You’re having a slow week or a slow month. Or you see a week or month looming that’s been slow in the past. Or you’re not sure why, but no one seems to buy on Tuesdays. Or you have a whatever that no one wants to buy at full price.

Postcards to the rescue.

Postcards today are fun, colorful, eye-catching, cheap, quick to send and effective. And when you send established customers cards bearing a special offer, they bring in fast cash.

Design your special offer to be at least very appealing and even better, irresistible. According to advertising experts, a discount of 30 percent gets almost everyone’s attention.

But your special offer doesn’t have to be money off. You can run a two-for-one special, promise a free whatever with any purchase over $XX or specify that no payment is due for 60 days. You can even tie the offer to a charity or cause: Bring in canned goods for the poor or a used winter jacket in good condition and we’ll do such and such for you. Or you can say you haven’t taken new clients for a particular service in several years and you have two openings now – first come, first served.

If you have a retail location, tell postcard recipients to bring in the card when they come in, to get the discount. If customers typically buy online or by phone, provide a coupon code they can read off or type in to get the discount.

Either way, be sure you clearly state a deadline for the offer – including the year. Not only does this prevent misunderstandings about the offer, the deadline motivates people to act rather than putting the card aside for later. Usually, later means the card never gets looked at again. The deadline should be no more than two weeks from when you expect the cards to land in people’s mailboxes.

Don’t think that if one offer is tempting, two offers would be even better. More than one offer sparks indecision rather than desire. So present only one offer per postcard.

Since you never know which side of the card recipients see first, design your postcard so the reader sees your offer at a glance, whichever side happens to be facing them when they go through the mail. Colorful design and images help grab attention, but make sure the graphics support your concisely worded message rather than overpower it.

The quickest way to get postcards to your list is to use an online vendor that enables you to design the card online and then upload a data file containing your customer list. Postcard Builder, Amazing Mail and several other companies offer this convenient service. This is totally hands off in the sense that you never touch the postcards and do not need specialized knowledge of postal procedures and regulations.

Put your own address on the list, and you’ll know exactly when the cards arrive in the homes or offices you were sending to. Then wait for the sweet sound of ka-ching! ka-ching! as orders stream in.

Author Bio: Veteran postcard marketer/consultant Marcia Yudkin is creator of The Mighty Postcard Marketing Course, which teaches the strategic, logistical, design and copywriting secrets of successful postcard marketing. Download her free 1-hour audio on marketing with postcards: http://www.yudkin.com/postcards.htm .

Category: Marketing
Keywords: postcard,postcards,direct mail,followup,offers,customers,marketing,mailing,mailings,quick sales