POSTCARDS PRODUCE PROFITS

The old line, ten percent of the fishermen catch 90 percent of the fish couldn’t be more true than when we are in a deep recession. Competing for the trophy fish doesn’t require hard work as much as planning and new tactics. If you have a small business, you have an advantage. You can quickly change strategic plans to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing economy. Large companies with strong corporate cultures and long term planning have difficulty breaking contracts for advertising. They can layoff workers to save money but remember large ships cannot make quick turns. With this said, if you have a small or medium sized product or service business don’t give up hope, try to better target your market, offer discounts, free services and other promotions that attract sales.

It isn’t easy to sell a product that people think they don’t have the money to buy. By describing the benefits of your product or service you are offering a solution to this problem that may improve your customer’s life and/or save them money in the long term. For example, local laundry/ drycleaner customers were not coming in as regular as before due to the economy. The drycleaner created a targeted list of old customers as well as others in their zip code service area. They retrained their behind-the-counter associates, stressing strong customer service. They offered a prepay 30% discount card and registration at the store in case you lost your card. They sent out an inexpensive postcard offering the benefits of this offer and within two weeks of the mailing, business picked up 15 to 20%. This increase in business easily paid for the cost of the mailing and got them many new customers. Two months later they sent out a new mailer offering the same service, planned driver routes and add a free local pickup and delivery. That created a local buzz in the area and their business was actually better than a year ago.

This laundry/dry cleaner had a local web site. They put the same offer on their site and got no response. Why? People don’t normally do this kind of business on a web site. On their next postcard mailing, they offered their new free pick up and delivery service online. Now it made sense to order your laundry services on the internet and business picked up again. They expanded the list to include businesses in the area and customers from outside the traditional residential area and their customers found it was easy to put their laundry in the car and have it picked up and delivered at work.

The reason all this worked so well is that it used passive sales techniques with the postcards. People needing laundry services respond much higher to receiving the offer in the mail than having to take the proactive step of going online to find the service. Once they accept the idea of ordering this service online, it was possible to reduce mailing costs and use more email promotions. But you always use both if you wish to be successful.

In order to use postcards effectively you must ask yourself a couple of questions. The first question always is how much will it cost, and can I afford to do this. The next question is how much can I expect get in return for my investment. Postcards can be cheap but be sure to get quality as well as price. The postcard’s feel can impress your customers to expect quality from your service. Some printers offer 10pt or 12pt cards. These cards lack the feel and usually do not stand up well. A printer who offers 14pt or 16pt postcards with free UV coating is offering a superior product. One that will stand up to wear, shows you care about quality and can help your company be remembered. Isn’t this what you really want from a postcard?

Remember online advertising is great. But to achieve the maximum return, you need to combine it with passive advertising- a printed piece. Use postcards wisely. Let them draw customers to your business and then have a followup with your online service or site. In today’s world, you need to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing economy with good strategic plans. You have to take advantage of all the resources available to you both passive and proactive to promote your business properly.

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