Postcards are still one of the most effective and efficient methods of marketing available today. Even with all the digital sales and advertising going on,?direct mail postcards?still work and can enhance any digital marketing if used well.
One sales technique that has been in a state of decline is that of door-to-door sales. While this is an excellent way to be sure that you get your message in front of customers, the time it takes and the cost of materials makes it a less than ideal marketing method. Like telemarketing, door-to-door sales is a form of interruption marketing that forces consumers to pay attention. But this can come at a steep cost.
If you are the owner of a business, you may not have realized that direct mail postcards are an efficient form of marketing that can far out-perform door-to-door sales. There are plenty of different reasons as to why direct mail postcards are actually better for making sales than door-to-door selling. If you haven?t tried direct mail postcards, it might make sense to see how well they can work for you.
Affordable
Postcards are still very affordable. At a cost of only a few cents per postcard plus applicable mailing fees, it?s one of the easiest and least expensive ways to get your brand and message in front of the right customers at the right time. There are plenty of pre-designed postcards you can use to customize and then print with an online printer for very cheap, such as the?free postcard designs?on PrintPlace.com or the?postcard designs available from StockLayouts.com?at a reasonable cost.
Focused
You can very carefully focus your direct mail campaign to reach your perfectly ideal customer. Door-to-door sales tend to be all over the place in terms of the demographic advertised to. But you can select the ideal customers who tend to purchase more frequently than others and only send postcards to this group.
Less Intrusive
Door-to-door sales are incredibly intrusive. Postcards, on the other hand, still show up in the customers? hands, but the customer has the ability to read and research on their own time. For this reason alone, postcards may be much more suited to your business model.
Efficiency
With all these advantages in mind, the bottom line is that postcards can be far more efficient when it comes to dollars spent on a campaign. Because the cost has gotten so affordable and you can focus your marketing at such a tight audience, the response rate for direct mail postcards is much higher than with door-to-door sales.
Postcards Are Not the Magic Bullet for Everyone
While direct mail postcards are an excellent marketing tool, they?re not for everyone. There will always be a few kinds of products and services that require a door-to-door sales approach. So don?t think postcards can automagically replace sales for your products. Be smart, but consider the advantages postcards bring and try implementing a new campaign.
Effective Techniques for Marketing with Postcards
The first step to effectively marketing with your postcards is to create postcards that are visually appealing. Make sure that the content on the postcard gets straight to the point, makes sense, and includes a call to action. The postcards should also include your logo and other brand elements so that people will be able to connect the postcards with your business.
Instead of using postcards on their own, use them in conjunction with online marketing techniques. Create a campaign that includes email marketing, social media blasts, and printed postcards. On your postcards, include a QR code or URL that leads consumers to a landing page you have created specifically for that campaign. Of course, always include your website URL and possibly social media information on your postcards to help customers make that connection between your online and offline presence.
You can either mail postcards directly to customers, as mentioned before, but you can also market them out of the home, meaning you can place them in different stores, hotels, airports and other areas where tons of people frequent on a daily basis. You can also send them out to people based on specific demographics, such as location or relationships status, which would help you increase the chance of gaining new business.
If your door-to-door sales seems to be suffering, try starting with a small printed postcard campaign directed at a small group of targeted consumers. In conjunction with online marketing, direct mail postcards can be even more powerful, so also include online efforts for your campaign. Check your results of your test, see what worked and what didn?t, make changes, and try again. Before long, you may find that you have a highly effective marketing method that greatly out-performs the ancient practice of door-to-door sales.
Tara Hornor writes for PrintPlace.com, an online printing company that offers services for brochures, business cards, marketing flyers, posters, postcards, custom booklets, and more printed marketing media. She has found her niche writing about marketing, advertising, branding, web and graphic design, and desktop publishing. In addition to? View?full?profile
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