Recently updated on October 17th, 2019 at 09:38 pm
Postcards are such versatile marketing vehicles. They’re available in a wide variety of sizes. They can be mailed cheaply – some sizes qualify for deep discounts with bulk mailing. And they communicate instantly – they don’t have to be opened like a letter in an envelope.
Here are a dozen ideas that represent the latest trends in using postcards for your marketing efforts:
1) Holidays Postcards: Why not substitute the traditional card and envelope combination for an oversized postcard? This will really make a huge impact because your greetings will stand out from all the rest.
2) Birthday Wishes Postcard: Birthday cards with envelopes are getting more expensive and are often a bother to send. Use a postcard with a clever message and visual on one side and a short handwritten note on the address side. You’ll be appreciated every bit as much as if you send a traditional card.
3) Promotional Postcards: An inexpensive way to announce and advertise in-store sales, postcards are very easy to work with. Labels can be printed and attached, postage is cheaper than a #10 envelope and the message can be short and sweet. Be sure to include address, directions, and maps to help guests find you.
4) Gift Certificate Postcards: For security purposes, we suggest having the postcard represent a gift card – the postcard can be mailed out to the recipient who, in turn, trades the postcard for the actual gift card. It can be designed to look exactly like the gift card, too.
5) Invitation Postcards: This is an excellent alternative for informal affairs and events. Currently, it is very popular to use a Save the Date postcard in advance of the official invitation to help ensure guests will attend.
6) Mysterious QR Code Postcard: send out a postcard with a large QR code printed on one side with no text to explain. Folks with Smartphone will know what to do to get your full marketing message. The others will want to know what is going on, so you let them know all the details on the address side.
7) Valuable Coupon Postcard: make the entire postcard a coupon worth a specific dollar amount or good towards a discount of a percentage off. Stipulate that the postcard must be presented to receive the discount or savings. Be sure to leave space for the customer to write a name, address, phone and email address to build a database and evaluate the results.
8) Recipe Postcards: If you sell food or wine, you can offer some creative and taste-tempting recipes to your prospects on a postcard. They’ll slip right into a recipe card box so your advertising message will be kept for a long time. You could even make the box an in-store giveaway to attract customers to visit.
9) Series of Postcards: Split your message into several portions and send them out in a series of postcards. You can make this have greater impact if the visuals combine into a larger picture after all of the series has been mailed.
10) Hidden Treasure Postcard: People love a mystery. They also love to find treasure. So put a map on the postcard that leads to a spot where you’ve stashed a supply of valuable coupons that can be redeemed at your store.
11) Limited Edition Art Postcard: Take advantage of local artistic talent and feature an original design. Have the artist sign and number the postcards and they are now a collectible item that could be worth a tidy sum someday – depending on the artist’s future.
12) Survey Postcard: Use the postcard to gather information from your customers and prospects. Ask about a dozen useful questions and ask that they return the postcard to your store in person. You can give them an inexpensive thank you gift as a reward for participating. Who knows? You may get some valuable insights from this effort that will improve your business.
So that should keep you busy for about a year if you use one idea each month. Are you willing to give it a try? If you do, let us know the results – we’d love to feature you on an upcoming blog post.
