Postcard Marketing

It can be easy to lose sight of some of the tried and true marketing methods still available. As growing technology continues to change the way businesses approach their marketing strategies, it’s important to look beyond the expected digital marketing methods. By taking a broader approach to your marketing strategy you can expand your reach and get the best ROI.

One marketing method that will never go out of style is postcards. Postcard marketing is traditional in theory but when combined with customized options, it remains relevant even in the modern world.

Why is postcard marketing still a good strategy?

Many marketers are so focused on digital marketing trends they fail to research success rates of other methods. Postcard marketing, for example, has the highest response rate of 4.4% compared to digital marketing at just 0.12%. Plus, 57% of marketers who use postcards think they are the most reliable method.

From a consumer standpoint, more than 60% of people are inspired to visit a website after receiving a postcard and also claim to have 70% greater brand recall from direct mail than digital marketing. In fact, even something as old school as print advertising classifieds remain one of the top sources generating sales and marketing leads at 8%.

Considering that 4 out of 5 business owners say that postcards can help them stand out from the competition, you could be missing an opportunity to reach your audience in a more traditional way.

How to Use Postcards

Postcards play a major role in helping you meet your sales goals including:

• Voucher cards: To draw people to your business
• Reminder cards: To help convert customers and close sales
• Grand opening announcements: To start building your new client base
• Clearance cards: To clear out old inventory while drawing attention to new offers
• Discount cards: To entice first sales, or to help people complete a sale they had in mind
• Freebies: As an ideal draw for many marketing scenarios
• Birthday discounts: To target customized opportunities and personalized offers
• First time buyer discounts: To gain market share
• BOGO: To encourage purchases

All of these tactics are highly effective when paired with the right objectives.

Reasons Postcard Marketing Still Thrives In the Digital Age

If you aren’t convinced postcards remain a viable option in the age of digital marketing, here are some further thoughts to consider:

• Affordable marketing: Postcard marketing is the most affordable means of reaching your target audience with a higher potential for response with an average of 4.4%.
• Campaigns are easy to track: Postcard campaigns are based on the number of cards printed and posted in hand with easy to track results based on calls, leads and sales generated.
• Versatile: Postcards can be used to meet all of your sales goals from brand awareness to launching new products and from driving more traffic to your website or social media to drawing attendees to seminars and trade shows.
• Keep competition secret: Your digital ads are out there for all the world to see. While this offers great exposure to a broad audience it also tilts your hand so your competitors always know what you’re up to. This allows them to react and take back market share. Your postcards are a far more covert form of advertising keeping your cards closer to your chest.
• Postcard marketing is cost-effective and scalable: As already mentioned, postcard marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to reach your audience. Because they can be scaled up or down in quantities, you can easily meet your needs and budget.
• Saves time: Postcard marketing saves time compared to other forms of marketing as they don’t require constant updates and monitoring. Unlike digital marketing where you need to concern yourself with new content, you simply design and mail your postcards for a ‘set it and forget it’ kind of marketing.
• Better branding experience: Because everyone else is focused on digital marketing strategies, your postcards offer a unique way to build up your business image.
• QR codes: QR codes can be included in postcards to achieve greater insights into customer engagement and offer redemption options.
• Combine with digital marketing: Don’t forget postcards can be used to invite people to visit your website, blog or social media and generate more traffic to support your digital efforts. Using unique URLs to send people to special pages allows you to target special offers and track their success.
• They are measurable: Postcards offer easy ways to measure campaign success.

5 Steps to Running a Successful Postcard Marketing Campaign

If postcards are starting to sound a lot more interesting, you can easily run a successful postcard marketing campaign following these five steps:

1. Identify your audience: First, you need to identify your audience. Special mailing services like TROI make it easy to zero in on many different criteria from location to certain demographics. You can also use targeted mailing lists you create using your own customer base.
2. Set smart marketing goals: Decide what your goal is for the campaign whether it is to drive sales, create leads, raise brand awareness or promote a special event.
3. Determine a budget: Set a budget to help manage quantities.
4. Develop the postcard: Design the postcard to reflect your brand and draw attention to your mailer. Make the heading intriguing or obvious depending on your marketing style.
5. Track your results: Last but not least, choose the way you plan to track your results and then enjoy your success.

How to Measure the Results of a Postcard Marketing Performance

As mentioned, postcards are the easiest marketing tactic to measure success. You have many different options including:

• Discount codes: Track how many orders are placed using specific discount codes people use to access the offer.
• Custom URL: Create landing pages and track visits to the custom URL using Google analytics.
• Custom phone number: Assign a unique phone number as the contact to track calls generated.

Although you might think the digital age means postcard marketing isn’t as effective or is simply dead, they are still one of the best methods to market your business. As the world continues to move towards digital, you can set yourself apart from the competition by using postcards in a more personalized way.