The postcard is still one of the best ways to bring new customers to your business. It’s targeted, cost-effective and prospects appreciate direct mail more than email, according to a U.S. Post Office study.

The following four points are too often overlooked. But if you want to have success after success with your postcard campaigns, you’ll learn them well and employ them always.

1. Use a targeted list

It doesn’t matter how awesome your ice cubes are or how fast you deliver if you’re promoting to a list of prospects in Siberia.

The quality of your list is the most important aspect in the success of the mailing.

The ideal scene in the promotion of any product or service is that every single person on your list is the perfect prospect for your offer—they need it, want it, and are able to pay for it.

It’s anyone’s guess if that ideal is attainable but one thing is certain: with a little work, you can reach plenty of high-quality prospects.

(And for the sake of your ROI and results, you can’t skip this).

To accomplish that, do an analysis of your best customers—the ones who make repeat purchases, send you referral business, and are always happy to give feedback:

• Who are they?
• Where are they located?
• What’s their age?
• Etc.

Work up a profile of your best customer. With the easy access we have to data today, you can use that profile to find more of the same and thus come away with a targeted list.

2. Write a killer headline

If your headline is weak, your mailing fails—simple as that. Your prospect won’t be interested in your offer. They’ll use your postcard to sweep dust into a dustpan.

It’s not necessary to be clever but it is necessary to appeal to what is most important to your targeted list. (See #1, above.) The two biggest requirements for a strong headline are curiosity and benefit—you want to pique the prospect’s curiosity and also promise them a benefit.

Sometimes you can get away with one or the other.

For instance, if your target list is asthma sufferers, a headline as simple as “Attention: Asthma Suffers” (curiosity) could work just fine. You could use a sub-headline to transmit the benefit (e.g. “Find out about a preventative treatment you can get without a prescription.”)

3. Make an irresistible offer.

You whet the prospect’s appetite with the benefit you’ve promised in your headline. Now your offer has to fulfill that promise in such a way that the prospects almost feels they’d have to be crazy to not buy (or call, or schedule an appointment, etc.).

In addition to having a product or service your prospects want, there are plenty of ways to make your offer irresistible:

• “Limited time offer”
• “While supplies last”
• Discounts
• “Buy-now” bonus
• Etc.

(Tip: Everybody loves a great deal but which of your deals is the best one? Like anything in your promotion, your offer is among the things you can A/B test to see what gets the best response.)

4. Track your results.

You probably don’t need to be told that the whole point of postcard marketing (or any kind of direct mail marketing) is to be able to track the results. So, don’t do a mailing unless you’ve put in place a tracking method, such as:

• QR codes
• Unique phone numbers
• Coupon codes
• Landing pages
• etc.

Tracking is not sexy. It’s administrative. It can be tedious. But it’s one of the most overlooked aspects of successful direct mail marketing. Successful marketers track.

You can design your first postcard, build a targeted list, and schedule the mailing right here online.

Questions? We’d love to hear from you or visit us online at www.prospectsplus.com/pei

Need a little coaching? We can design it all for you – just call 1 (866) 319-7109 or visit Opportunity Knocks marketing!