You may think direct mail advertising is antiquated, but it’s anything but! In fact, advertising using postcards is a much more effective form of reaching your target audience than you may think. Consider how much the everyday person is bombarded by advertising, from online to television and radio – it’s pretty crazy. Because of the development of online advertising and social media marketing, the amount of advertising that come through traditional mail have decreased.
The challenges of mail
Sending advertising through the mail poses some obstacles, which mainly consist of getting your mailer seen. If you send out a brochure, or something in an envelope, they are easily recognized as advertising and thrown out before they are opened. With postcards, you don’t have this problem because it’s a reflex to look at the card and flip it over. It’s effortless and you don’t feel like you are ‘wasting your time’ by opening something you know is advertising.
Direct contact
This means feeling like you are reaching your audience directly by sending something to their home, and giving them a direct line of sight to your business through your postcard. You never really know how many people are seeing your online advertisements or listening to the ones that air on television and the radio – it can sometimes be a shot in the dark. A postcard doesn’t waste any time or space, all the critical info you need a consumer to see is right there and easy to digest.
Design is key
The design of your postcard is very important. Not only does it have to be eye catching and interesting, but it can’t be overwhelming. You need to get your message to the consumer quickly and simply, but also provide an appearance that gets them interested enough to read the info in the first place. This can be achieved through a palatable color scheme, an interesting layout, or cleverly chosen font, etc. Another important decision is the size of the actual card you choose. If it’s too small it will get lost amongst the other pieces of mail, so you want something a little larger than standard to make it pop-out in a pile of mail.
They’re cost effective
When you send out an advertisement that involves an envelope, you incur the additional cost of the envelopes, on top of the advertisement within, and additional postage. For post cards, you have one charge for the card and the design, and then postage, which is usually inexpensive for postcards. If budget is a concern this is the way to go – although, even with an astronomical advertising budget, this is still the most effective means of reaching your consumer.
If your business moved away from direct mail advertising at some point, now is a good time to consider getting back into it. The advertising game is always changing, and sometimes what’s old is new again. Now is the time to take advantage of the direct mail advertising. Get your business seen by your target audience by utilizing catchy, cost-effective postcards. Get in touch with us at iti Direct Mail to design, print or mail your customized postcards.