Postcards are inexpensive to print and inexpensive to mail, which is why many businesses take advantage of this important marketing tool. What better way to get information about your latest sale or promotion to customers than by sending a well-designed postcard?  The key is to make sure your postcards are doing their job: attracting customers to your business. Follow these tips, and your next postcard mailing should drum up extra business.

Choose the Right Graphic Using Stock Photos

Postcards are compact, meaning that you must be concise and choose your graphics carefully. Stock photos are plentiful, inexpensive (usually), and come in high resolution, which is perfect for printing postcards. It’s best to have a specific image in mind to enhance your postcard and then perform a search for the right stock photo.

Stock photos mean you don’t have to hire a professional photographer just for a simple postcard mailing, which can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars. As long as you choose a well-taken, relevant stock photo, your postcard will stand out — in a good way!

When to Commission Photos and Graphics

If you need professional shots of your specific products, place or business or services, then you should consider hiring a professional photographer to do the job. You might also want to hire a model to show off your product. Make sure if you’re paying for a photo shoot that the photos can be used not only for your postcards, but for your website and other marketing materials.

Custom graphics are also a possibility. Instead of hiring a professional photographer, you can hire a graphic artist to create a unique and eye-catching original illustration of your product or service. The sky is the limit with custom graphics, and you can then re-use the image on other promotional materials.

Choose the Right Font

You can use a single font or mix a pair of fonts to boost the aesthetic appeal of your postcard design. Your headlines might be a large, bold block print in a different color from the rest of the content. As long as the font is legible, you can be as creative as you need to be to create an eye-catching design for your postcards.

Postcards that are designed to impress, whether you use a stock photo, hire a photographer or commission custom graphics, will inspire customers to visit your business.

The holidays are generally a time of festivity and boosted sales for businesses because a larger volume of consumers need gifts. It’s common for businesses to devise a holiday plan for drawing in as much extra business as possible because preparing early is important. A great part of many plans are sending festive postcards to customers.

Postcards are cost-effective marketing tools that are simple to create, print and send out. If you design your postcard with your customer in mind, you’ll likely catch their attention quickly as they sort the mail and lure them in for some extra holiday shopping at your business.

Incentives are the key to postcards. Give your customers a great reason to visit your business during the holidays, whether you’re promoting a holiday sale or special discount for those who bring their postcards on a certain day or during the month of December, for example.

Following are a few hints to make your holiday postcards shine this year.

• The headline – Most postcards begin with a headline designed to catch the customer’s attention. This should be bold, colorful and concise so that someone flipping through the mail is inspired to pause and read your holiday postcard.

• Choose a product theme – If you are trying to move a particular item this holiday season, make it the focus of your postcard. That product should be featured and its features highlighted to inspire customers to come check it out this season. Since postcards are small, focusing on a single item or a dynamic duo of related products streamlines your design and is more likely to draw the customers in.

• Entice with an incentive – Your holiday postcards need to inspire your customers to take action with a strong incentive to visit or order from your business NOW! Whether you give customers a time period to use an extra discount or emphasize low inventory, your postcard must give customers a sense of urgency to buy from you.

If you take the time to design your holiday sales campaign early and design streamlined, eye-catching postcards to advertise your holiday sale, then you won’t fall behind your competition and will hopefully enjoy a boosted bottom line.

Postcard printing is one of the most cost-effective marketing methods for small businesses.  Easy to create, easy to mail, and easy to get your point across, postcards are a fun way to share the news with your clients.

Remember to keep your postcard printing short and to the point.  The goal with postcards is not to inform the reader of every last detail, but rather to whet their interest so that they contact you for more information.

The visual appeal is important as well, as you may have mere seconds to make an impression on the reader before they toss your postcard into the recycle bin.  Choosing appropriate color schemes and images are important.

Lastly, every postcard should include your contact information in some form, whether it is your phone number, website, or physical address.

Not sure how postcard printing can work for you?  Here are some direct mail strategies that your small business can utilize:

Announcements

Do you have a grand opening or a great sale coming up?  Make sure that your customers are in the know with postcard printing.  New stores can do blanket mailings for very little cost by sending out postcards to every household within a geographical area.

If you already have a client base, then you can use this as your mailing list to notify your loyal clients about your special event.  Remember to send out the postcards far enough in advance that your customers can plan for it, but not so far in advance that they forget about the event before it happens.

Coupons

These days, everyone is trying to save money, and more and more businesses are becoming aware of this by offering their customers special incentives.  Whether you want to offer them specific coupons or percentages off, postcard printing is a great way to get the postcard into their hands.

Plus, this is a great method for verifying the effectiveness of your advertising campaign.  By tracking the number of postcards sent out compared to those coupons that are redeemed, you will get a better idea as to the health of your business and if you are advertising to the right people.

Reminders

Many service industries rely on repeat business to keep sales high.  For example, your dentist relies on you coming in for that annual appointment every year, your vet wants you to bring your dog in for shots, and your mechanic expects you to show up for regular oil changes.  If you are in a business that relies on regular, repeat business, then you can use postcard printing to create a gentle reminder for your clients.  Keep track of when your clients will be due for their next visit with you, and send a postcard out a few weeks before.  You can even include a coupon or other incentive to encourage them to come and see you.

If you aren’t sure how you can use postcard printing for your business, talk to your printer.  Your printer can go over different features that may be useful for your industry, including automatically using your own mailing list, purchasing mailing lists, and utilizing printing features like two-sided and four-color printing.

Loyalty is the key to every successful business.  Without the loyalty of repeat customers, your business would likely fail. These loyal customers help bring in new customers and can be counted on for continued revenues. Although new customers are essential as well, taking the time to send a special postcard to loyal customers will go a long way to maintaining that coveted loyalty.

Thank You Postcards

Customers are more likely to remain loyal if they feel appreciated. Sending these loyal customers a thank you postcard is a great way to send the right message of appreciation. An email is often deleted or treated as spam, but a physical piece of mail that says thank you is important.

Taking that extra step of personalization will further enhance this simple gesture. By adding the customer’s name, you eliminate the cold feeling of a form letter. Also, make sure you establish the practice of sending a thank you postcard out within a week of receiving business from that customer.

An aesthetically pleasing postcard that still includes your business logo and name will likely be displayed, meaning you get extra exposure. You’ll likely notice an increase in customer loyalty by establishing this simple practice.

Incentive Postcards

Make sure to periodically send postcards to your loyal customer base that include a special customer loyalty discount or some other incentive to revisit your business. The postcard printing could become a coupon if the customer presents it during his next visit, or simply advertise a special sale or event only available to special customers. Internet businesses can simply include a promotional code to be used at checkout for the next purchase.

Reminder Postcards

Reminder postcards are best used for businesses who provide a specialized service. For instance, you might send out a reminder postcard to loyal customers once a quarter to remind them to make an appointment or to reorder a particular item, depending on your business. It never hurts to include an incentive with your reminder postcards because it’s always important to keep attracting your loyal customers back to you.

Sending postcards will help make your customers feel appreciated and special, especially when they get access to “deals” that aren’t for everyone. This will help build customer loyalty, all by sending personalized postcards costing under $1 to produce.

Direct mail advertising with sales letters has its advantages, but sometimes you want to send a direct mail marketing message without the high cost of sales letter copywriting, printing, and postage. In cases where you may want to send a quick direct mail message to existing and potential customers, consider a postcard as a great cost-effective way to get your message across.

1. Postcards Are More Likely To Be Read

When a person pulls mail out of their mailbox, what do they do? Most likely they begin sorting the mail – letters from loved ones, bills, advertising circulars, sales letters, and Oh! – a postcard. A postcard tends to stand out to a recipient, and they will at least look at the front of it to see what it says. Using the right design elements can help assure that your full postcard message does indeed get read by the recipient.

2. Target Your Mailing List

What is the purpose of your direct mailing? Are you intending to invite previous customers back to your store? Do you want to gain more new customers? Remember that any mail advertising needs to be targeted to the right consumer. Try to obtain or build mailing lists with important demographic data. Your postcard mailing will have more impact when it reaches a consumer who wants and needs your products.

3. Catch Their Attention

As mentioned, a postcard will likely get a first glance, and that first glance will determine whether the recipient will read more. Use colorful photos, graphics, and bold headlines to capture their attention.

4. Make Your Message Brief

A postcard is not the place to include all the sales copy you would find in a letter. Instead, make the information on your postcard brief, but interesting. Use bullet points to highlight features or benefits. You may have space for only a sentence or two. So keep your message brief and to the point.

5. Include a Testimonial

You might include a comment from a customer on your direct mail postcard. Showing potential customers what other customers think can help them make a decision about your business.

6. Generate Interest Now – Sales Later

A direct mail postcard’s main goal is to generate interest. There is simply not enough space to provide a full sales message. Instead, you want to pique interest and have the customer want to know more. However, be sure you provide a call to action with your contact information.

7. Give an Expiration Date

A direct mail postcard mailing is effective when it gives the message, but also a deadline. You may be offering a 25% discount, but tell the customer they only have 10 days to take advantage of the offer. Be sure your recipients know when they should act.

Direct mail postcards are cost-effective for any business. However, having a strategy for design, printing, and mailing will help assure that your direct mail campaign will be a success.

Catching the eye of the reader is one of the keys to the success of a postcard mailing.  If your postcard printing doesn’t produce an eye-catching image, then it is most likely on its way to the recycle bin.  If you want your promotional postcard printing effort to make a difference in your bottom line, then follow these helpful tips to get customers to take a second look.

Use Stock Photos

Postcard printing doesn’t allow much room for using images.  With the right photograph, you can get customers to look closer at your postcard.  However, commissioning a photo shoot, complete with a photographer, model, makeup artist, and art director is cost-prohibitive for many companies.  Thankfully, stock photographs can be a great addition to your postcard printing.

Stock photography for your postcard printing job can be found easily through the internet.  There are databases of free stock photography in which you can browse and download high resolution images.  If you want to find something more specific, look through a pay-per-image stock photo database.  Either way, you are sure to find a professionally created image that can help your postcard printing effort look its best.

Use Original Photos

Of course, if your budget allows, you could also use custom and unique photographs for your postcard printing.  Hire a photographer who has a well-lit studio.  Models hired through an agency will add an extra sparkle as well.  If you want to focus on a product, make sure your photographer captures the image using creative lights and setting.  Photos that are brilliant and colorful are the right choice for a postcard printing and marketing effort.

Use Custom Graphics and Illustrations

You don’t have to always say it with photos.  A graphic designer can create stunning images with computer graphics, or even hand drawings scanned into digital form.  Graphic images have more freedom to be creative with colors, point of view, and can even add important details or highlights.

Say It with Font

To catch the eye of the postcard beholder, you don’t always need to use images.  Your successful postcard printing could utilize the creative use of fonts.  Use large fonts, round fonts, puffy fonts, or curvy fonts.  With little precious space, the use of fonts does need to be minimized and readable.  However, when you use catchy headings with stylized fonts, your audience will want to know more.

Postcard printing efforts are one of the most cost-effective marketing tools a business can use for promotion and special deals.  If you want to make your postcard printing a success each time, spend some focus on the images you use.

For many businesses, holiday planning begins months before the actual event, especially when the end-of-year holidays generate a large portion of a business’s profits.  If you are looking to get a jump start on holiday sales, then simple and cost-effective postcard printing could be a great idea for your business.

Postcards have many advantages.  Postcards are simple cardstock paper cut from letter size paper into halves or quarters.  You can print multiple postcards on a single sheet of paper, saving you money on printing costs.  Postcard printing can be easily designed because of their size.  In addition, you can easily and cheaply mail promotional postcards to your mailing or contact list to nudge customers to start thinking about holiday buying – and how they can get a great deal by shopping soon with your business.

Here are some ideas that can really make a punch with your holiday postcard printing.

• The first line is the most important – The postcard headline is the one line of words that catches a customer’s attention.  It could mean the difference between the recipient reading the postcard or tossing in the recycle pile.  Spend a lot of time making a great headline that really stands out.

• Punch the product – Try designing a postcard with an emphasis on a particular product you want to promote.  Get the product idea in the customer’s head and highlight why that would make the perfect gift.

• Limit the postcard idea – Postcards are great for promoting a single product or idea.  Don’t get caught up in trying to list a catalog on a single postcard.  There’s just not enough space.  However, by limiting your postcard to one idea, you have a better chance of getting a response.

• Give a call to action – All sales advertising include a call to action that tells the customer what they need to do next.  Include in your postcard printing a clear call to action explaining how the customer can take advantage of the offered deal.  A simple “Order now – supplies are limited” is a simple call to action that gets the customer to act fast.

The holidays always seem to arrive before we know it.  Don’t get caught last in line behind other businesses when it comes to promoting holiday sales.  Get on the bandwagon early and send out postcards to encourage customers to start buying right away.