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
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Three Keys to a Recession-Proof Business

We are all concerned about the economy, of course. There are some common sense steps you can take to continue your business success. My friend, Marcia Yudkin, presents three ideas here:


Three Keys to a Recession-Proof Business

by Marcia Yudkin

“It’s the economy.” Are you putting up with a drop in
revenues because of the economic downturn? In fact, a
worldwide financial crisis does not have to send your own
business into a discouraging spiral. Smart business owners
and managers minimize the damage from a business slowdown
with three crucial strategies.

1. Diversify. Beware of depending too much on one, two or
three clients. Never allow your prosperity to get tied too
closely to the fortunes of a very few others – no matter
how stable and healthy these organizations seem. If they
suddenly hit the skids or if they just get sold and their
leadership or direction changes, you could be in deep
trouble. Protect yourself by keeping at least four active
clients at all times.

The same goes for your product line and promotions, where
an overly narrow focus also puts you at risk. Some years
ago, I had a financial planning expert whose whole
marketing funnel depended on beating the estate tax. When
Congress suddenly changed the estate tax, he had to
recreate his business.

If you sell services, you can hedge your bets for a bad
economy by developing information products, which offer a
low-risk, low-commitment way for new customers to get to
know, then trust your company. If you sell expensive
products, you can hedge your bets by offering services as
well, such as consulting and seminars, so interested
prospects can get value from your firm in more than one
way.

2. Stay in touch. Don’t let your customer database lapse or
go out of date! (Some businesses just toss paperwork into a
shoebox.) Former clients may not need your services right
now, but don’t let them forget about you. Send something
meaningful and relevant to previous customers twice a year.
Postcards are perfect for this – they have just enough
space for a tip, a tool or an inspirational case study.
Keep in mind that it costs five times as much to obtain a
new customer as it does to sell more to an existing one.

3. Never shut down the marketing pipeline. Create regular
marketing activities that reach out to new customers and
keep these going, regardless of whether you’re so busy you
can’t stand it or waiting for the phone to ring. That way,
you’ll never have to try to get traction from a dead stop.

According to a study by the American Business Press, in
past recessions companies that maintained their advertising
had increased their sales four times more two years later
than companies that had cut their advertising because of
the economic downturn.

I once asked a client of mine who closed down her business
to retire how long it took after she halted all of her
marketing before the calls stopped. Six months, she said.
Too often I’ve seen business owners become complacent about
how well word of mouth was working for them. One day they’d
wake up and realize referrals had dried up, and they’d have
to begin creating a marketing pipeline, which might not
start yielding new clients for months. In both good times
and bad, you must therefore market to keep sales humming.

Master marketer Marcia Yudkin, author of 6 Steps to Free
Publicity and 10 other books, has been selling information
in one form or another since 1981. This article is
excerpted from her report, “33 Keys to Thriving During a
Recession,” which is available as a free download from
www.yudkin.com/recess.htm .


Greg Cryns

Wahm Search Engine

Recession opportunities - full speed ahead

Picture by Greg Cryns (me) - I took this picture last week when we visited the Chicago area. This is the first McDonald's after Ray Kroc bought it from the McDonald's brothers in California. I used to ride my bike to this restaurant and marvel at the wrapped hamburgers.

What does "recession" mean? The dictionary says it is "a contraction phase of the business cycle, or "a period of reduced economic activity."

Ok. I can handle that and so can you.

In fact, I get a strong feeling that we internet marketers are in the right place at the right time. My Adsense income spiked up yesterday. I strongly recommend that you to investigate alternative ways to make money if you are selling products that people can do without (luxury items). People will always need insurance, food and health services and good, solid information. They do not necessarily need a new television or cell phone.

If you are not using Adsense to create income then give me a call. My phone: 805-226-8354. I am happy to spend some time with you discussing Adsense and other internet marketing opportunities.

Other opportunities include coaching, basic services (VA, article writing), IT skills, website creation.

Here is a very nice article by Marcia Yudkin. My respect for Marcia is very high. I've watched her business evolve over the years.

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Four Tactics for Drumming Up Business During a Recession

by Marcia Yudkin

Recession? Hah!

That’s the attitude you’ll have when you know how to bring
new customers in, despite all your competitors wailing
about being dead in the water. People and companies have
not completely stopped spending. They’re just much more
selective and risk-averse in what they buy.

If you use these four smart recession-fighting strategies,
you’ll emerge from the recession just fine.

Four Recession-Be-Darned Marketing Tactics

1. Have a risk-free introductory offer. For example,
1AutomationWiz.com, the online shopping cart I use, offers
a free 30-day trial. You sign up, set up the cart and can
use it for real transactions without having to pay until
the 30th day. (By then, you’re hooked!) As a variation on
this theme, Changing Course initially charges just $13.55
shipping on its $297 Fast Track Your Dream program. They
ship the materials, then begin charging the program fee on
day 30. The buyer can ship everything back before day 30,
then not be charged. For a non-monthly service, you can get
the customer’s credit card information or check up front,
but promise not to charge the card or to return the check
if the customer isn’t happy.

2. Develop and sell information products. Information
products offer a low-risk, low-commitment way for new
customers to get to know, then trust a vendor company. You
can sell them to do-it-yourselfers who might not spring for
full service as well as to regular customers who want to
learn about a new topic area. Not only do the information
products provide an additional stream of revenue during the
recession, they will continue to do so after the economy
picks up again (as it inevitably will) with no additional
work. To get products ready for sale within weeks, start
small, as with short downloadable reports or audio
recordings of expert interviews.

3. Catch their pulse. What do your customers need most
right now? Put your ear to the ground. Listen in on your
target market’s complaints, questions and wishes where they
hang out on email discussion lists and web-based forums.
Based on what you hear, add a new product or service or
twist an existing one so it clearly connects with their
concerns. Let’s say that on the financial forums you see
more questions than usual from couples nearing retirement
or parents with more than one child in college. You could
quickly create seminars, reports or telephone hotline hours
specifically for those groups.

4. Pursue publicity. Getting media coverage can be as quick
as picking up the phone and calling the news desk of your
metropolitan newspaper or TV station to explain why you’re
the local angle to today’s big story. Invest a little time
to understand what constitutes newsworthiness in the eyes
of the media, and pitch your company or yourself in pitch
letters and press releases. During a recession, you may
have a better shot at earning 15 priceless minutes of fame
because competitors may have scaled back on the retainer
for their PR firm. Find a cost-effective compromise between
writing your own releases and hiring someone to do it for
you by Googling “press release makeover service.”

Close your ears to those running around complaining that
the sky is falling, and instead get to work implementing
these recession-smart strategies. You’ll look back on the
era of gloom and doom with a smile on your face and a nice
fat bankroll in your pocket.

Master marketer Marcia Yudkin, author of 6 Steps to Free
Publicity and 10 other books, has been selling information
in one form or another since 1981. This article is
excerpted from her report, “33 Keys to Thriving During a
Recession,” which is available as a free download from
www.yudkin.com/recess.htm .

Greg Cryns

Scentsy - a warm and lasting gift

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