Postage Rates To Rise, Time To Use Postcards
By James Sullivan, Project Director of Optic Nerve Direct Marketing

On May 11th your postage rates are going to rise again. That means more costs for your mailing, more expenses that will cut into your ROI and more money out of your already shrinking budgets. What does that mean for marketers like you? Yep, once again you will need to turn to your trusty Marketing Medical Bag for your postcard mailings. Postage is going up two cents for postcards as well as for First-Class™ mailings. Now is the time to begin looking at your lead generation lists, your past offers, renew your copy and then of course, run your names through CASS and NCOALink® processing to ensure that they get the new Intelligent Mail® barcode for better delivery and tracking services. Why should you dust off the trusty postcard? Because they work, that's why.

Postcards take your business or services and products to a new level. You can do a postcard from your creative brief to the mailbox in just days. Since you can do a relatively simple postcard with some bells and some loud whistles about you and your company, this is the way to go in these trying economic times. Attention-grabbing postcards offer you tremendous marketing chances and opportunities to small and large business marketers, Just like you!

Postcards are best suited for awareness of your business or services. They can also generate new leads with a compelling image, a great offer as well as lots of channels for the recipient to respond to your offers. Of course, you have to have a good list to begin with, if not, that will sink your marketing ship right outside the harbor. I know my mailbox has been sorely light these past months, but what has shown up has been the majority, postcards. Simple, effective, personalized with a compelling offer and lots of respond channels. To me that’s the good news.

Postcards work best when they command attention as soon as your mailbox is opened. The postcard that catches your eye when you see it, is the one that whets your appetite to read more as well as piques your interest level above the clutter. Use the front of the card to place your marketing message in an out-front and in-your-face format. Use dramatic images that get the postcard the attention it deserves. The back of the card should be reserved for the knockout punch of your message, who to call, how to get more information and where is that website to order your product or services. Don’t forget the “Thank you” for reading your card. After all, you went to the trouble of updating your prospects names and putting the new Intelligent Mail barcode on it to ensure you got it right, it’s the least you can do to become more personable with your prospect. Your postcard postage rate is going up, but by planning now for it, you can get some dramatic results with your campaign if you start by planning your campaign around them. Postcards Work.

---Source: James Sullivan is Project Director of Optic Nerve Direct Marketing, a Direct Marketing/PR/New Media consultancy headquartered in San Francisco, Ca. You can reach him at james@opticnervedirect.com.