Postcards aren’t simply a traditional direct mail option; they’re an affordable marketing solution that allows businesses and organizations to convey essential information on a medium that is not likely to be overlooked. Postcards remain an effective direct marketing tool that can support your marketing campaign. If you are planning a direct mail campaign using postcards, be sure to keep the following tips in mind.

Use Eye-Catching Imagery

Boring images and an abundance of text aren’t likely to be very eye-catching when it comes to your postcard design. Instead, employ a glossy photo or bold images that will garner attention.

Use Both Sides

Using both sides of the postcard should be a no-brainer. Even if you are only sending a very basic message (Summer Sale), be sure to include relevant information like store hours or product lists in order to use up the space effectively.

Create an Actionable Message

Postcards don’t afford a lot of room, so be sure to employ a direct message that expresses what you want customers to do (i.e. use coupon offer or attend big sale).

By Multi-Faceted

A postcard is a great way to mail a special offer, but it’s also a good tool for building brand recognition. Be sure to include your business logo to accompany any special offers.

Opt for Oversized Postcards

Although standard-size postcards will be the more affordable option for your direct mail campaign, an oversize postcard is going to secure more attention.

Make It Personable

If your postcard looks like any other flyer with block print and numbers, it’s not going to stand out especially well. Create a personable message that stands out from the other direct mail for your postcard.

Include Contact Information

Even if you use small print, don’t forget to include essential contact information like a phone number, address, and website.

Make It a Keeper

If you can turn your postcard into a keepsake or transform it into something useful enough to pin to the fridge, you’re onto something. Many people will hang onto postcards with captivating artwork or photography (think about photographing a local site) or that conveys useful information such as a list of community resources with contact information.

Use these tips to drive your postcard marketing campaign. The internet certainly isn’t the only way to reach people; postcards continue to be effective tools in the hands of savvy marketers today.

There are roughly 42 million teens in the US who spend, on average, about $4,000 each year. Is your business benefitting from a teen customer base? Although well over half of America’s teens are online, only 6% are emailing each other on a daily basis. Reaching them via email, therefore, is not necessarily the best avenue for marketers to take. Instead, your business might want to rethink its direct mail campaign to more effectively reach teens.

Why Market to Teens

Not every business needs to worry about the teen audience. If your business sells plumbing supply parts or sheet metal, there’s little reason to worry about the teenage demographic. If, however, part of your customer base includes teens, you can improve sales to this age bracket by targeting them with a direct mail campaign. Marketing to teens is important because teenagers are likely to become brand loyal early on. Marketing experts also suggest that teens wield considerable buying

blog-1

power. While twenty years ago teens were still focused on buying clothes and music, they are, today, purchasing more expensive merchandise like mobile tablets and smart phones.

Teens and Direct Mail

Marketers have found that, simply put, teens like getting mail. Direct mail provides teens with what they love: to be treated as adults. While most of the direct mail that teens receive is from colleges and universities attempting to market to them, savvy businesses are also targeting this group with campaigns designed to tap into teens’ largely disposable income. When it comes to the teen audience, the novelty of direct mail has not worn off. Businesses simply need to provide relevant content to teens about merchandise or upcoming sales.

Designing a Direct Mail Campaign for Teens

Studies have shown that teens respond to informative content. A direct mail campaign should attempt to provide information about products that are relevant to teens. Providing a teen with an incentive like a buy-one,get-one free offer is the type of giveaway that teens find hard to resist. Short, bold headlines with a clear call to action should reach teens.Imagery is also important to teens, so be sure to choose images that are likely to appeal to this demographic.

The fact is, direct mail has been shown to be the most effective means to reach teens, according to a study by the Center for Media Design of Ball State University. The reason colleges continue to connect with teens via direct mail is because it works. If it works for them, it might just work for your business too.

Whether you are a small or large business, you need to drive traffic to your door. Investing in a direct mail campaign is an effective approach to reaching your customer base, but if you really want to entice them to shop with you, steer some budget dollars to include a coupon campaign. Although many customers today are presenting their digital coupons (via their smartphones) at cashiers across the country, many businesses still realize that a paper coupon is just as alluring as a digital one–and possibly even more convenient!

The Appeal of Paper

If you thought people stopped clipping coupons, think again! In this shifting economy, customers who look for discounts are

blog-2

still search for them via traditional avenues like their mailbox. Big businesses like Joanne Fabrics and Kohl’s still mail out coupons to their customer base because they work; they get people inside the store where they are apt to buy more than what they initially entered for.

It’s also important to remember that not every store accepts digital coupons shown on a smartphone screen. They expect customers to print them out. By giving the customer the coupon from the get go, you don’t have to worry about whether or not they will take the time to print. In addition, coupons sent via the internet can easily get lost in the clutter of email and forgotten about. A paper coupon offers customers tried-and-true convenience that still resonates with them. All a woman has to do is walk her Joanne Fabrics coupon to her purse and it’ll be there when she needs it–and will also remind her to use it each time she reaches in to grab her cell phone.

Time Sensitive

If you want immediate results from your direct mail campaign, make sure your coupon is time sensitive. Many large companies who use coupons send them monthly or bi-monthly to subtlety put pressure on customers to visit soon before their coupon expires. A month is a smart time frame to consider. A week or two might be pushing things for your customer.

Make It Worthwhile

You might think you’re being generous by offering that 10% discount, but is that really going to drive customers in the way a 40% coupon will? If you want to ensure that your coupon campaign drives them to your business, give them a good offer. Buy-one-get-free coupons are popular along with other types of offers, but if you are going to all the trouble to print coupons and invest in a direct mail campaign, make sure your coupon has the strength to convince them to shop with you.

Coupons work as many businesses realize. By mailing them right into the hands of your customers, you have a great chance for increased business. Use these tips as you plan your next direct mail campaign.

Direct Mail Company Tucker GA

Marketing is a fast-paced field that is characterized by change. Each year ushers in new ideas and trends that could become the driving force behind your next marketing campaign. Before planning your next direct mail initiative, be sure to keep some of the following trends in mind. They could enhance your campaign by improving response rates and helping you exceed your business goals.

Informational Content

In past years, direct mail campaigns have focused on “hard sale” techniques. However, research suggests that people respond more favorably to informational content. The sales element is still part of the approach, of course, but the shift to more informational material appears to be resonating with customers. When crafting your content, be sure that your sales pitches are supported by plenty of relevant information, which is what ultimately might sway customers to buy.

blog-3

Target Your Audience

Many marketers already realize that a one-size-fits-all direct mail campaign isn’t likely to be as effective as a campaign designed for each niche of your target audience. It’s not surprising, after all, that marketers often appeal to businesses and residential customers using different materials, so why not employ that practice for different age demographics? You can use other factors to determine what materials you mail to the specific niches within your customer base.

Personalize

Investing in data that allows you to personalize your direct mail campaign is a major trend going forward this year. Personalized marketing is already proving its worth online, but businesses that are applying similar personalization in their direct mail campaigns are witnessing increased response rates. If you already go through the trouble of targeting your audience, take that extra step by personalizing the material you send them. By including their name and even past purchases if you have that information, you can speak to them more directly to elicit a better response rate yourself.

Basic Design

What busy homeowner wants to read an essay about why they should buy your product? Too much text or too complicated a design and your marketing material is destined for the trash before it’s thoroughly examined. More than ever, marketers need to create basic messages with simple designs to appeal to customers who are sorting their mail. Keep sales pitches and informational content basic and streamlined to entice people to read.

Keep these trends in mind when designing your next direct mail campaign. Direct mail continues to be an important marketing platform. You can make the most of your investment in this platform by employing some of the best marketing practices relied upon today.

While Great Britain may be a long way from your Atlanta-based business, it’s still possible to learn much surrounding the benefits of direct mail. To determine marketing mail’s efficacy, Great Britain’s Royal Mail MarketReach organization embarked on an 18-month research study before releasing their report, titled “The Private Life of Mail.”

The study revealed that the tangible presence and handling of physical mail enhanced a recipient’s memory and sensory experience. The researchers also found that direct mail has staying power in the households studied. For example, advertising mail is kept in a household for 17 days on average. The study also found that at least 39 percent of households studied had a dedicated display area for their mail. This means that direct marketing mail items are staying present and noticeable in a household.

blog-8

The RoyalMail report also revealed that people still highly value the mail and feel valued as customers when they receive tangible mail. These findings were especially true for a younger subset, a grouping that many advertisers falsely believe only prefers digital communications. As many as three-fourths of those polled who were ages 18 to 24 said they look forward to finding out what’s in their mail on a daily basis. For all ages polled, 65 percent said they anticipate seeing what’s in their mail.

When asked to reflect upon their mail and how it affects the, 57 percent of people said that receiving mail makes them feel valued. Nearly one-fourth of those polled said they value an item they can see and touch more highly than something they can only see.

Opening and Interacting

Not only did the study ask people how they felt about their mail, researchers also asked how people use their mail. This information is intended to guide direct mail marketers, including those who are Atlanta-based, into the types of marketing people respond to most. For example, 71 percent of mail recipients are likely to open a brochure from a company they’ve ordered from before. This compares to 54 percent who are likely to open a brochure from a company they have not heard from before.

An estimated 69 percent of respondents were more likely to open a letter regarding a promotion or special offer while 55 percent of those who opened the letter were likely to interact with it. The next-most likely direct mail piece to open was a letter about a product or service an individual does not currently have, coming in at 60 percent of recipients.

Another aspect of the study focused on people’s attitudes toward two popular mail options: direct mail and e-mail. An estimated 63 percent of respondents said they are more likely to take direct mail seriously than when compared with e-mail. When asked which communications method gives the user a better impression of the company, 55 percent of respondents reported that mail gave them a better impression than when compared with e-mail.

Even “across the pond,” research has shown there are many benefits to opting for direct mail marketing.

Direct Mail Company Cobb County

Source: https://www.marketingmag.com.au/news-c/direct-mail-study-reveals-key-insights-mediums-subconscious-influence/