each other. For instance, going with black and white is a classic look that works quite well.

It only takes a few seconds to make a good first impression, so you need to devise a headline that is eye catching. In other words, the intent must be clear, but the message should also be easy to read and easy to understand. Avoid ambiguous or vague statements that will confuse rather than amaze. Also, don’t go overboard with obnoxious colours and graphics. The font should be clean, simple, and professional.

Most people are super busy and don’t want to feel like they have to read a book in order to understand your message. As such, you should use bold subheadings, and your paragraphs should not exceed two lines. Your advertising message should speak to people from all walks of life, so keep things short and simple.

A common mistake that many novice marketers make is that they will focus on showcasing the features of a product or service. However, most people don’t really care about features. Instead, they want to know how a specific product or service will meet one or many of their needs. For instance, if you provide guitar lessons, then you should not focus on how long the lessons will be. Instead, focus on what the students will actually learn during one of their lessons. In other words, focus on the selfish benefits. If you are selling a foot cream, then don’t highlight the ingredients, but instead focus on how the cream will work on their feet to reduce foot odour and inflammation. This quality may depend on the ingredients, but it is important to narrate towards personal aims and relevant voids that your product can fulfill.

It is very important keep your company logo small so that it doesn’t overshadow the message of your business. You may have driven over a highway, noticed a billboard with a large singular logo, and were bewildered as to what it meant. To avoid such boondoggles, don’t use larger-than-life logos that confuse or obstruct. An easy way to do this is to design a small logo that fits nicely in the top right or left corner of the postcard. A person interested in knowing who sent the postcard can quickly glance to the right or left and find the information they are looking for. In fact, most postcards are small enough so that a person can see the entire card without having to shift their eyes.

To create an interactive experience for your audience, send out content such as puzzles for them to solve. Most people enjoy mysteries, so if they need to solve one in order to decipher what your message is, then they will be far more likely to actually remember the message. This type of marketing is also known as guerilla marketing, as it seeks to make a powerful impact while also keeping things simple and affordable.

For example, a dentist may try to advertise his business by wrapping an illustration of gums and teeth made out of construction paper around a telephone pole. The artwork will look like a mouth, and in order for someone to get the information they needed about his business they would need to pull out one of the paper teeth to take with them. He could also make the display appear more interesting with each additional tooth that was “extracted.” Hence, try and get your target audience involved with your advertisement so that they can have something to talk about with their friends, family, and co-workers.

In sum, keep your postcards simple — less is more. Just remember to give your audience something memorable or insightful to take along with them after they have discarded your postcard. You need to pique their curiosity with messaging that is concise, effective, and memorable in order to have a marked impact that will drive interest and, subsequently, sales.

To learn more about new marketing strategies and direct mail postcard printing services, call Troi Mailing Services in Scarborough at 1-866-486-0423 or contact us here for postage costs today.