Tips for Effective Postcard Marketing

by: GVCustserv
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See if you can improve your postcard marketing response rate by reviewing the following five tips developed from several years of experience at Galleria Ventures.

1. Know your mailing list. The quality level of the list of customers or potential customers you are sending your items to is an important factor to being successful with a direct mail campaign. You need to know if your list is made up of customer's that you have done business with or is it mainly new potential customers you do not know? If it is new potential customers, do you know the demographics of the list to be able to give some focus to your advertisement? For example you will have more success with a postcard ad that is targeted for women if you know the list you are sending to is also focused on women. Therefore, you need to match your message to the right group of people (and if possible, the right group of people at just the right time).

2. Make your headline "easy to scan". A postcard advertisement only has a short time to capture the reader's attention. That brief moment, which has been referred to as the "golden glimpse" -- is the moment when your postcard comes out of the mailbox and either goes on the desk or in the trash. An attention grabbing headline which gives a primary benefit for your targeted recipients is the key to getting the potential reader to read on. After seizing attention with a successful headline then some "skimmable" bullets after the headline giving more benefits should build enthusiastic interest. To make this happen sit down and list the features of your products or services. Then list the benefits each of these features bring to the customer. Prioritize which benefit has the greatest importance to your targeted list of recipients. Make the headline from the benefit you chose to have the greatest importance and use the other benefits to make the supporting bullets. If a photo or artwork can help make the impact greater of your primary benefit, be sure to use it.

3. Use a Child Should Understand It Test. Your potential customers will never know your product or package to the extent that you do. They are not around it everyday and therefore cannot have figured it out as well as you. Consequently, the best way to proceed is to be distinctly childlike in the message you communicate. This is not easy, as there is a probability that you will have knowledge you take for granted and use but your focused potential customers will not have the knowledge to easily discern your message. You will probably only have one chance to hook their attention so quick understanding is essential to achieve successful results. Therefore, your message should be very simple to understand in a plain clear language. Additionally, use images when it will reinforce the understanding.

4. Complete the advertisement with a compelling offer and a call to action. The offer and call to action is the conclusion of the marketing postcard's statement. It's the culmination of what the complete postcard leads to. This is where the reader finds out whatever he or she should do to discover more or the reason they should take action. Be confident your proposition is pertinent and captures the reader with a deal they will not want to turn down. As the recipient is absorbed in your offer then you present your call to action so it is not lost!

5. Constantly Measure and Track your direct mail success. The number one rule for success in direct mail marketing, is to TEST. Test the offer. Test the message. Test the mail piece size. Test the postage stamp. Test everything you can think of which might influence the reader. Through continual testing you can finally find the "formula" of success for your direct mail marketing. We recommend a split test of each new marketing postcard. To implement a split test by splitting the quantities of each campaign mailing with one thing that is different in each. Then measure the results of each and pick the one that gives the best results for another split test in another mailing. This process will allow your marketing message to evolve to the best performance.

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