Postcard Marketing Has Gotten Harder, So You Must Be Smarter

Postcard marketing has been an effective marketing tool for decades. It will continue to be a useful tool for the foreseeable future as well. But times have changed, so if you hope to succeed with this technique in the future, you must change as well.

In order to succeed with this marketing strategy, you have to understand the current state of direct mail. Specifically, you must examine the modern challenges postcard marketers face these days, and work to overcome those challenges.


Challenge #1 - An Army of Marketers

As the printing industry continues to evolve, the cost of postcard marketing decreases for the individual marketer. There's a lot of competition in the industry, so printers are always trying to add services and undercut each other's pricing. As a result, the number of postcard marketers has increased steadily over the years.

What does this mean to the average consumer? You guessed it -- they have more mail in their mailboxes than ever before. That leads us to the next challenge of postcard marketing ... information overload.

Challenge #2 - Information Overload

As if your competitors weren't enough, you also face increasing resistance from your potential customers, especially those who don't already know you. Why? Because they bring more skepticism to the table than ever before.

The average consumer gets bombarded with more than 3,000 advertisements in a given day. Magazine ads, banner ads, popup ads, direct mail, spam, billboards, TV and radio spots ... it's a blanket under which nothing can grow but skepticism and selectiveness.

We encounter more information in a single day than our grandparents encountered in a year. The result? Noise, clutter and information overload. The extended result is that your audience is highly selective. They are choosy in what they read, what they watch, and what they respond to.

This Means Three Things:

1. Your potential customers have free and instant access to information previously unavailable to them.

2. Consumers do not have to call a company they are interested in right from the start. They can (and do) use the Internet to research the company first.

3. To succeed with postcard marketing, you need to accept these realities and take a modern approach.

But Not to Worry...

Don't be discouraged by all this. There are many things you can do to overcome the challenges of this particular medium. Here are some of the things I recommend, based on what I've observed over the years.

Start with a big idea and build your direct mail campaign around it. This might be a superior product, a special event, a new website, or any number of things. Create a reason to send postcards before you send them.

Spend the time and money needed to build a good mailing list. You should define the characteristics of your target audience, and then find a data company who can give you a list based on those traits. Mass mailing campaigns are becoming a thing of the past.

Leverage your website. When I get a postcard in the mail that interests me, the first thing I do is look for a website where I can learn more. I'm not alone in this habit. Create a specific landing page on your website that relates to the "big idea" your postcard conveys. Put that web address on both sides of the card, where it cannot be missed.

Use pictures. If you're selling a product, show pictures of it in use. If you offer a service of some kind, find a way to show it through pictures. If you are promoting something online, show a small thumbnail photo of the website. People believe what they can see.

Crank up the value. People want what's best for them. This is the most fundamental concept of marketing. The higher the value of a thing, the more people want it. So you need to make sure the value of your product or service is clearly explained within your postcard's message. In other words, use a professional writer.