A Quick Look at
Marketing with Postcards
Source: Studio 1 Productions
Have you ever received a postcard in the mail? What was the first thing you did? I bet
you turned it over to see what the postcard was for, didn’t you? So do most other
people, including your customers! Imagine, your customers actually reading the information
you sent them.
Now you might be asking yourself, “why a postcard? Why not a sales letter, catalog
or product brochure?” Well, at Studio 1, we do use sales letters and catalogs in our
marketing efforts, however, postcards have some very important benefits that most people
tend to overlook. Therefore, we make sure we use them in our overall marketing plan.
Some of the benefits of using a postcard are: 1) Reduced marketing cost. They only cost
23 cents each to mail first class, even less if you choose to mail 3rd class. 2) They are
inexpensive to have printed. We pay about $230 for 10,000 postcard. This is with black ink
on a goldenrod color card stock. 3) It can save you time, especially if you are putting
together the mailing yourself. 4) It is fast, easy and effortless for the recipient to see
what you have to offer and this is very important.
Studies have shown that most people don’t take the time to open every piece of
mail that they get. Why? Because, it takes too time and effort. If they don’t
recognize the name on the return address, chances are they won’t open that piece of
mail. (How many of you are like me, standing over the trashcan sorting the mail?)
Unfortunately for people using direct mail, a lot of mail can go unopened. No matter how
good of a teaser line you have at the bottom of an envelope, it just gets tossed.
Here is where a postcard comes in. Most people are somewhat curious by nature and since
a postcard doesn’t take any time or effort to open, most people flip the card over to
see what it says, even if they don’t recognize the company name on the return
address.
Last year we ran a test. We did a mailing to 6000 people
offering one product, our XLR audio adapter. 3000 people received a postcard,
while the other 3000 people received a product flyer in an envelope. In order to
track the results of this test we gave the XLR two new product numbers, the XLR-1 and the XLR-2. This allowed us to
separate out the sales from the test mailing from our normal sales on this product.
We used a rented mailing list for the 6,000 names and addresses, this was a cold list.
In other words we never mailed to these people before. We sent the first 3000 names on the
list, the product flyer, while the other 3000 names received a postcard. We mailed to all
6,000 people at one time using first class mail.
The results were totaled at the end of 45 days. 68% of the orders came from the
postcards and 32% came from the product flyer. Knowing that one test was not a precise
test, we ran another test. Like the previous test, we used 6000 rented names and
addresses. This time 62% of the orders came from postcards, while 38% came from the
product flyer in the envelope.
Each time the postcard out pulled the product flyer for this particular product. People
just flipped the card over, saw what we were offering and ordered.
We have found another use for postcards, we use them to draw people to our website. For
example, you have a Special Interest Video you are marketing. Use the postcard to announce
your new video to your customers and give them a brief description about the video to peak
their interest. While some people will order directly from the postcard, others may want
to know more about the video. Let the postcard to direct them to your website so they can
obtain further information on the video.
By directing them to your web site, this takes down barriers for the customer. They
don’t have to call and talk to someone, especially a “salesperson”. They
don’t have to wait for you to mail them more information. And they can get more
information about your video at any time, day or night. Not just during your business
hours. That is a big convenience for some people.
Keep in mind, that not everyone is on the web, be sure to mention that if they
don’t have access to the web, you’ll be more than happy to mail them more
information on the video.
Does directing them to the web site really work? It does for us. This past spring we
mailed out 10,000 postcards to a rented mailing list. The postcard highlighted several
products that we offer and directed them to our website. In the bottom left corner we made
mention that if they don’t have access to the web, simple call or fax us and we would
mail out a catalog to them.
The results we received were great. 653 people called for a catalog, but more
importantly, we saw an additional 1,760 visitors to our website over the normal monthly
average during the 30 days after the postcard was mailed out. That’s not a bad
response rate for 10,000 postcards.
One last thing, a question that we are always asked is, “why don’t we mail
the postcards 3rd class bulk rate.” It’s simple, by mailing first class on a
Monday, we will start getting orders or responses in just 3 days, usually on Thursday of
that same week. With 3rd class mail, it can take 10 to 21 days for the postcard to reach
your customer. Remember, time is money.
So the next time your thinking about doing a mailing, you might want to consider trying
postcards to reach your customers.
