As a start-up or small business, you probably have a limited budget for marketing. Consequently, if you’re not using postcards, you’re missing a trick. Here are nine reasons you should consider using postcard marketing:
- Postcards can work for everyone
Some marketing is expensive; television or billboard advertising, for example, costs thousands and is only available to the big boys. Postcards, on the other hand, can be used by every business, even the smallest start-up with only pennies available. And it’s not industry-specific – all types of product or service can be promoted using postcards.
- Postcard design and printing is quick, easy and inexpensive
Effective postcard design is simple, short and to the point. You might be able to cut and paste from your website page, giving bullet point benefits and advantages to the customer. And keeping it simple means your local print shop can keep costs down too. Think one colour printing, not multi-colour, and it will cost only pennies.
- Postcards get read – it’s almost guaranteed
Adverts in magazines and newspapers are hidden away – your potential customers have to sit down and take time to read and find them. Other direct mail gets binned before it’s opened. Postcards are ready to read; your potential customers pick them up and instantly read them. Your message gets through immediately and effortlessly.
- Postcards generate quick results
Because your message gets read immediately, postcards get your potential customers reacting fast. You can mail or deliver your postcards and start getting sales within a day or two. This is useful for filling gaps in your workload quickly, or for clearing perishable stock before it goes rotten. And because there’s little “set up time” for a postcard campaign, you can act quickly too – starting or stopping almost instantly.
- Postcards generate geographically targeted traffic
Postcards are very useful for getting customers in a specific geographic area, perhaps within a couple of miles of your business. Hand deliver your postcards and you not only save mailing costs, but you can also hand pick your customers’ houses, offices or shops. For example, if you’re a cleaner working in an office building, you can deliver postcards to the adjacent buildings – picking up additional work whilst minimising your travel costs.
- Postcards generate webpage specific traffic
One of the best postcard formats is listing a few benefits of your product or service and telling the customer to go to a specific webpage within your website. This is ideal for making a potential customer’s experience of your website very easy; directing them precisely to the website they require removes the need to surf and find information. Getting your customer to the right page quickly and easily maximises results.
- Postcards generate market specific traffic
You can easily choose where to deliver your postcards and hence choose to have only the right people read your message. The cleaner mentioned earlier can choose offices rather than houses. You could choose to mail to dentists rather than doctors. You choose – whereas other forms of advertising reach anyone, anywhere, anytime and there is less control over who responds. The more specific you are, the less time you’ll spend dealing with people who don’t really want what you are offering.
- Postcard results are easily monitored and controlled
Because you get very quick results, postcards are easy to monitor. You can see very quickly if the dentists who were mailed respond positively or not – and you can vary your message appropriately. If the cleaner sees an overwhelming jump in business, postcard delivery can be stopped immediately. Monitoring is quick and easy – and your marketing can respond quickly and easily too, minimising wasted effort and expense and maximising control of your marketing results.
- Postcards give you secrecy
Not an obvious advantage, but an important one for some small businesses, particularly start-ups. Adverts in magazines, on television or up on billboards are seen by your competitors. They know what you’re saying, to whom, where and when. Postcards are personal between you and your reader. Your competitors don’t know who you’re contacting, what you’re offering, where you’re doing it, nor when – which means they can’t come up with a better deal. Secrecy helps you succeed.
So, as a start-up or small business, you’re missing a trick if you don’t use postcards. Spend your marketing budget wisely – postcards are the cost-effective, targeted, quick and easy way to market your business. Do it now!
Author Bio:-
Ajay Dalal is a content writer and a copywriter who specializes in writing marketing blog Technology and sales pages. He often writes for Everest DMM and Dricki and explores new technologies, and shares his knowledge through writing.
