Postcard Power
Nine Ways to Get BIG Results from Simple Postcard Mailings
POSTCARDS ARE A POWERFUL and low-cost marketing tool that few craft marketers use effectively. Here are ideas on how to make the best use of different types of postcards:
1. Announce Craft Fair Appearances. Use postcard mailings to let previous buyers know where you will be exhibiting next, and offer them a discount if they bring the card to the show. Regular postcard mailings could greatly increase your craft fair sales over time. One seller who started out hand-addressing a couple hundred cards soon found herself computerizing the names of nearly 2,000 interested buyers. She told me that up to 75 percent of her craft show sales could be traced to people who got her promotional postcards.
Some craft show promoters offer exhibitors free promotional postcards. One artist in my network always uses these cards, putting a sticker on the back of the card that says, “I will be exhibiting at this show. Bring this postcard with you for a 10% discount on purchases.” She reports that she gets back anywhere from 2 to 17 cards per show.
2. Contact Your Wholesale Buyers. Send occasional reminder cards to your best customers, expressing your desire to serve them better. Give them a number of choices of things they might want from you right now — such as your newest catalog, a follow-up telephone call, an idea of what you’ll have new for Christmas this year, and so forth. Also send them “hot announcements” about new products and dealer offers.
3. Do Market Research. Contact individual buyers and prospects, asking them to check categories of interest (which you’ve detailed on the other side of the card) so you’ll know which special offers to send them in future. For example, you might ask if they buy crafts mainly for their own use, or mostly for gifts, and when they’re most interested in hearing from you. Or you might ask them to indicate whether they are mostly interested in (a) collectible items, (b) miniatures, (c) country crafts, (d) contemporary designs, and so on.
4. Announce Your Newest Gift Items. Try slanting the advertising message on some of your promotional mailings to people who may have special gift-giving problems at that time; i.e., graduation gifts, Mother’s day, Father’s Day, Secretary’s Day, Valentine’s Day, etc.
5. Do a New Product Survey. Prior to manufacturing a special product for sewers, a designer in Canada first sent a postcard announcement to everyone on her large mailing list, briefly describing the product and asking her customers if they’d be interested in buying it if she manufactured it. The tremendous response she received gave her valuable market research information, confidence that the new product would sell, and a list of ready-and-waiting customers.
6. Send Open House Invitations. A potter who announced a private exhibit of her work in her home sent postcard invitations to 100 customers on her mail list. She reported that thirty people came to see her creations, and 18 of them made purchases.
7. Publicize Your Web Site. As more and more of your customers (both retail and wholesale) move onto the Internet, it becomes all the more important for you to let them know they can order from you online and communicate by -mail. Print a Web card with an image of your site and send it to your best customers and prospects. It will not only be noticed, but saved for future reference. (To find such printers on the Internet, do a search for “promotional post cards,” which will also turn up sources for the photo cards mentioned below.)
8. Enhance Your Professional Image. Color is such a wonderful selling tool, but few craftspeople can afford full-color flyers because quantity requirements are so high. Photo cards, however, are very affordable and can be ordered a thousand at a time. When included with a black-and-white catalog or brochure, they make a great impression and may even make the difference between a buyer’s decision to order or not.
9. Clean Your Mailing List. Postcards should always be mailed First Class, with an “Address Correction Requested” line printed beneath your return address. Mail that can’t be delivered will be returned to you free of charge, but when there is a new address, the Post Office will send you a notice (and charge you for this at current rates) so you can update your mailing list.
THE ABOVE TIPS are just a small sampling of the practical, low-cost marketing advice you’ll find in all of Barbara’s books.
Thanks for adding a comment to this post if you have found a good way to use postcards to promote your business or the sale of your products.
Related Items:
If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment and subscribing to the feed to get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
[...] Brabec presents Postcard Power - Nine Ways to Get BIG Results from Simple Postcard Mailings posted at Handmade for Profit - Cashing in on Your Creativity!, saying, “POSTCARDS ARE A [...]