Of all the great American novels ever written, how many of them do you think were ready on their first draft? I’d be willing to bet zero. All powerful and effective writing needs editing and several drafts.
Or, as novelist Patricia Fuller puts it:
“Writing without revising is the literary equivalent of waltzing gaily out of the house in your underwear.”
Sure, a postcard isn’t a novel, but it has the same impact: it needs to evoke emotion in your readers. So, when you are engaged in writing of any kind, do as the experts do, and don’t run out in your underpants!
Good postcard offers are rarely worked up on the first try and can take four, five, perhaps even six or seven tries before they start to sound good. Today we’ll give you all the ammunition you’ll need to write your own jaw-dropping offers and boost the ROI on your postcard marketing.
Here’s our hyper-simple 4-step method:
Step #1 – Make it a powerful offer
There are four guiding principles to writing truly great offers, and that’s to make them:
- Simple
- Front-loaded
- Emotional
- Calls to action
Most people who see your marketing will only give you 3 seconds of their attention and just like any interview, you must make a powerful first impression. If your offer is overly wordy, you’ll lose them, and the entire marketing campaign could be wasted. Therefore, it’s critical to have a simple message and short sentences.
You’ll also want to front-load key words so that they’re the first thing that people see. For example, instead of saying:
“Make sure that you have your lawn properly cared for by our specialist who can give you peace of mind!”
Say
“Gain peace of mind with our lawn care specialists!”
The second version gets to the point much faster.
And make sure to pack your message full evocative, concrete, and emotional words like:
Amazing, incredible, shocking, free, value, guaranteed, easy, effortless, discover, act now, never, new, safe, proven, effective
And finally, don’t forget to tell people what they’re supposed to do! Leave nothing up to the imagination, if you want them to call, say “call now.” If you want them to visit, say so. This is your call to action (CTA).
Got all that down? Now you’re ready to start writing.
Step #2 – Write, re-write, and keep re-writing
Now that you’ve got the rules down, you’ll want to move to step two, which is to write your marketing offer one sentence at a time. Because your postcard should be brief (remember, simple!) you shouldn’t have more than 3-5 sentences, so this won’t take too long.
Write each sentence, then re-write it right below the first one, improving it slightly to incorporate the principles above. If you wrote “great marketing offer” change it to “amazing marketing offer.” If you used tons of works, write it more simply. Repeat this process 7 times.
The final result will be a sentence that’s far more impactful!
Here’s what it should look like:
START:
We’re the best pool care specialists in the region
We’re great at pool installation and want you to know about it
Call us today because we’re pool installation experts
Call us today because we’ll put in a pool for you
Call us right now and we’ll make your pool look amazing!
Call right now to get your pool looking incredible for summer!
Call right now for effortless pre-summer pool installation!
Once you do this for each of them, you’ll have edited your postcard text down to something really gripping and actionable. Now, for the next step.
Step #3 – Have someone else proof-read it
Authors aren’t anything without their editors, and you should have one too. Run your postcard messaging by a few other people and ask whether it’s clear and makes them want to pick up the phone. If it’s not compelling, that’s great feedback, and it’s back to the editing board. If the people around you don’t buy it, why would your customers?
If you want some inspiration for postcards done right, look at our sample gallery.
Step #4: You’re done. Design and send it through our web-to-print platform.
There, that wasn’t so hard, was it? You don’t have to be Stephen King and churn out a novel a day, but if you can do one postcard, you’re well on your way to realizing your marketing ROI.