The Basics Of Successful Postcard Marketing

By Author: Donald Wagner
Total Articles: 916
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Postcards are an exceptionally effective and cost-effective marketing format. They require no envelope, yet they frequently feature brilliant and arresting graphic designs. However, postcards must follow a few basic design and marketing rules to reach their desired audience.

Direction

Any marketing campaign should always ask: what sort of audience is the postcard trying to reach? Whoever receives your postcard should be motivated to either place an order online or visit your brick and mortar store. The postcard should portray your product or service in a light that is both enticing and prompts action on the part of the consumer. Whatever the tone, it should match the product. Pairing a dramatic tone with a whimsical product can be risky.

Incentive

Offering discounts, special offers, and free quotes can be an excellent way to spur consumer action. The postcard should also utilize humor and a vivid graphic presentation. A dull, ordinary postcard will very likely find itself in the trash bin. An amusing or especially dramatic postcard may find itself affixed to the refrigerator and shown off to visiting ...
... friends.

Design

A postcard is not a novel, or even a short story. It is a punch line. Snappy, to the point, and unconcerned with extraneous detail, a postcard shows up, throws out a one-liner, and then waits for a response. Crafting the message isn't the only part of the design process, however. A postcard is also essentially a graphic medium. It requires an arresting image or graphic in order to stay in the mind of the recipient. By pairing tightly honed text with an exquisitely chosen image, the postcard will be well received, leading to a successful marketing campaign. However, give yourself plenty of time to work on the design. Despite its seeming simplicity, the design of a postcard requires serious thought and focus. Break the process down into discrete components. Rome was not designed in a day.

Feedback

No matter how brilliant the design, a certain percentage of your postcards will not produce immediate results. Do not be discouraged. If, however, you receive absolutely no response from your campaign, it's time to actively solicit feedback. Was the message too oblique? Did you send the postcard to addresses that were no longer valid? Was the design hard to read or repulsive? Allow yourself the room for a learning curve. No one gets it 100% right the first time out. In fact, no one ever gets it right 100% of the time.

Postcard printing and marketing can be an enormously successful venture, provided you keep incorporating constructive criticism into your design schemes. By using ColorFX's design templates, you can create engaging and successful marketing campaigns without depleting your budget.