Postcard Marketing Hands-Off Case Study

Postcard Marketing Hands-Off Case Study #2 -Speakers Bureaus
by Marcia Yudkin

Here's a postcard campaign that was profitable for me some years back.

To get more speaking engagements, I wanted to be represented by more speakersbureaus. However, bureaus were inundated with information kits and phone callsfrom wannabes.

Therefore, I decided to offer to help bureaus market themselves better. Thiswould cut through the clutter, and I'd come to their attention as a marketingexpert and a speaker on marketing, in a back-handed way.

I obtained a mailing list of directors of speakers bureaus and created apostcard containing one of my Marketing Minute newsletters. Besides thecomplete text of my 180-word Marketing Minute, the card invited them tosubscribe to get tips on growing their business from my no-cost weekly emailnewsletter.

Six times in one year, I mailed a card like this to the speakers bureaudirectors. The card was the same each time except that it contained the text ofa different Marketing Minute.

When I did this campaign, it was before the advent of online postcard marketingcompanies. I changed the master file in my computer, took a printout of thecard contents to my local Kinko's, they printed up the cards on card stock thatthey cut into quarters, I stuck on the bureau mailing labels and stamps, andfinally dropped them at the post office.

Today, the process is much simpler. You can design a postcard template online,cut and paste new content into it for each new mailing, upload the data file forthe postcard recipients just once, and have PostcardBuilder.com or anotheronline postcard print-and-mail company print and send the cards for you. There's no need to touch or mess with mailing labels, stamps or even thepostcards. Just place the order and it's done.

And my results? One bureau owner hired me for copywriting from the firstmailing and lined up a speaking engagement for me a year later. Three otherbureau owners I mailed to added me to their roster, with two additional bookingscoming out of that. Several other bureau owners joined my Marketing Minute listand purchased products or services from me years later, or referred others whodid so.

Financially, the campaign brought me at least fifteen times as much in revenuesas I spent, with results trickling in for more than seven years.

And I didn't make a single cold call to a bureau owner, which for me was anunspeakably big plus!

Your payoff from postcards could certainly be as satisfying as mine.

Veteran postcard marketer, consultant and author Marcia Yudkin is the creator ofThe Mighty Postcard Marketing Course, which teaches the strategic, logistical,design and copywriting secrets of successful postcard marketing. Download a freeone-hour audio interview in which she and the co-owner of a postcard printingand mailing firm reveal the basics of marketing with postcards:www.yudkin.com/postcards.htm

Greg Cryns
Send Out Cards - Postcards

Postcard Marketing: Recession Rescue Case Study

Postcard Marketing: Recession Rescue Case Study
by Marcia Yudkin

Someone asked me if postcards are a good marketing tool for a recession. Yes,they are! Indeed, postcards pulled me out of the 1990-91 recession.

With a business partner, I'd started a training company in writing skills andrented an office at the prestigious Statler Office Building, adjacent to thePark Plaza Hotel in Boston. As the recession deepened, companies froze theirtraining budgets, and all of our hot training leads evaporated.

However, I had two significant assets to exploit. First, our office rentincluded access to a classy conference room we could reserve as much as wewanted, and second, I had a list of 3,000 people who'd been in one of my adulteducation classes on writing in the previous two years.

I wrote up three classes we could give in the conference room, reserved thedates and mailed postcards to my list. People called to sign up! For the nextfew years, until the economy recovered, postcards reliably filled our classes.

Several lessons I learned about postcard marketing during those years remaintrue today.

1) Responses from a "warm" list of people who know you will always be greaterthan responses from strangers. Our classes were $99 each, and I'm not sure thepostcards would have yielded such a nice profit had they been sent to "cold"prospects.

2) For seminars, you need sizable mailings to get enough participants to fillthe room. The response rate would have been the same had I sent just 1,000postcards, but that might not have generated enough people for each class.

3) Consistency and repetition help. I mailed postcards every two months for anew round of classes, always using magenta card stock from the Kinko's copycenter. From what people said when they signed up, it was clear they had cometo recognize the hot pink postcards as coming from me. People paid moreattention to the postcards as time went on, not less.

4) Color attracts, but images are optional. I used boldface strategically onthe postcards to create a readable layout, but the cards contained no images –only words. If you look at galleries of sample postcards online, you'll see nopure-text samples, but for certain purposes they can work extremely well.

One thing that's changed since postcards pulled me out of that recession is thatyou no longer have to mess with address labels and stamps or postal permits tosend postcards. Choose the right postcard vendor, and you can design yourpostcard online, upload your database and order the cards sent on a specificdate. It's so much easier now!

Veteran postcard marketer, consultant and author Marcia Yudkin is the creator ofThe Mighty Postcard Marketing Course, which teaches the strategic, logistical,design and copywriting secrets of successful postcard marketing. Download a freeone-hour audio interview in which she and the co-owner of a postcard printingand mailing firm reveal the basics of marketing with postcards: www.yudkin.com/postcards.htm

Greg Cryns
Wordpress website creation and SEO
.

Postcard marketing - give it a try!

Explore the opportunities of postcard marketing!







Postcard Marketing Model #15: Influence Big Shots

by Marcia Yudkin

Return-on-investment math often unnecessarily turns away marketers of low-priced products from using postcards as a promotional vehicle. Yes, if the goal is to sell copies of a $24.95 paperback book, sending even the most exciting, irresistible postcards about the book probably won’t garner enough sales to earn back the expense of a postcard campaign.

(Roughly, sending 2000 postcards would cost nearly $1800 in list rental,
printing and mailing of the cards. If you assume the book costs you $3 in
manufacturing costs, and you charge buyers the full cost of shipping a book,
you’d have to sell 82 books to break even, which represents a highly
unrealistic response rate – 4.1 percent of postcard recipients purchasing the
$24.95 book.)

However, when you shift the premise and imagine pitching a low-priced item to
key individuals who each are in a position to influence thousands or tens of
thousands of others to buy it, the picture brightens. Here are three scenarios
illustrating smart, strategic marketing of a low-priced product to influential
players using postcard marketing.

1. Media pitches. If an editor or reporter writes about the product or a talk
show host mentions it on the air, it gets exposure to thousands upon thousands
of potential buyers – many more than you could cost-effectively reach sending
postcards to them one at a time. Also factor in the credibility provided by
media coverage that can be put to work in all kinds of promotions.

Most people approach media people via email or by using news release
distribution services, and in that context, a colorfully designed, enticingly
worded postcard arriving by mail stands out.

Companies like Easy Media List (www.easymedialist.com ), Media Mailing Lists
(www.listsyoucanafford.com/media.html ), and others sell targeted contact
information for media folks. For instance, contact information for 1,290 editors
at African-American publications costs $149 from the latter source. Add the
cost of printing and mailing postcards to them, and then conservatively assume
that a lucky 13 of the recipients (1 percent) publish something about the $24.95
book that each triggers at least five purchases. Now the postcard campaign is
profitable.

2. Influencers. Other professionals besides journalists have great sway with
those in their sphere. Imagine them as the hub of a bicycle wheel, with spokes
extending from the center to dozens of points on the rim of the wheel. Here too
approaching the influencers involves a multiplier effect, since each might not
only purchase a copy of the item for themselves but also recommend it to their
patients, clients or customers.

For example, when I published a book for small business owners, it wouldn’t
have made sense to target them individually in a postcard campaign, even if
I’d been able to afford mailing cards to millions of people in that category.
However, I happily sent postcards about the book to more than 500 executive
directors of Small Business Development Centers throughout the United States,
who were each in a position to hand the postcard to their in-house librarian
and/or recommend it to workshops full of their small business clients for years
to come. Again the math becomes favorable in this scenario.

Influencers for real estate agents would be mortgage brokers. Influencers for
parents would be pediatricians. Influencers for wine producers would be
restaurateurs. Got the idea?

3. Bulk purchasers. A third scenario in which unfavorable postcard math turns
favorable is where you pitch a low-priced product not as a one-off purchase but
as something to buy in a large quantity. To take the book example again, this
might mean sending postcards to parent-teacher organization leaders to purchase
copies for all the board members, to human resource executives to suggest buying
hundreds of copies for employees or to private school administrators about
buying one for each graduating senior.

When it comes to postcard marketing of a low-priced product, success comes from
thinking large!

Veteran postcard marketer, consultant and author Marcia Yudkin is the creator of
The Mighty Postcard Marketing Course, which teaches the strategic, logistical,
design and copywriting secrets of successful postcard marketing
( www.yudkin.com/postcardcourse.htm ).

Photo by VoxAZ

Greg Cryns
The Mighty Mo Website Design and Promotion
.

Postcard Marketing

Guest Post

Postcard Marketing Model #14: Bond With Customers

by Marcia Yudkin

Imagine the difference in revenues between a company that sold to each customer
only once and a company in the same line of business that sold to each customer
numerous times. That's a tremendous gap that can be narrowed with just a
little expense and effort, using an inexpensive, often overlooked tool - the
postcard.

By sending simple yet strategically chosen postcards to people who have already
bought from you, you can turn a one-time customer into a long-term one. Here
are five ways to use postcards to create a bond with customers and thereby
encourage them to buy again and again and again from your company.

1. Say thanks. Set up an ongoing thank-you postcard campaign that sends a card
to each new customer the week or month after they first bought something from
you. If itâ's feasible to have a handwritten signature, that's best. You
may choose to include a limited-time special offer, such as 20% off their next
purchase or a free gift if they stop in the shop again before a certain date,
but even if you don't do that, a thank-you card makes a significant impact.

2. News. Remember when it was common for financial services companies and other
professionals to send a monthly or quarterly newsletter to clients? This
stay-in-touch technique reinforces your expertise and helps the customer
remember you when they need your services again. Printing one newsletter item
on a postcard rather than sending a four-page, folded-twice newsletter is much
more cost-effective and much handier for the customer to save by the phone or
post it on a bulletin board or refrigerator.

3. Offers. If you have slow periods, such as a certain day of the week or a
month or two each year, coax previous customers into buying from you again then
and filling up your calendar or capacity. Send a postcard with an appealing
discount or bonus offer good for those down times to your customer list. It
sends the message that you care about creating long-term customers, and I doubt
very much your competitors are doing this. I travel a lot, and only once in my
life have I received a “come back and see us” postcard from a hotel or inn
where I stayed. In fact, I still remember who sent it, even though it was years
ago: The Jailhouse Inn in Newport, Rhode Island.

4. Birthdays or anniversaries. Do you have or could you get your customers’
birthdays? Some businesses wow their clients and create a closer bond with them
by sending a postcard for a free haircut, massage, house plant or dessert in
honor of their birthday. You could do the same for a milestone that was
specific to the recipient, such as their child’s first summer or winter, or
halfway in their fiscal year.

5. "Wish you were here" cards. Don't you like it when friends and family
members send you funny or gorgeous postcards when they’re on vacation? Think
up convincing and appealing reasons for you to send postcards to new clients
when you travel. For example, if you’re attending a conference or trade show
in New Orleans, you could show a photo of the French Quarter with a chatty
message about how you’re collecting ideas and inspiration at the XYZ national
show that you’ll be sharing with anyone who sets up an appointment for June.
This way, you come across as active, interesting and thoughtful.

Which of these ideas are you excited to implement? Get started on it today!

Veteran postcard marketer, consultant and author Marcia Yudkin is the creator of
The Mighty Postcard Marketing Course, which teaches the strategic, logistical,
design and copywriting secrets of successful postcard marketing
(www.yudkin.com/postcardcourse.htm ).

Greg Cryns
The Mighty Mo Website Design and SEO Promotions
.