by Concept Marketing Group, Inc.

Have you noticed that sometimes you receive a postcard from a company every month or every quarter for a year? You ask yourself, “Why are they doing this? I don’t need this now.” Here is an example of how repetitive mailings are very effective.

Our example is that of a mosquito abatement company sending postcards to households in Florida, every two-three months starting in January. January is not a month when you would expect swarms of mosquitoes, even in Florida. There is no benefit to your target audience in January. But if your goal is to get name recognition during the winter months so that you have customers starting in the early and throughout the summer months, this strategy is very effective for postcard campaigns.

You receive the first postcard in January. Your initial reaction might be, “I don’t need mosquito abatement in January. Mosquitoes aren’t a problem until May or June. What’s wrong with these people?” Because of you took the time to skim the card, you make a mental note of these crazy people trying to sell you mosquito abatement in the dead of winter. In the trash goes the postcard.

In March, you receive another card from the same company. You have the same reaction. But now you have seen the same company name twice and you remember it from January.

In May, you receive another postcard from the same company and you remember it from the January and March mailings. You remember seeing on TV earlier in the week this might be the worse season for mosquitoes in the past 20 years. Now you think you might benefit from this company so this time you put the postcard where you can easily find it in case you have to call them or maybe you toss it. Either way, you can now recall from memory the name of “… the crazy mosquito abatement service company that sends me postcards during the mosquito dormant months”.

Two weeks later, you are in your yard trying to enjoy a cook out. You notice the mosquitoes were plentiful and you have the bites to prove it. You need help getting rid of these pests if you want to enjoy your yard over the summer. Now you can benefit from the “crazy company” that sent you postcards during the winter and you call them to get to your house in a hurry.

The card you received the first two times was almost as annoying as those mosquito bites. By the time you needed their services, you could remember the name of the company. Even though the postcard did not result in an immediate response, it gave the company brand and name recognition. You remembered the name and the card made an impression on you because you received it in January.

As human beings, we learn by repetition. The more we do something or read about something, the more likely we are to remember it. The same holds true for the postcards.

It only takes a second to skim the postcard and decide whether or not to toss it in the trash can. But if you receive it more than once, it is likely you will be able to remember the name of the company from memory. If you think you might benefit from the company’s offer, you might save the postcard for future use. Either way, the mosquito abatement postcard campaign was effective. They probably received zero responses in January but by May, their phones were ringing off the hook.

By David Frey

Direct mail is perhaps, one of the most powerful marketing mediums in use today. Few other marketing tools can deliver your message with exact precision at such a low cost. The amount of mail in your mailbox everyday attests to the effectiveness of this medium (If it didn’t work, your mailbox would be empty!).

Here are eight reasons why I believe direct mail is still king of the marketing mediums:

Reason # 1: It works when you’re not: Like the old saying goes, “In rain, sleet, or snow” the mail arrives. Whether you’re sleeping, vacationing, working, or walking, your direct mail is working for you. It gives your best sales presentation over and over again without you having to be present.

Reason # 2: It leverages your efforts: Do you want to know how to waste your time? Give your best sales presentation to one person at a time. If you do this, you’ll only sell one widget at a time. Send out thousands of letters and your best sales pitch is being presented to thousands of people simultaneously. That’s called “leverage!”

Reason # 3: Allows you to target with precision: Instead of “spraying and praying” your message to people who may or may not be interested or even qualified to take advantage of your offer, direct mail allows you to pinpoint the people who fit your psychographic, demographic, and geographic profile.

Reason # 4: You get an immediate response: Once you send out your direct mail piece it doesn’t take long to get a response. Within one to two weeks you’ll receive about 80 percent to 90 percent of all those who are going to respond. If your campaign works, you’ll know about it quickly. If it’s a bomb, you’ll that quickly as well.

Reason # 5: It’s easy to track your return on investment: If you’re a small business owner you can’t afford to waste a single penny on wasteful marketing. With direct mail marketing you can code your mail pieces to determine the exact number of responses you received from each campaign.

And as I said before, the results of your direct mail campaign come back fast, so once you know what worked and what didn’t, you can immediately start to “tweak” your mail piece to increase your response and hold your marketing dollars accountable.

Reason # 6: It’s relatively inexpensive: With just $.34 (at the time of this writing) you can send out a direct mail piece that includes your full marketing message. It is amazing what you can get into a small business size envelope and keep under the $.34 limit. Photos, newspaper articles, letters, special reports, and more can be put in these envelopes for under $.34. This means you can reach 100 target prospects for only $34. Comparatively speaking, that’s a bargain!

Reason # 7: It gets one-on-one attention: One of the best things about direct mail is that it gets one-on-one attention from your target prospect. Unlike billboards or radio and television commercials that get your attention while two to three other things also have your attention. Direct mail is opened one piece at a time and read one piece at a time. It gives you the best chance of catching your prospect’s attention and keeping it for a period of time.

Reason # 8: It’s something you can touch and feel—it hangs around: Direct mail is something that you can hold in your hand. It’s not made of electrons that can be deleted with the twitch of a finger. It’s not a radio frequency signal that is here and then gone a moment later. It is physical. It is something that can hang around for a period of time. It has “lingering” marketing effects.

All these reasons I’ve mentioned make direct mail a very powerful marketing medium that, if done right, can have a very high return on your marketing dollar.

David Frey, President of Marketing Best Practices Inc., a Houston-based small business marketing consulting firm.

by Brandon Cornett

Your postcard-marketing program can benefit from a good checklist. Checklists keep us focused on the task at hand and help us remember all of the finer points. Doctors use them. Mechanics use them. And yes, postcard marketers use them — at least those who take postcard marketing seriously.

As your postcard marketing program evolves, so too will your checklist. Before long, you’ll have a list of things that have worked well for you (as well as those that haven’t). And that’s a valuable checklist to have!

Say it with a post card. A well designed, colorful, high impact postcard in the mail box of your prospect is your best ticket to a new customer. For your existing customer, a marketing campaign which includes frequent post cards is the perfect start to new sales - this is one of the key small business marketing strategies.

“That’s almost 900 calls in per week more than just 4 weeks ago.”
“We’re already planning our next post card mailing and are quite certain that this was one of the best investments in promotion to our existing customers we have ever made.”

Ron Nedd at Kevis Rejuvenation Programs, Inc., Beverly Hills, California
Now that is postcard marketing done right!

So how do you do it?

Direct mail marketing. When it comes to marketing your product or services there are two basic challenges:

How do you obtain new customers or clients?

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How do you get your existing customers to come back for more?

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• Direct mail/direct response marketing answers both these challenges admirably (it’s not the only way to do it but it is a proven method that always works). You can ALWAYS rely on DIRECT MAIL MARKETING.

The postcard-direct marketing’s secret weapon?

One of the simplest and most cost-effective forms of direct mail marketing is the POSTCARD. Because postcards work so well they can be considered one of the key small business marketing strategies.

“I switched from sending out a monthly newsletter to my mailing list, to sending out full color post cards.

Not only did it save me money on the cost of printing, but it saved me the hassle of having to prepare the mailings.

Feedback has been very positive from our clients and the leads have been pouring in. Plus my website hits have increased due to promotion or it on our post cards!” - Kerry Fuller, Realty Executives

Direct mail marketing strategies?

To get new customers all you need to do is:

·   Get their identities (mailing lists do this).

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·   Reach them (direct mail does this).

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·   Attract their attention and get your message across (post cards do this perfectly you don’t have to open them!).

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·   Get them to contact you. (Your mailing piece, letter or, preferably, postcard, will do that if it’s well designed and written.)

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·   The rest is up to your ability to sell.

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To get your existing customers to come back for more all you need to do is:

·   Keep accurate records of your customers (anyone who has ever bought anything from you) in a database and keep it current.

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·   Send them frequent mailings. Postcards are excellent. You can send out a newsletter. You can send out personalized letters. But keep contacting them. Tell them about new products or services. Get them to respond.

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·   Obviously you have to deliver excellent service or a great product. You will get results with these marketing techniques even if you don’t deliver good service or a great product, but it won’t last long and you won’t be able to maintain it.

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·   Remember, the size of your customer base and the number of mailings to it determines how much income you make. Fact.

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So, do it correctly and you cannot fail.