Low-Cost Marketing With Business Postcards

by Bob Leduc

Low-Cost Marketing With Business Postcards
Copyright 2003 Bob Leduc

Modern, low-cost business postcards can drive a high volume
of traffic to your web site, generate a flood of new sales
leads, or promote any other business activity you want. They
are easy to use, cost very little and produce results almost
immediately.

Brief And Personal Works Best

Keep the message on your postcard brief. Announce a major
benefit. Then ask the person reading the postcard to visit
your web site or respond in some other way to get more
information.

Set up your postcard to look like a personal message instead
of a sales promotion. Prospects cannot resist reading a
postcard if looks like a brief personal message - even when
they quickly recognize it as a business communication. This
happens for several reasons.

1. Your message on a postcard arrives already opened and
ready to read.

2. It creates the feeling of reading a note from a friend
instead of reading an advertisement.

3. Your brief message cannot be overlooked - even by people
quickly screening their mail over a wastebasket.

Nearly everybody will actually read your postcard
...intentionally or unintentionally. Therefore, you will get
the maximum number of responses.

Simple And Low-Cost

You can print postcards with your own computer for about 1
cent each or have them printed professionally for about 7 or
8 cents each.

One cost-effective method when using your computer is to
print four postcards on an 8 1/2 x 11 inch sheet of standard
index paper. Then cut each sheet into quarters to produce
four 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inch postcards. 100 sheets will produce
400 postcards for about 1 cent each.

For small quantities, print your postcards individually on
the 4 x 6 inch blank index cards available from any office
supply store.

Reduced Postage Rate

The current postage for mailing a postcard in the US is just
23 cents. That's almost 40 percent less than the postage for
sending a letter - yet the Postal Service processes
postcards the same as First Class Mail letters.

To qualify for this special postage rate, your postcard must
be at least 3 1/2 inches high by 5 inches long but not over
4 1/4 inches high by 6 inches long. The paper thickness must
be similar to an index card. All office supply stores carry
paper designated as 67 pound card stock. This is ideal for
postcards and it meets the thickness requirement.

Non-Us Advantage: Business postcards used outside of the US
do not enjoy a reduced postage rate. But, non-US business
owners tell me their postcards are very cost-effective even
without a reduced postage rate. Since postcards are rarely
used for business purposes outside of the US, they attract a
lot of attention and generate a high rate of response.

Hidden From Competitors

Postcard marketing enables you to conceal your marketing
efforts from competitors. Nearly all other advertising uses
mass media where your competitors hear or see what you are
doing - and copy it.

Postcard marketing is personal. Only you and your prospects
are aware of your strategy. And only you know how effective
it is. When competitors become aware of your postcard
marketing program, they will not be able to evaluate your
activity. And they will not know how to copy it.

Postcards achieve almost 100 percent readership and generate
a high rate of response. Use them to drive traffic to your
web site, to generate sales leads, or to promote any other
business activity you want. You can create and send
postcards within a few days of deciding to use them. And you
will enjoy the results they produce in less than a week.

Bob Leduc spent 20 years helping businesses just like yours
find new customers and increase sales. He just released a
New Edition of his manual, How To Build Your Small Business
Fast With Simple Postcards and several other publications to
help small businesses grow and prosper. For more information:
mailto:BobLeduc@aol.com Subject: Postcards
Phone: 702-658-1707 after 10 AM Pacific Time/Las Vegas, NV

About the Author