The correct use of images in your marketing is just as important as the text – sometimes even more important.

You’ll find that strong visuals have a powerful impact on drawing people into taking action. 

So how do you know if you’re choosing the right image?  There are four main things to think about when choosing an image for a postcard marketing campaign:

1. Match your image to your target market.
2. Your images should support an effective call-to-action.
3. Tailor your images to drive conversation.
4. Test the effectiveness of your images.

All four of these tasks are related. Let’s go ahead and jump into the first topic.

1.) Match Your Image to Your Market

Relevance generates response.  Meaning, the more your target customer can relate to the image on the postcard, the higher the attraction will be.  If you sell motorcycle parts for touring bikes, perhaps an image of a baby boomer with a satisfied look on their face as they ride the open road.  Make sure your customer “sees” themselves using your product or service.

2.) Images Should Support an Effective Call-to-Action.

What your postcard readers see can elicit a response which determines what they’ll do next, whether it’s going forward with a call-to-action or throwing your postcard in the trash bin.

Your image needs to create or stir some emotion in the person it is being seen by. People are usually enticed to purchase things based on an emotional response, not reason.

Think about it; if you got a postcard in the mail today asking you to donate to an animal abuse charity, and on that postcard it had a picture of a happy dog jumping in the air and catching a ball, what emotional response might you have? At best, feelings are mixed – your image is not supporting the action you want the reader to take. Now, if you got a postcard with a sad looking dog tied to a chain you’re going to have a different response from the postcard outlined seen above. This visual will pull you in more because the visual is more dramatic and fits with the overall message.

3.) Tailor Your Images to Drive Conversation.

A good rule of thumb is to look for images that will get people talking. Not only do these images tend to be the best options for creating an emotional response, they can often help cement your message in the reader’s mind as they ponder it internally or discuss it with others. A great marketing campaign can elicit such a wide conversation that people are talking about your company and its marketing to their friends, family and online, quadrupling the reach of your postcard marketing. Use images that will be a conversation starter and you can’t lose.

4.) Test the Effectiveness of Your Images.

You will want to see if your images are getting the response you would like. You may want to divide your tests into groups so you can have more control over it as a whole. Run a couple of small split campaigns and see how they do in each area. Each time, modify and perfect your marketing message.

Follow these four tips when you’re choosing images and you’ll see a marked increase in your postcard marketing results. 

Need help?  www.prospectsplus.com offers multiple design options.  Design your own, customize “Done-for-you” templates or have a custom postcard created specifically for your business.  Call, click or chat today to speak with one of our target marketing experts.

Demographics and Psychographics in Marketing

Marketing is a lot of Subjective “Guess Work”.  We get it…  

Sometimes you even pay to figure out what doesn’t work.  It can be very frustrating.

But technology and “Big Data” (There’s that word again) can remove a ton of that frustration.

It’s no secret that matching your marketing message to your marketing segment is a classic one-two punch strategy that works.  It’s the best way to find the hand-raisers and referrals you are looking for.

Before big data entered the arena however, that was a strategy that was often more guess-work than real science. Fortunately, with the advance of data research and the folks over at Nielson, PRIZM Data makes finding those segments of the consumer population a whole lot easier!

As a general rule of thumb, the term ‘demographic’ refers to an individual or group’s physical traits: location, ethnicity, gender, age, etc. The term ‘psychographic’ will generally refer to the same individual or group’s mode of thinking.

So, something like how they spend their money, what they like and dislike, and how they “tick.”

As customer needs become more specific and complex, you will need start using both target demographics AND a target psychographic in your marketing plan.

Increasing Direct Mail Response Rates with Demographics and Psychographics

The use of demographics and psychographics can play an important part in targeted postcard marketing when fine-tuning the audience for your postcards.

Assume you are trying to market a new men’s gym. With the correct demographic data you can specifically target local households that have male residents between the age of 18 and 60. With the right psychographics data, you can zoom in on those residents who have been shown to have an interest in health, fitness or self-improvement, or are more likely to be interested in them. Targeting just these households will see your marketing costs go right down, and your response rates shoot right up.

Mixing Demographics and Psychographics

Although demographic and psychographics are two different marketing data collection methodologies, they do share some similarities. For example, one can infer through cultural stereotypes that men are not interested in the “best birth control pill for your body” as men do not generally take hormonal birth control.

What one is doing here is taking largely demographic data and converting it to psychographic data by simply having a basic understanding of general human rules and cultural stereotypes. This understanding, although not always necessarily the most politically correct to publish, can have a tremendous impact on a small business’ profit margin if performed correctly and the data is accurate.

Some large companies have whole departments dedicated to finding both psychographic and demographic data and use this to their advantage. The fact is, with this information the opportunities for targeted growth are almost endless.

With today’s technology, you can leveraging both target demographics and psychographics, with one simple click of a mouse.

Head over to www.mapmymail.com and take a look through all the data segments we have available.

From the basic – High income consumers, baby boomers, etc. to the customized PRIZM selects – you can find the folks you most want to work with.

You can also head over to see a comprehensive, detailed listing of PRIZM code data segments here.

For a great resource to help you use all the tools at your fingertips, visit the Resources page on www.prospectsplus.com

There you’ll see how to easily match the free reports that are available with the postcards that work for the demographics you like!  Need help? Give our team a call at 877-222-6010

In planning your ad campaign for your business, you have probably wondered what kinds of offline advertisements are most effective.

What is your best choice in an accountable and measurable transaction that is data rich and can provide your business with the best return on investment (ROI) for your advertising dollar?

You’ll need a method that appeals to your potential customers and results in a list of solid leads and/or action on your best offers. For these purposes, direct mail marketing with postcards is still one of the best tactics.

The Numbers behind Postcard Marketing

In 2012, the Direct Marketing Association released the results of a limited survey they had performed. In this study, postcards were mailed to people listed in a current customer file.

This list consisted of customers who had opted into the company’s mailing list and of customers with whom the company had done business. The response rate on this mailing was 2.47%. This is eight times the industry average!  A similar mailing was done targeting prospective customers. These were customers whose names had been acquired through a lead supplier. Response rate from this list was 1.12%.

Let’s try comparing these results with data gathered by the United States Postal Service (USPS).

In their 2012 Household Study report, the USPS surveyed a broad public audience regarding response rates for various types of mailings. They found that the greatest percentage of people (23.4%) across the board indicated that they would respond to a postcard advertisement or request for donation.

That’s almost a quarter of US households!

The only other type of mailing to come anywhere close to this high percentage response rate was over-sized envelopes. Even so, only 16.6% of those surveyed said that they would respond to advertisements or requests for donations that they had received in larger than letter-size envelopes. This survey was conducted across all demographics in the US.

What Is So Appealing About Postcards?

Customers like the fact that it is easy to see what the message is about. Additionally, they appreciate the thriftiness of the format. It is not wasteful of resources, and it does not waste their time. Messages are usually concise, brief and easy to understand. Those surveyed also said they like the fact that it was easy to keep the postcard as a reminder of the offer in case they wanted to think about it and respond later.

Business owners’ reasons for preferring postcard marketing are similar to those of postcard recipients. Postcards are low-cost and provide an impressive return on investment when compared to all other means of offline direct marketing.