The Art Of Using 50 Free Oversized Postcards
It was one of those nights I do not actually remember sleeping. Yet, a half a pot of coffee later, I feel fairly awake. How about you?
I am looking at my pile of snail mail and I noticed a friend of mine sent me a postcard for an event she is hosting at her office. The postcard itself is quite lovely, glossy card-stock with the image of a painting on it (she is having an art show). The back side, of course, has all her information. It is pretty snazzy and it looks expensive.
She and I have discussed her postcards before. This is not the first time she has sent me something like this. They arrive fairly frequently. I have once heard that such mailings are usually tossed aside and show little return for the effort. But in talking to her, I asked what this sort of marketing does for her business. She says it usually brings about a 15% return. Now granted I do not know the marketing statistics, but I suspect this might be pretty good. So, then I asked her what she feels is the key to her success with such promotions. Her answer was two-fold.
To have a good return on a mailing, it all depends on the content. Is the item something you might want to look at - good design, not too much text, and good quality paper (especially in terms of post cards)? If so, it is probably a winner. I admit I asked about the cost of producing such a thing. Seems like that would entail hiring a designer (gotta do it right) and spending a lot on actual production.
“No, indeed,” was her response. Apparently she actually uses vistaprint.com for her mailings. She utilizes their coupons and splurges on graphic design. She uploads her image onto their site, gets an electronic proof back and there you have it - Postcards done cheap (and well). For a little extra, they will even handle mailing it for you.
Interesting idea. I know when I wrote about vistaprint.com before, a few of you mentioned that you use them and have had good luck (as have I). So, if this has inspired you to give such a mailing a go, the coupon code for 50 Free Oversized Postcards is PC50. (P.S. - the image above is one of their free designs…I just liked it).
